A HISTORY OF SURREY 



of the new manufactory carried on at York 

 House in Battersea, and never yet exhibited 

 to public view, consisting of snuflF boxes of 

 all sizes, of great variety of patterns, of square 

 and oval pictures of the Royal Family, history 

 and other pleasing subjects, very proper orna- 

 ments for the cabinets of the curious, bottle 

 tickets, with chains for all sorts of liquors and 

 of different subjects, watch cases, toothpick 

 cases, coat and sleeve buttons, crosses and 

 other curiosities mostly moxmted in metal 

 double gilt.' 



The manufactory with all its stock-in-trade 

 was sold by auction in the following June. 

 Among the engravers employed was Robert 

 Hancock, who, being no longer required at 

 Battersea, joined the Worcester Porcelain 

 Company, who were then adopting the pro- 

 cess of black printing upon the glaze. Speci- 

 mens of Battersea enamels bearing Hancock's 

 mark R.H.F. are extant. His subsequent 

 engravings for the Worcester Company ob- 

 tained for him considerable notoriety.' 



Although it has been said that ' the print- 

 ing in black and other colours upon enamels 

 on the surface of the glaze reached the highest 

 degree of perfection at York House, Batter- 



sea,' the means employed to decorate these 

 enamels do not appear to have been confined 

 to transfer printing. Many well known 

 artists were employed in the work. Probably 

 the largest collection of Battersea enamels 

 ever brought together was that of the late 

 Mr. Charles Storr Kennedy. This collection 

 was exhibited in the Guelph Exhibition of 

 1 89 1, and from the description in the cata- 

 logue it appears that from 1770 to 1780 the 

 works were under the management of a man 

 named Brooks, so that the manufacture was 

 continued for some considerable time after its 

 founder's failure. The specimens exhibited 

 embraced a considerable variety of articles 

 such as tea-caddies, inkstands, bonbonniires, 

 writing-cases, 6tuis, scent-bottles, cups, card- 

 trays, and boxes of different descriptions, and 

 the subjects illustrated included landscape 

 views, miniature portraits of contemporary 

 and bygone celebrities, genre pictures, flowers 

 and the like. 



According to the opinion of a recent writer 

 the York House establishment at Battersea 

 and a rival one set up by George Brett at 

 Bilston in Staffordshire were both ' ill-judged 

 attempts to compete with pottery.' ' 



GUNPOWDER 



The interest of the early history of the 

 manufacture of gunpowder in Surrey is poli- 

 tical rather than economic. The first real 

 establishment of the industry in England dates 

 from the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and under 

 her the appointments of makers to the govern- 

 ment were held, almost wholly if not quite 

 so, by a succession of Surrey men. Under 

 the economic policy of the first two Stuarts 

 these appointments grew into monopolies, so 

 that until close upon the eve of the outbreak 

 of the great Civil War the only authorized 

 powder mills in the kingdom were in Surrey. 

 This fact, combined with its share in the iron 

 ordnance trade of the Weald, and other causes 

 that need not be entered into here, made the 

 possession of Surrey a point of strategic value 

 to both the combatants engaged. 



That prior to the reign of Elizabeth gun- 

 powder was to a certain extent made up in 

 England from materials imported fi-om abroad 

 cannot be doubted. Even as early as the 



1 The above fects relating to the Battersea 

 manufactory have been taken chiefly from Mr. 

 R. W. Binn's A Century of Potting in the City of 

 Worcester, being the History of the Royal Porcelain 

 Works from 1751 to 1851 (ed. 2, London, 1877), 

 53-7- 



306 



year 1378, accounts prove the purchase in 

 London of saltpetre and sulphur, in quantities 

 very nearly of the same proportion to each 

 other as are used to this day.^ Provided the 

 ingredients could be obtained of sufficiently 

 good quality, to compound them into service- 

 able gunpowder was not a work which de- 

 manded any extraordinary amount of skill. 

 There must always have been a certain num- 

 ber of men in the country who understood 

 the art. But besides the fact that saltpetre 

 and sulphur were purchased abroad to be 

 mixed in England into gunpowder, we have 

 also that of the purchase in large quantities 

 of foreign gunpowder already made. These 

 quantities it was the practice to store in the 

 English factories abroad, at Antwerp chiefly, 

 in the period immediately preceding the reign 

 of Elizabeth, there to await shipment at such 

 times as convenience or necessity might 

 dictate. 



For the transportation of these stores from 

 a foreign port it was necessary first to obtain 

 the consent of the sovereign in whose do- 



2 J. Starkie Gardner on ' English Enamels ' in 

 ^ome Minor Arts (London, 1 894). 



= J. E. Thorold Rogers, Hist, of Agriculture and 

 Prices in England, i. 649 ; ii. 574. 



