4o 
KXRAMIC STUDIO 
Bristol Porcelain Gup and Saucer. With cross and date 1777 in red (not pink). 
Collection of Mrs. C. C. Varney, Brookline, Mass. 
I must before closing describe a cup and saucer which has 
just been brought to me for inspection. It is undoubtedly Bris- 
tol china, not the finest, decorated with a pattern which re- 
sembles palm leaves in blue on white — the blue is the same 
Bristol Porcelain Cup and Saucer. Marked with the cross in brown. 
Collection of Mrs. C. C. Varney, Brookline, Mass. 
shade as that formerly used at the Worcester potteries, and 
the mark is the usual cross with initial B. underneath in blue. 
This is the first piece of china I have seen with the mark in 
blue, what other pieces I have seen bore the mark or marks 
in either red or brown, and occasionally in black. 
Mrs. C. C. Varney. 
To the illustrations of Bristol pieces from Mrs. Varney 's 
collection, we add the illustration of an interesting toy tea 
set, which, in the opinion of both Mrs. Varney and Mrs. 
Mary C. Ripley, of New York, is very probably Bristol. The 
little cream jug alone is marked, and it has the blue cross. 
Wavy round marks at the bottom inside of the jug show that 
it was turned on the wheel, not cast in mould. In places 
where the glaze is sufficiently thin, close examination shows 
Toy Tea Set, probably Bristol, decorated in blue, green and 
yellowish brown. Creamer marked with blue cross. 
Collection of Mrs. Alsop-Robineau, Syracuse. 
the body to be translucent, consequently a porcelain body, 
although on first examination the set would appear to be 
earthenware. Champion in his experiments used "all sorts 
and varieties of bodies, from 16 parts of clay and one of stone 
to four parts of clay and one of stone." This peculiar com- 
position of the paste, the fact that the creamer was turned, 
not cast, and in addition the blue cross mark, everything, 
according to Mrs. Ripley's opinion, seems to point to a speci- 
men of early experimental Bristol, although the decoration is 
somewhat puzzling. — [Ed.] 
see 
LEEDS 
FROM a collector's standpoint, the word " Leeds" does not 
apply to the ware of a special factory, but to the ware 
made in the northern part of England, in the district of 
Leeds of the county of York, which in the latter part of the 
eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth was an 
active center for the manufacture of earthenware. The 
Leeds Old Pottery, founded in 1760 by two brothers named 
Green, was the most important factory in the district, and 
the finest specimens of creamware may probably be safely 
attributed to it, but although the marks of " Leeds Pottery," 
or " Hartley, Greens & Co." are occasionally found, the bulk 
of the old Yorkshire earthenware is unmarked, and it is im- 
possible to distinguish the products of different factories one 
from the other. It is a matter of little importance, as long as 
the ware of this Leeds district has general characteristics 
which mark it as unmistakably different from other English 
earthenware. 
Leeds ware was imported to this country in large quanti- 
ties in the beginning of the nineteenth century, but most of 
it being for common use and very light and frail, good and 
well preserved specimens are not very common. Although it 
is comparatively easy to identify, there seems to be much 
ignorance about it among collectors, and it is not unusual for 
them to call it Bristol. 
The Leeds paste is extremely light and the glaze, as well 
on the white as on the creamware, has a more or less pro- 
nounced greenish cast which manifests itself by greenish de- 
posits in the interstices, on bottom of pieces, near knobs, 
handles, &c. The decoration is varied, overglaze and under- 
glaze painting, printed designs, raised work of the very best 
kind on some of the artistic Leeds creamware, somewhat 
crude and unfinished on the ordinary pieces. But how- 
ever varied, Leeds decoration has general characteristics 
which it is difficult to define, but which, after one has become 
familiar with the ware, make it possible to recognize it almost 
at a glance. As a rule it is simple and from an artistic 
standpoint far superior to the decoration of the much better 
known Staffordshire pottery of the same period. The best 
specimens are real works of art and deserve much more atten- 
tion from collectors than has been generally given them. 
The first ware made at the Leeds pottery was a black 
glazed ware, which one must not confound with the unglazed 
black basaltes. Avery good quality of black basaltes was later 
on made both at Castleford and at Leeds, in imitation of the 
Wedgwood basaltes. But the main production in the Leeds 
district at the end of the eighteenth century was an excellent 
creamware of fine glaze and in some cases most artistically 
decorated in raised work, some of the Wedgwood designs 
being often used. It is easily recognized on account of its 
light weight and of the peculiarities of the Leeds paste, which, 
being yellow, gives the glaze a slightly greenish or yellowish 
