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| committer | pgww <pgww@lists.pglaf.org> | 2025-10-06 22:22:02 -0700 |
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diff --git a/77000-0.txt b/77000-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..222e37d --- /dev/null +++ b/77000-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11706 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77000 *** + + + + + + ❦ CHINA COLLECTING + IN AMERICA ❦ ❦ ❦ + ❦ ❦ BY ALICE MORSE EARLE + + +[Illustration: [Tea Pot]] + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS + NEW YORK MCMVI + + + + + _Copyright, 1892, by + Charles Scribner’s Sons_ + + + TROW DIRECTORY + PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY + NEW YORK + + + + + TO + + THE COMPANION OF MY CHINA HUNTS + + MY SISTER + + FRANCES CLARY MORSE + + + + + CONTENTS + + + I. + PAGE + _China Hunting_, _1_ + + II. + _Trencher Treen and Pewter Bright_, _38_ + + III. + _Early Use and Importation of China in America_, _52_ + + IV. + _Early Fictile Art in America_, _70_ + + V. + _Earliest Pottery Wares_, _102_ + + VI. + _English Porcelains in America_, _119_ + + VII. + _Liverpool and other Printed Ware_, _135_ + + VIII. + _Oriental China_, _165_ + + IX. + _The Cosey Teapot_, _196_ + + X. + _Punch-bowls and Punches_, _210_ + + XI. + _George and Martha Washington’s China_, _229_ + + XII. + _Presidential China_, _249_ + + XIII. + _Designs Relating to Washington_, _257_ + + XIV. + _Designs Relating to Franklin_, _274_ + + XV. + _Designs Relating to Lafayette_, _288_ + + XVI. + _Patriotic and Political Designs_, _299_ + + XVII. + _Staffordshire Wares_, _316_ + + XVIII. + _China Memories_, _376_ + + XIX. + _China Collections_, _409_ + + _Index_, _425_ + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + WEDGWOOD PIECES, 1 + THE PLATE WE HOPED TO FIND AND THE PLATE WE FOUND, 9 + MILLENNIUM PLATE, 24 + “BEACH WARE,” 27 + OLD WORCESTER IN “JAPAN TASTE,” 29 + “THE PORRINGERS THAT IN A ROW HUNG HIGH AND MADE A GLITTERING + SHOW,” 44 + WINTHROP JUG, 55 + PROVINCE HOUSE PITCHER, 65 + BENNINGTON WARE, 97 + HOUND-HANDLED PITCHER, 100 + DELFT TEA-CADDY, 104 + DELFT VASE, 106 + FULHAM G. R. JUG, 108 + SPORTIVE INNOCENCE PITCHER, 111 + FARMER PITCHER, 111 + CASTLEFORD TEAPOT, 117 + PLYMOUTH SALT-CELLAR. BOW “GOAT CREAM-JUG,” 121 + PLYMOUTH COFFEE-POT, 123 + BRISTOL MEMORIAL FIGURE, 125 + CROWN DERBY COVERED DISH, 129 + AN ENGLISH NOTION OF WASHINGTON, 139 + MASONIC PITCHER, 147 + LOWESTOFT VASE, 174 + HELMET CREAMER, 176 + WASHINGTON COFFEE-POT, 178 + CHINESE EWER, 190 + PERSIAN VASE, 192 + LOWESTOFT TEAPOT, 208 + BRISTOL POTTERY TEAPOT, 208 + BOWL GIVEN TO MRS. ALLEN JONES, 221 + CINCINNATI BOWL, 223 + CINCINNATI CHINA, 231 + WASHINGTON’S NIEDERWEILER CHINA, 245 + LINCOLN CHINA, 253 + GRANT CHINA, 254 + PITCHER PORTRAIT, 259 + WASHINGTON MONUMENT PITCHER, 262 + APOTHEOSIS PITCHER, 265 + “MAP” PITCHER, 268 + NIEDERWEILER STATUETTE, 275 + TOMB OF FRANKLIN TEAPOT, 285 + LA GRANGE PLATE, 290 + CADMUS PLATE, 292 + LAFAYETTE LANDING PLATTER, 294 + PROSCRIBED PATRIOTS PITCHER, 302 + NAVAL PITCHER, 309 + PICKLE LEAF, 317 + PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY PLATE, 319 + ANTI-SLAVERY PLATE, 333 + BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD PLATES, 336 + STATE-HOUSE PLATE, 338 + JOHN HANCOCK’S HOUSE, 341 + HARVARD COLLEGE PLATE, 348 + STEAMBOAT PLATE, 350 + MACDONOUGH’S VICTORY PLATE, 351 + NAHANT PLATE, 354 + CITY HALL PITCHER, 359 + PARK THEATRE PLATE, 361 + FAIRMOUNT PARK PLATE, 364 + PILGRIM PLATE, 366 + CAPITOL PLATE, 374 + CROWN DERBY PLATE, 379 + DELFT APOTHECARY JARS, 382 + COPPER-LUSTRE PITCHER, 387 + A BEAUFET, 415 + CHINA STEPS, 419 + + + + +[Illustration: [Wedgwood Pieces]] + + I. + CHINA HUNTING + + +My dearly loved friend, Charles Lamb, wrote, in his “Essays of Elia,” “I +have an almost feminine partiality for old china. When I go to see any +great house, I inquire first for the china-closet, and next for the +picture-gallery. I have no repugnance for those little