CHAPTER VI 



CROCKERY AND TABLE WARE 



Some of the earliest crockery I can remember to have seen in 

 cottages is of hard stoneware, often dated, as in the case of the 

 stone bottle or jug shown, which bears the date 1753. This is 

 a venerable age for anything of a breakable character. I have 

 also seen nearly the same stone bottle of a flattened shape. 



The old mug- shows how much the folk of four genera- 

 tions ago prized their household goods. The owner was a 

 tine old blacksmith. When his mug had lost its handle, he 

 made it an iron one with an encircling band fastened by a 

 soft, tough horse-shoe nail. It is now a cherished possession 

 in the family of my friend, his descendant, who has also a 

 remarkable example of the old smith's skill in the shape of 

 an iron tobacco pipe. It is of the long-stemmed kind, with 

 the slightly-curved taper stem and a beautifully-shaped bowl. 

 I thought it one of the cleverest pieces of forged work I had 

 ever seen. 



Examples of the same class of stoneware, but handsomely 

 decorated, were sometimes to be seen in the farmhouses, but 

 these pieces were evidently made for people of the squire 

 class, as they bear their names and coats of arms. Two fine 

 pieces of this kind, now in the Charterhouse Museum, are 

 shown. The right-hand mug has, in incised lettering, the 

 name Wm. Mott and the date 1726. On the front is a 

 circular medallion with a portrait that looks like Queen 



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