November, 19 2 0 
27 
Mottled Whieldon is a type dis¬ 
tinct from the tortoise shell. This 
teapot is an example of the mot¬ 
tled glaze 
Flowers and fruit in natural col¬ 
ors above a lattice base decorate 
this example of Thomas Whiel- 
don’s ware 
\ 
Early Productions 
worth, entries showing that 
to a worker named Cupit 
Whieldon was to give “a old 
pr. stockins, or something”, 
while Wm. Marsh was to 
have ‘‘a old Coat or some¬ 
thing abt. 5s. value.” A 
shilling a week was to be 
given “little Bet Blowr” the 
first year, two and thr’pence 
the second and two and six 
the third to learn flower¬ 
painting. I suppose this 
made it possible to charge 
Mr. Thomas Fletcher but 8s. 
for a dozen tortoise shell 
plates and but 2s. for a dozen 
painted ones. What would 
the Workmen’s Committees 
say to Thomas Whieldon’s 
account book today! How dimly re¬ 
mote seems the contentment of the 
Staffordshire potters of yesterday! 
A Time of Transition 
Although the interest¬ 
ing animal figures at¬ 
tract most collectors, 
examples of Whieldon’s 
mottled ware, as the 
set above, are quite 
valuable 
When Thomas Whieldon became 
an independent potter Staffordshire 
wares were in what may well be con¬ 
sidered a distinctly transitional stage. 
The elder Astbury, working from 
1736 to 1743, experimented with fig¬ 
ures in clays of different colors and 
with lead glazes which, though very 
crude, are still interesting. Agate ef¬ 
fects of intermingled clays and the 
splashed and clouded decoration later 
perfected by Whieldon and others took 
rise at this time. But these pieces 
had nothing of 
the beauty and 
quality of the 
wares that 
Whieldon came 
to produce. 
Half-tone repro- 
The two teapots 
above are of 
Whieldon ware with 
reliefs in the Chi¬ 
nese style and char¬ 
acteristic Chinese 
shapes 
ductions can scarcely give 
one a hint of the attractive¬ 
ness of real Whieldon, where¬ 
in the colors are blended with 
the hand of an artist and se¬ 
lected with unerring judg¬ 
ment. The glazes, too, be¬ 
speak Whieldon’s genius and 
mastery of his art. 
pi uvj.ua* 
The tortoise shell glaze 
was used on this cov¬ 
ered bowl with the leaf 
design by Whieldon , 
which is in the private 
collection of Mr. Louis 
E. Myers 
were probably the agate ware 
knife-handles which he made 
for the Sheffield cutlery trade, 
or for the snuffbox manu¬ 
facturers of Birmingham. 
Up to 1753 Whieldon also 
produced quantities of pot¬ 
tery toy figures, chimney or¬ 
naments, black-glaze pots for tea and 
coffee, plates of tortoise shell ware, 
and the marbled and mottled pieces. 
Although Whieldon never marked his 
wares definitely, thus making it diffi¬ 
cult to insist on their identity at times, 
nevertheless they are “signed every 
inch” as much as might be an un¬ 
signed Rembrandt. Whieldon’s wares 
fall broadly into five classes: (1) 
Black glaze pots for tea, coffee and 
chocolate; (2) Pottery figures, bird 
and animal toys and chimney orna¬ 
ments; (3) Solid agate ware; (4) 
Mottled, marbled and tortoise shell 
wares; (5) Cauliflower, pineapple, 
maize and other like wares. 
4 he black glaze ware was an in¬ 
heritance of pot- 
The chocolate pot¬ 
to the left is of 
tortoise shell glaze, 
and the cream jug 
can be classed 
among Whieldon’s 
animal designs 
ters from a pre 
Tudor period 
following t h t 
black ware pro- 
(Continued ot 
page 68) 
Some collectors hold that the vivid glazes of green and yellow that brighten Whieldon’s cauliflower, pineapple, maize and 
melon wares were the invention of young Josiah Wedgwood, who was associated with Whieldon. Four examples of this 
type are in the above group, the fifth being a teapot in the Chinese style . Courtesy of Mr. Louis E. Myers 