lawless +azure-tinted grotesques that, under the notion of men and women, float +about uncircumscribed by any element, in that world before perspective—a +china teacup.” In that partiality for old china I humbly join, and it is +of the search through New England for such dear old china loves, and of +the gathered treasures of those happy china hunts, that I write. + +China hunting is a true “midsummer madness.” When grass grows green and +“daffodils begin to peer” my fancy lightly turns to thoughts of china. +Hot waxes the fever as crawls up the summer sun; fierce and fiercer +rages the passion and the hunt, till autumn touches with her cold though +glorious hand the trees and fields. Then doth my madness wane, and chase +grow dull, and icy winter finds me sane and calm, till charming spring +returns to witch me to “mine old lunes” once again. Thus is every china +captive of that mad summer chase aglow to me with summer suns and +beauty—not a dull lifeless clod of moulded painted clay, but a glorious +idealized token of long warm halcyon days too quickly passed, of +“yesterdays that look backward with a smile.” + +Were the possession of old or valuable specimens of porcelain and +pottery, or even of happy memories of “days of joyance,” the only good +things which came from the long hours of country ranging and farm-house +searching spent in our china quests, Philistines might perhaps scoff at +the waste of time and energy; but much else that is good have I found. +Insight into human nature, love of my native country, knowledge of her +natural beauties, acquaintance with her old landmarks and historical +localities, familiarity with her history, admiration of her noble +military and naval heroes, and study of the ancient manners, customs, +and traditions of her early inhabitants have all been fostered, +strengthened, and indeed almost brought into existence by the search +after and study of old china. How vague and dull were my school-day +history-lesson memories of Perry, of Lawrence, of Decatur, until I saw +their likenesses on some hideous Liverpool pitchers! then I read eagerly +every word of history, every old song and ballad about them. How small +was my knowledge of old “table manners” and table furnishings until I +discovered, through my china studies, how our ancestors ate and served +their daily meals! How little I knew of the shy romance and the +deep-lying though sombre sentiment in New England country life, until it +was revealed to me in the tradition of many a piece of old china. How +entirely powerless was I to discover the story of human nature as told +in the countenance until my inquiries after old china made me a second +Lavater in regarding the possibilities of successful purchase in case +the questioned one chanced to own any old porcelain heirlooms! How few +of our noble wood and valley roads had I seen until I drove through them +searching for old farm-houses that might contain some salvage of teacups +or teapots! And not only do we learn of America through our china hunts, +but of England as well; for nearly all of our old table-ware was +English, and the history of the production of English china can be +traced as easily in New England as in old England. Few of the more +costly pieces came here, but humbler specimens show equally well the +general progress of the manufacture. + +Let me be just and honest in my tale; though all is ideal happiness in +the hours of the china chase, the counting of the spoils is sometimes +vastly disappointing. + + “As high as we have mounted in delight + In our dejection do we sink as low.” + +There is no hobby of so uncertain gait, none other fancy in the pursuit +of which one meets with so many rebuffs as in china collecting. I mean +in real china collecting by individual search and pursuit, not in china +buying at high prices at a fashionable china-shop. For such Crœsus +buyers, who know not the sweet nor the bitter of true china hunting, +these pages are not written. + +Sad, sad failures does your china hunter