HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 417 



From these facts it would appear, that the salt glaze was used 

 long previous to the introduction either of flint, or white clay, par- 

 ticularly in making Crouch-ware; the body of it being at first 

 formed of a reddish clay, and afterwards of a dark greyish clay, 

 dug from the coal-pits, which, when exposed to an intense heat, 

 became of a light greyish colour. This clay, mixed with pounded 

 sand from Mole Cop, produced a whitish body, then called STONE 

 WARE, which was for some time generally used, and further im- 

 proved by several manufacturers, who dipped it in a slip pro- 

 duced from the whitest clay from Devonshire, and which, after 

 drying, was put into the hands of the Flowerers.* 



Another body was afterwards formed of the whitest clay and a 

 pounded gritstone from Baddeley Edge and Mole Cop; but from 

 the scarcity and expense of this clay, the ware manufactured from 

 it was light and thin, which is apparent from specimens of it now 

 in existence. This variety of ware also passed through the 

 Flowerer's hands, when sufficiently hard and dry, who embel- 

 lished it with engravings of flowers, birds, beasts, &c. and after- 

 wards took some wool with dry pounded smalts or zafler, and 

 rubbed the smalts over the engraved figures or ornaments. This, 

 when fired and glazed with salt, produced a fine blue colour upon 

 the parts engraved, and was the only kind of painting or ornament 

 then used, except indeed the raised sprigs of flowers and different 

 animals, &c. that were stuck upon the wares formed in clay or brass 

 moulds, and which raised-work was formed in some instances of a 

 still whiter clay than the body. 



Another body, and that indeed the best, was composed of the 

 white clays of Devonshire or Dorsetshire, mixed with a due pro- 

 portion of calcined flint, previously reduced to a fine powder by 

 pounding it in a dry state, and by passing it through a fine hair 

 sieve, and glazing it by pouring as many bushels of salt as there were 

 mouths or fire-places to the oven (7 or 8) through holes at the top 

 of the oven, at the time the ware had reached the highest degree 

 of heat these materials were capable of sustaining, without fusing 

 the body, which frequently happened, especially if the heat was 

 increased after the salt had been thrown into the oven, as thereby 

 too great a vitrification of the body took place, and an inferior sort 

 of porcelain was unintentionally produced. The thinnest pieces of 



* Flowering was generally performed by women, who decorated the ware 

 with drawings of flowers, &c. traced with the point of an iron nail, which cut 

 through the thin coat of slip in which the ware had previously been dipped. 



