180 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



Also there is in existence the original account of a piece of 

 Lowestoft purchased by Josiah Wedgewood, as usual eager for 

 new or better methods for his trade. 



But the Lowestoft factory came to an end in 1803 or 1804 

 owing, it is said, " partly to the severe competition of the Staf- 

 fordshire potters, partly to trade losses, one of which was the 

 seizure by Napoleon in Holland of several pounds worth of the 

 merchandise in that country," and until recently no traces of a 

 factory in Lowestoft had been found. 



Mr. Jewett says " the collector will be able to distinguish im- 

 mediately between those examples painted at Lowestoft on 

 Oriental body and those which were potted and painted there." 



For that was the question over which the collectors wrangled. 

 Did the Lowestoft potters import the undecorated pieces and then 

 paint them, or did they bake the clay also at Lowestoft? 



The color of this china is of a pearly tint not quite so blue as 

 the ground of the older Chinese wares. The shapes are exquisite 

 and the colors harmonious. The cups are usually low and of a 

 fat wideness without handles, and the saucers are of the same 

 general shape. The coffee cups are taller and thinner and have 

 handles ornamented with little knobs. The coffeepots and hot 

 milk pitchers are tall, long-necked and graceful, with perky little 

 spouts, and handles stuck on as if by an afterthought. They 

 have lids and these lids are surmounted by a gilded strawberry 

 and the three-lobed leaf of the strawberry plant. The teapots 

 are oblong with flat tops and straight sides. The tea caddies look 

 like the old time tombstone with the addition of a little neck 

 surmounted by a lid matching that of the coffeepot. The cream 

 pitchers are urn-shaped with queer spouts and awkward handles. 



The decorations are familiar to all of us; the little delicate 

 red borders of lines and dots and little festoons supported at 

 intervals by a full blown pink English rose and little dabs of 

 green suggestive of leaves. Sometimes the lines and dots of the 

 border resolve themselves into little red vines. Pieces so 

 decorated have either the same rose at regular intervals, but 