often make, but there is a +blessed delight and pride when a long search is at last successful which +rewards him and makes him, or rather her, forget the cruel blows of the +past, and makes hope spring eternal in her breast, undying, and +undimmed. Disappointments were few in early china-collecting days in +America; friendly farm-wives then gladly brought out their precious and +plentiful stores, and eagerly sold them for silver to buy a new cotton +gown or a shell-comb, and attics and pantries were ransacked and +depleted with delight. Now can the china hunter drive for days through +the country, asking for old crockery at every house which is surmounted +by a gambrel roof, has a great square chimney, or an old well-sweep, +without even hearing of one old teapot; and yet such is the power of +china-love, she will start out again the next week, cheerful, hopeful, +and undaunted, “to fresh woods and pastures new.” + +Nor will it always prove clear sailing should she discover the home of +the sought-for treasure. She may learn from friendly and loquacious +neighbors that “old Miss Halsey” or “John Slade’s widder” has stores of +old crockery in barrels in the attic, or on the top shelf of the pantry, +or even “up over the wood-shed,” but she cannot obtain one glimpse of +the hidden hoards—far less can she purchase them. + +We have visited again and again one gray old farm-house in +Massachusetts, a farm-house with moss-covered “lean-to,” which we know +contains enough old English pottery and porcelain to found a museum; but +cajoleries, flatteries, persuasions, open demands, elaborate +explanations, and assumptions of indignant and hurt astonishment at +refusals—one and all are in vain; not even one old plate have we ever +seen. The farmer’s wife greets us most cordially, gives us doughnuts and +milk in summer, and apples and cider in the winter, maple-sugar in the +spring, and hickory-nuts and butter-nuts in the fall, but in +aggressively modern pitchers and dishes; and when we leave she urges us +hospitably and warmly to “come again.” We know well where her precious +china is hidden. High up on either side of the great mantelpieces in +“living-room” and “best room” are cupboards, so high that one would have +to climb upon a chair to see into them; and from the good wife’s +frequent and furtive glances—speaking though silent—at her locked +cupboard doors, we know well what treasures are stored therein. + +At that china-hiding abode we often have concocted for us an old-time +country drink, composed of water flavored with molasses and ginger, +which was in Revolutionary times called “beveridge.” Gallons of that +vile fluid have I drunk with the hostess, hoping that the joys of the +flowing bowl might loosen her tongue and unlock her cupboard doors, but +I have risked my digestion in vain. Still I sit “smiling with millions +of mischief in the heart,” for life is short, and I am waiting, wickedly +waiting; the farmer and his wife are old, very old, and when they depart +from this life they cannot take their keys and crockery with them. + +More complete and mortifying routs sometimes, though rarely, have +befallen us. We were driving quietly along one day on the outskirts of +the town, when we saw at the door of a shabby modern house, a vinegar +faced woman, who sat energetically mixing chicken-dough in one of the +most beautiful old blue and white Nankin bowls that ever was seen. As +each blow of the heavy iron spoon came down on the precious antique, it +struck an echoing and keener blow to our china-loving hearts, and we +hastened to ask the owner of the bowl to sell it ere it was broken. Sell +it? not she. She didn’t know where it came from, nor who had owned +it—and she didn’t care, but she wouldn’t sell it for any money; and if a +tin pan was just as good to mix the meal in, she would use this “old +crockery thing” if she wanted to; and she walked into the shabby house, +and “slammed” the door before our abashed and sad faces. The thought of +that bowl at the