INDUSTRIES 



was made and later on also a fine stoneware 

 was produced. He adds that in 1811 a 

 manufactory of white stoneware was carried 

 on at Vauxhall by Mr. Joseph Kishere but he 

 seems to have misplaced Lysons' reference to 

 this pottery at Mortlake.* 



MoRTLAKE.' — In the eighteenth century 

 there appear to have been two potworks car- 

 ried on here. The first of these was estab- 

 lished by William Sanders between the years 

 1742 and 1752 for the manufacture of delft 

 and earthenware. He was succeeded by his 

 son John,' who afterwards sold the business 

 to Messrs. WagstafFe & Co., by which firm 

 the pottery was carried on in the year 1 8 1 1 .* 

 Mr. John Wisker, who had succeeded his 

 uncle Mr. WagstafFe in the management 

 about the year 1803, closed the Mortlake 

 works in 1827 and transferred the whole 

 business to the same firm's works at Vauxhall. 

 Mr. J. E. Anderson states that there were 

 two kilns at this pottery, one for white ware 

 and the other for coarser work. Two speci- 

 mens of Sanders' ware are in the South Kens- 

 ington Museum ; a punch-bowl 21 inches in 

 diameter and 12 J inches high of earthenware 

 enamelled with white tin and painted in blue 

 with flowers, medallions, birds and masks and 

 a panel of twelve white tiles similarly painted 

 in blue to represent a rocky landscape. 



The second Mortlake pottery was estab- 

 lished by Joseph Kishere, whose father Benja- 

 min Kishere was employed in Sanders' works 

 in 1759. Joseph Kishere continued to carry 

 on this pottery in i8ii, when it is described 

 as a small manufacture of white stoneware.® 

 He was succeeded by his son William, who 

 died in 1 843, when the business was purchased 

 by Mr. Thomas Abbott, but appears to have 

 been unprofitable as the works were discon- 

 tinued two years later. A visit to Kishere's 

 pottery is described in 181 7 by Sir Richard 

 Phillips, who observes that the principal arti- 

 cles made were the so-called Toby Philpot 

 jugs of brown stoneware ornamented with 

 hunting scenes in low relief. These jugs are 

 said to have been invented at Mortlake and 

 to have been made at Sanders' works as well 

 as at Kishere's. There are two specimens 

 in the Jermyn Street Museum, one of them 

 having the mark ' Kishere, Mortlake ' im- 



' Jewett, op. cit. i. 157. 



^ All the known facts as to the Mortlake Pot- 

 teries have been set out by Mr. John Eustace 

 Anderson in a privately printed pamphlet. See 

 also Jewett, Ceramic Art, i. 160 ; and Church, 

 English Earthenware, n 2, 113. 



' Lysons, Environs of London (ed. 1 79 2), i- Z^J- 



* Ibid. (ed. 181 1), i. 282. 



s Ibid. 



pressed. In Proressor Church's opinion the 

 Mortlake stoneware is of fair quality but 

 presents no feature of artistic value. 



Earthenware still continues to be made at 

 Mortlake. Within the last ten years Messrs. 

 Ruel Brothers have opened a branch there 

 for the manufacture of fire-brick appliances 

 for stoves. The clay used by them is brought 

 from Stourbridge. 



SouTHWARK. — Some early evidence of the 

 existence of the earthenware industry in the 

 borough has already been noted. In 1837 

 the ruins of a kiln were discovered and held 

 to belong to the seventeenth century." In 

 more recent times two potteries that existed 

 here call for mention. The first is remark- 

 able rather for its association with two curious 

 incidents than for anything that is known of 

 the quality and nature of its productions. In 

 the Post Boy of I March 1 7 1 8 there is an 

 account of the outrageous conduct of the 

 four sons of Mr. Oade, a potter, in their at- 

 tempt to oust their father out of his business 

 and house. Not until they had succeeded in 

 murdering their mother and one or two other 

 persons could they be forced to capitulate and 

 give themselves up to justice. In 1750 an 

 account was sent to the Royal Society by 

 William Jackson, a potter, of a shock of 

 earthquake which threw down the roof of a 

 pottery belonging to Mr. Oade.^ The second 

 pottery to be mentioned was that of Messrs. 

 M. H. Blanchard, Son & Co., in the Blackfriars 

 Road, for the manufacture of terra-cotta. 

 This was established in 1839 by Mr. Blan- 

 chard, who has already been mentioned in 

 connection with Coades & Sealy's works at 

 Lambeth. Mr. Jewett in 1878 speaks very 

 highly of the quality of the goods then pro- 

 duced by this firm. They consisted of vases, 

 tazzas, statues, busts, groups of figures, brack- 

 ets, terminals, and every species of ornament 

 for architectural purposes, and were considered 

 the best of their kind produced either in Eng- 

 land or on the Continent. A number of 

 public buildings decorated by this firm are 

 mentioned, among them being those of the 

 South Kensington Museum, the Charing Cross 

 and Cannon Street hotels and termini, the 

 Grand Hotel at Cairo and the Wedgwood 

 Institute, Burslem. The last in Mr. Jewett's 

 opinion was one of the greatest achievements 

 of ceramic art as applied to external decora- 

 tion.* 



EwELL, Cheam and Epsom. — Leland's 

 mention of the vein of earth at Cuddington 



Mrs. Boger, Bygone Southwark, 242. 

 ' Jewett, Ceramic Art, i. 161. 

 8 Ibid. i. 153. 



293 



