August, 
1918 
43 
A COLLECTION of LIVERPOOL WARE 
How to Distinguish This China—Its Romantic Past—American Types 
H. D. PRICE 
.4 ship pitcher showing smugglers in 
secret session was the Liverpool potter’s 
acme of humor 
early ware, not like that of 
today, which is carefully 
finished. 
There is at the present 
time little interest in this 
early product which is rare¬ 
ly found save in tiles, many 
of which are gathered from 
old deserted houses. 
The story of Liverpool 
and its potters has never 
been fully told. We know 
there was an enormous 
business established there by 
Sadler and Green, a busi¬ 
ness so large that the whole 
ground on the hill was cov¬ 
ered with potters’ banks and 
employees’ houses and that 
in the latter part of the 18th 
Century there were three 
hundred and seventy - four 
men engaged at one time in 
this work. 
Like every other inven¬ 
tion, the art was discovered 
through an accident, but so 
invaluable was it that the 
partners, within the space 
of six hours, printed 1,200 
tiles of different patterns, 
better and neater than one 
hundred skilled pot-makers 
had painted them. There is no doubt that this inven¬ 
tion revolutionized the decoration of ware. 
While the partners were able to keep the secret 
for many years, thus making prominent potters 
come to them for decoration of their ware, yet it 
could not be kept a secret forever. In the division 
(Continued on page 54) 
Symbolic pitchers 
like “Comme rce” 
were popular 
The point 
which makes 
these cup plates 
uncommon is 
that the ship is 
shown in the 
offing 
I NTEREST centres to¬ 
day in Liverpool ware, 
principally on account 
of its illustrating a certain 
phase of shipping that was 
in vogue early in the 18th 
Century. This is the only 
pottery made with transfer 
designs and it pictures not 
only our early ships but 
their motives. These were 
used on pitchers generally 
finished with a cream white 
background to bring out 
more vividly the black or 
red of the subject shown. 
To be sure, there were 
mugs and an occasional 
plate or teapot shown, yet 
the majority designed were 
large pitchers known as 
“Watermelon Pitchers,” each 
one with a ship or politi¬ 
cal illustrations on the ex¬ 
terior. 
This is the first pottery 
to be printed with Ameri¬ 
can emblems, a fact that 
makes it more valuable to 
collectors. Then, too, it is 
not an easy matter to ac¬ 
quire the pieces, since they 
are held in high esteem by 
the present day descendents of the original owners. 
Liverpool, the largest seaport in the world, pursued 
this industry as early as 1600, making a ware known 
as Liverpool delft. It was nothing more than an 
imitation of the Dutch, showing a coarse body 
smoothed on the face by use of a fine, white clay, orna¬ 
mented with designs drawn in blue. This was the 
Northern! 
A pitcher made in 
Liverpool, glorify¬ 
ing Washington 
iA 
ip 
The s e nti - 
mental picture 
with verse is 
not common. 
This type was 
used as a cup 
plate 
“The Farmers’ Arms” is a type of Liver- Family crests were not unusual on pitchers The sentimental pastoral scene was a great 
pool pitcher which found popularity and sets of china especially manufactured favorite with the potters of Liverpool, who 
among early Americans to order varied it in many ways 
