An English Pottery Heritage (PDF)
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The Troy Dawson Chappell Collection of Earthenware & Stoneware 1630 – 1800 AN ENGLISH POTTERY HERITAGE A Survey of Earthenware and Stoneware 1630 – 1800 his author has comparatively represented herein, T through catalog format, his personal assemblage of ceramic objects. The collection records progress to compactly review English earthenware and stone- ware as broadly manufactured during the span 1630 to 1800. Pottery examples demonstrate most of the prevailing production materials and the related for- mation techniques; also included are manners to de- velop the colored and shaped decorations as well as notices of predominant styles then embraced among the English perceptions and trade. This layout estab- lishes a valued domain for considering the pressures of custom, imitation, and inventive processes across a revolutionary industry, which by evolution stood as one mainstay of British wealth for centuries. The first component of the Collection, earth- enware, is formed from low-fired clays and additives that are effectively encased in a lead-glaze to reduce porosity. Second, the higher-fired stoneware depends on incipient fused-clay masses or degrees of surface vitrification to generate comparable imperviousness to liquids. Within these two groups there are several designated English pottery categories that encompass slipware, tin-glazed earthenware (delftware), agate- ware, redware, salt-glazed stoneware, and the assorted cream-colored, including emerging whiter, wares. Distinctions are shown in procedures for clay contouring such as by wheel throwing, press molding, slip casting, lathe turning, and hand modeling. At- tention is directed to approaches for relief ornamen- tation, coloration, and pattern as potters and decorators heeded challenging technological environments and changing fashions. COVER ILLUSTRATIONS Front: Tray, c. 1760-1765; Teapot, c. 1754-1759; Cup, c. 1640-1660; Medallion, c. 1779; Teapot, c. 1775; Table jug, c. 1750-1765; Jug, c. 1693-1698; Plate, c. 1765-1775; Figure, c. 1790-1800 Spine: Cream pot, c. 1740 Inside back: Jug, c. 1770 Back: Plate, c. 1630; Plate, c. 1720; Plate, c. 1760 AN ENGLISH POTTERY HERITAGE Transfer printed dish, Cream Ware, Staffordshire, c. 1770 - 1775, No. 334 ****** A Survey of Earthenware and Stoneware 1630 – 1800 Part Two as Collected and Described by TROY DAWSON CHAPPELL 2016 © Troy D. Chappell 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, recorded in any storage or retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. ISBN 978-0-615-98666-1 in two volumes Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data (at end of Part Two) Designed and published by the Author Williamsburg, VA 23185 Printed and bound by T J Metzgers, Inc Toledo, OH 43607 Cased by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc Agawam, MA 01001 This edition is limited to fifty copies of which this is number ____ Contents Part One Foreword by Harry A. Root page ix Acknowledgments xi List of Illustrations xiii Selected Personal Appreciations xxiv About the Author xxv A Simulated Public Notice for the 18th Century xxvi Introductory Note 1 THE PROGRESSION OF STYLES 7 Awakened Spirits 11 Transitions and Commerce 13 Political and Social Forces 19 Slip Ware—The Rustic Tapestries 21 Tin-glazed Earthenware—The Dawn of Colors 22 Agate and Colored-body Ware—Natural Beauties 23 Salt-glazed Stoneware—Revolutionary Enterprises 24 Buff and Cream Earthenware—Bountiful Harvests 26 Early Figures—Modest Appraisals 27 Legacies of the English Potters 28 The Continuum of Competition 28 ILLUSTRATED CATALOG WITH NOTES 33 Preface 35 Cavalcade of Styles 37 Slip Ware 43 Tin-glazed Earthenware 77 Part Two Agate and Colored-body Ware 473 Salt-glazed Stoneware 531 v Buff and Cream Earthenware 685 Early Figures 853 Appendixes 885 A. Principal Potworks, Proprietors, and Craftsmen Active within the Span of this Collection 887 B. Early Technological Events Promoting English Pottery Production 903 C. Shapes of Tin-glazed Earthenware Plates and Dishes 905 D. Marks and Inscriptions 937 E. Dates for Selected Chinese Dynasties and Reigns 945 F. Former Collectors of Cataloged Items 947 • Collector Label Directory 949 • Exhibition Label Directory 949 G. Acquisition Sources for Cataloged Items 951 • Dealer Label Directory 953 • Summary of Sources for Items 954 Bibliography 957 Select Bibliography 959 Short Title List 961 Functional Glossary 975 Index 983 Reminiscences 997 Design Comparisons 1005 vi Contents Agate and Colored-body Ware Remembered Times in Agate and Colored-body Ware 474 Agate and Colored-body Ware Agate and Colored-body Ware GATE AND ALLIED COLORED-BODY wares that A principally reveal red-based fabrics