i;6 
KERAMIC STUDIO 
unquestionably English in shape, entirely different from any 
of the Oriental forms, the body being a pure white, bone 
china. The first of these pieces may be seen in the Field 
Columbian Museum, Chicago, while the second is in a private 
collection in Pennsylvania. 
SUPPOSED LOWESTOFT TEA POT. Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. 
Gen. Charles G. Loring, Director of the Boston Museum 
of Fine Arts, informs me that there are three examples of 
supposed genuine Lowestoft ware in their collections. 
Quoting from his remarks on this subject, " You ask what is 
my authority for believing that the three objects are 
Lowestoft ware. Take the cup and saucer. In the first 
place the ware is evidently English. It is porcelain, soft 
paste, thick glaze, of purer white than the Chinese, border 
decoration not native to the East, and in the centre the red 
roses mentioned by Lewellyn Jewitt (the best authority that 
I know of in regard to Lowestoft). Unquestionably not 
Oriental, but English ; whether from Lowestoft is another 
question ; they were given by an American gentleman living 
in the Isle of Wight, a collector of, and an expert in, old 
English ware, as pieces of accepted Lowestoft. 
" The cream jug is from another source, also from an 
expert. Roses similar, diaper border, distinctly not Oriental. 
•' Another wholly independent confirmation comes from 
this : One of our officers in London at a bric-a-brac shop, 
seeing a small fragment of ware, asked the dealer if he had a 
whole piece. His reply was, ' No, if I had it would be almost 
priceless ; that is true Lowestoft.' The paste of this is simi- 
lar and the decoration almost identical with that of the cream 
jug- 
" This question of Lowestoft interested me twenty-five 
years ago when I was first arranging the Museum. I then 
found that all the so-called specimens we had of that ware 
were Oriental, — unquestionably Chinese. It led me to inves- 
tigate and I found that every old cupboard in Salem was full 
of it. Salem was in old days the headquarters of the trade 
with China, and every sea captain and every consignee brought 
home full dinner or tea sets marked with his initials and often 
with armorial bearings. While these and much of the 
decoration were copied from drawings sent out from here, 
there were always little points that betrayed the Oriental 
hand, irrespective of the ware, which was unquestionably 
Chinese." 
In view of the evidence presented above, it is safe to 
assume that there is very little true Lowestoft ware to be 
found in America. The few pieces which are believed to be 
such are still in doubt, but they may turn out to be the excep- 
tions which prove the rule. If true Lowestoft is so rare in 
England it follows that it must be still less common in this 
country. The Lowestoft factory was an obscure and insigni- 
ficant establishment and could not have produced any great 
quantity of ware, of which little could have found its way to 
this country from the farthermost point in England. 
Many years of study and investigation have convinced 
me of the following facts. In the first place no pieces of 
Oriental shapes found in this country could possibly have 
been made in England. We may with confidence attribute 
every helmet-shaped cream pitcher, every flattened and 
arched tea caddy, every tea pot and sugar bowl with twisted 
handles which predominate, to a Chinese potter. In the 
second place we may safely assume that every example of 
hard, brittle porcelain of this type which may fall into our 
hands is purely Oriental in origin. All such pieces must be 
discarded by the searcher for English Lowestoft china. It is 
highly probable that the latter exists here, but who is to 
decide the question of authenticity in the absence of any 
factory marks? Who can distinguish the paste of Lowestoft 
porcelain from the bodies of similar wares produced at other 
English factories, whose shapes and decorations were so 
closely copied ? The ceramic student, however, may be sure 
of two things: First, that if any true Lowestoft exists on 
this side of the Atlantic, it must be looked for among the 
pieces of English shape, and, secondly, that it will be more 
likely to be found among the pure white or creamy porcelain 
so characteristic of the English factories, which is entirely 
different from the cold, bluish, vitreous ware that comes only 
from the East. The collector who finds a piece which pos- 
sesses these requirements, provided it bears the characteristic 
decorations of true Lowestoft, — the tiny groups of flowers 
with roses of larger size ; the scalloped lines composed of 
tiny dots or finely diapered borders, — will have the satisfac- 
tion of knowing that he at least possesses an interesting bit 
of old English ware, more nearly akin to his desideratum than 
any of the Oriental " Lowestoft" offered by dealers. Among 
such pieces it is probable that, when an opportunity comes 
for comparison with identified examples, a few at least will 
prove, by further elimination, to be undoubted specimens of 
true Lowestoft. 
The peculiarities of decoration in this Oriental ware 
which masquerades under the name, — characteristics which, 
by accident rather than design, are suggestive of the 
Lowestoft style, — render it so different from the average 
Chinese productions that it will probably continue to be 
known by a distinctive term. I would suggest for it the name 
of False Lowestoft. 
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We call the attention of collectors to a letter from Mr. 
Frank Falkner, Manchester, England, published on page 131. 
A large collection of ancient pottery from tombs of the 
Incas, in Peru, will be sold in London next Autumn. It was 
made by Sir Spenser St. John while acting as British Minister 
in Peru, and contains many bird, beast, and fruit pieces placed 
in the graves with the mummies for their use or enjoyment 
during the march to the better world. One represents a 
panther suckling her cubs. Another consists of a three-faced 
figure which will please those who are forever discovering 
Buddhist or East Asian analogies in relics found in Central 
and South America. There are human heads and figures 
used as cups, and other bits of pottery for which no explan- 
ation has yet been found. The collection numbers 400 pieces. 
