Dudley Westkopp — The Pottery Manufacture in Ireland. 21 



have induced many of the manufacturers of Staffordshire to set up in Dublin the 

 manufacture of earthenware, which, no doubt, will meet with every encourage- 

 ment from the inhabitants of Ireland." 



"Pipe-clay has been found in many parts of Ireland, which has been 

 exported to England and France for the purpose of making that beautiful 

 yellow ware called Paris ware. But in Dublin they make at present this ware, 

 which is much esteemed." Under the head of Carrickfergus it is stated 

 that " there used to be considerable quantities of a bluish-white clay exported 

 from this town to England for the purpose of making delft ware, which, after 

 being there manufactured, was again imported into Ireland. This business 

 has greatly decreased of late owing to the universal use of yellow Paris ware. 



Josiah "Wedgwood gave evidence before the committee appointed to inquire 

 into the commercial relations between England and Ireland, and stated in 

 1785 that large quantities of flint and pipe-clay from Ireland were imported 

 into Staffordshire for making fine pottery, and that he himself used them, and 

 also that flint was found near Dublin, which was used when a manufacture of 

 Queen's ware was set up there in 1784. He also stated that no fine pottery 

 was made in Ireland at this date, the factory set up in 1784 having ceased 

 work the following year. 



In an article in The Dublin Chronicle of September 6th, 1787, it is 

 stated that it is a well-known fact that Wedgwood obtained clay from Ireland 

 for the most beautiful of his works. A notice in the same paper for September 

 8th, 1787, says that " a very fine bed of clay has been discovered at Miltown, 

 and is now being manufactured by the ingenious Mr. Heaviside into crucibles 

 and garden-pots." 



In John Lord Sheffield's " Observations on the Manufactures, Trade, and 

 Present State of Ireland," published in Dublin in 1785, it is stated that " at 

 present Ireland has no very considerable pottery- works, except coarse kinds." 



Thomas Wallace, in his " Essay on the Manufactures of Ireland," published 

 in Dublin in 1798, speaking of pottery, says — " If there exist any manufacture 

 of this kind beyond a few coarse tiles and still coarser earthenware, it is so 

 trivial as to deserve no notice." 



After about the end of the century no pottery, except the coarser kinds, 

 appears to have been made in Dublin until about 1872. In that year 

 Mr. Herbert Cooper, who had been apprenticed to the pottery business 

 with Copeland at Stoke-upon- Trent, began making fine pottery on a small 

 scale at the Queen's Institute, Molesworth Street, Dublin. He obtained 

 some clay from Knoekeroghery, Co. Eoscommon, and from this a small number 

 of objects were made. Frederick Vodrey, a china and glass merchant in Moore 

 Street, Dublin, became a kind of partner with Cooper for about twelve months, 