perpetuate, in the main, old crafts with groundworks in the once-gloried em- pires of Asia. For English manufactured items, they remain curious to the degree of often having the new undertakings retain explicit eastern traces during their assimilations into the western cultures.1 This contrasted to those artful chinoi- serie modifications then featured in delftware. Agate ware gained approval through the strength of several colored clays harmoniously intermingling or stratifying to be one united 212, 386 body fabric before salt- or lead-glazing. It did not stand in the mainstream of consumer preferences even though not de- cidedly more expensive than those most proficiently molded goods of other kinds.2 Discriminations among the resulting ‘agate’ subtypes are possible from the standpoint of methods for shaping a piece and the pattern or depth of colorations. On the other hand, colored-body ware is distinctive in dual, linked families that are characterized as either unglazed and 220, 209 stonelike or lead-glazed above single-color earthen bodies; outcomes arise from blended natural inclusions or measured 223 quantities of iron and manganese oxides. Elements from all the above product categories prospered together in intervals from 1680 to 1780, underwent popularity decline over about forty years at mid-term, and resurged to advantage in neo- classical styles. The Staffordshire pot makers are acclaimed the leading proponents in each situation. These wares con- tinued as the commercial supplements to ones made at tin- and salt-glaze potworks. In the agateware discipline, John Dwight at Fulham chartered in the field without aspiring to commerce. The 17th-century bottles and mugs that were salt-glazed under his auspices delivered, at times, two tones in broad, grainy streaks.3 On from about 1740, newer potters expanded the principles as multiple slabs of variously stained soft clay 475 were merged or laid in sequences to build striated bulks for throwing or bat molding; similar steps had been elucidated from at least the Tang dynasty of China.4 For this first in- 217 stance, a mass was drawn up over the wheel and shaved by lathe to increase the lightness of the piece and remove any finger smears from throwing. Depending on the degrees of modeling concern, their final veining ranges from indistinct 212, 221 swirls to contortions of myriad hairlines of color. To pre- pare sheets for pressing into molds, effects were ordained by multiple reorientations of thin, variegated layers; their selec- tive placements could even control the stripes as for the se- 215 quential pattern now said to be ‘elephant tooth’ marking.5 Green, blue, brown, and ocher clays readily translated into ubiquitous teawares that made Thomas Whieldon the most distinguished, although not singular, fabricator across about 1745 to 1760.6 Also for the period of King George II, the depressed 212 globe- and pear-shapes obviously kept the styles for silver service ensembles. Because of heavy reliance upon juxta- positions of clays as appeal, the surface was frequently re- lieved by sculptures of seashells or masks on a tripod sup- 214 port; reclining lions reign atop lids. This agate ware gives a scintillating effect once finished with lead-glaze. At just before mid-century, a Samuel Bell specialty was gleaming 211 black-with-red vessels that were turned to delicate baluster profiles. For parallel action, some all-red bodies displayed marbled inlaid bands.7 In the heyday of ‘agate,’ craftsmen issued figured trade goods where cream-clay slurry super- 217 posed over the areas that expected to come in contact with beverages. As variation during the later 18th century, a ve- 375 neer of ‘agate’ fabric, slips, or granules could encase or re- 369 cess into plain earthenware to give illusions of more costly ‘solid’ versions.8 Advancing toward the start for crisp ‘red’ ware, every- 207 day pieces reprised Cistercian goods.9 Then by 1690 there came a finely sieved “red porcelain” that was probably in- 208 spired through Rhenish clays or the free Yixing pots often packaged within tea chests; gold and white-enamel dotting lent the only color accents to this “dry body” stoneware.10 Implicitly, the Elers brothers are credited with perfecting 476 Agate and Colored-body Ware this denser material, slip casting in their calcified gypsum molds, and precisely running fine lathes between 1693 and 1698 while set up at Bradwell Wood in Staffordshire; their previous efforts took place at Vauxhall close by London.11 Before them, however, John Dwight had investigated suf- ficiently in this aspect of the business to institute patent in- fringement suits against them and other rivals. Aside from inordinate care for a thin potting, the earliest red stoneware teapots and mugs