mercy of that fierce iron spoon has made us very +unhappy; scores of times have we driven past the house glancing +furtively in, at the wood-shed, the hen-house, the kitchen door, ready +almost to steal the poor prisoner if we found it unguarded; but we do +not dare attempt an honest rescue lest we suffer a still more +ignominious and mortifying defeat. + +Strange answers are sometimes made to our inquiries and requests; +strange objects presented to our china-searching eyes. In farm-houses, +presided over by deaf old housewives we have had shown to us crackers +for crockery, pitchforks for teapots, tubs for cups, and once, by some +strange and incomprehensible twist of the poor deaf ears, or our own +dull tongues, were cheerfully offered buckwheat flour when we asked to +see a Washington pitcher. We also drove several miles at the sea-shore, +in high spirits and with great expectations, to see some very old +teapots, “all kinder basket-work,” and were confronted by a strange +machine of seafaring appearance, which proved to be an eel-pot, and was +truly an ancient one. Other kindly country souls, knowing well what we +want, offer us as far more desirable and artistic treasures, faded +samplers, worsted flowers, crocheted tidies, preserved wreaths, wax +fruit, hair jewelry, and Parian busts, and look at us with commiseration +when we cling to our strange idiosyncrasy—our preference for old china. +Sometimes the kindly intention to guide and help us to our goal is +evident and powerful enough, the desire to inform us is rampant, but +power of expression is lacking, or even a modicum of memory; the narrow +limits of country vocabulary are painful to witness and the expressions +of its poverty are painful to hear, and suggestions only lead the +speaker farther astray in his attempted descriptions. He is also +color-blind, and has vague remembrance of size and nomenclature. He +can’t describe the china, he can’t date it, he can’t name it, +sometimes—though he vaguely remembers that he has seen it—he can’t place +it, he simply knows that somewhere he has seen something that he fancies +may be somewhat like what we want; and too often when we try to follow +his vague and jejune clue, we go upon a “thankless arrant.” + +We once addressed to an old Yankee farmer, who had brought a load of +apples into town, the stereotyped inquiry which we have asked, ah! how +many hundred times, and received this drawling answer, “No-o I donow as +I know anyone as has got any old furnitoor or chayner she wants ter part +with. My wife haint got any anyway. My Aunt Rebecca’s got one curous old +plate and I guess she’d sell it—she’d sell her teeth if any-body’d buy +’em an’ pay enough ter suit her.” We finally extracted from him (after +much parrying of our direct questions) that, “she got it in Washington +more’n fifty year ago,” that “the folks set great store by it, and said +it came from Mount Vernon and belonged to Marthy Washington,” that it +had the names of the States around it, “it was blue and perhaps green +too, and it had stars sure and he guessed they were gilt.” Now we had +seen pieces of the Martha Washington tea-set, and we knew that it was +decorated in blue and green with the names of the States in the links of +a chain, and the initials M. W. in the centre in a great gilt star. We +knew at once that Aunt Rebecca’s plate must be one of that set. What a +discovery! + +[Illustration: The Plate we Hoped to Find and the Plate we Found.] + +To the benighted and narrow-lived souls who have never hunted for old +china it may seem strange that we knew at once that it was one of those +rare plates; but I am sure every china hunter, whose path is always +illumined by the brilliant possibilities which form such an +encouragement in the pleasures of the china chase, will fully comprehend +our confidence and anticipation. We figured our plate in all the loan +collections, marked with our names in large letters as joint owners; we +planned a velvet silver-bound box to safely hold our “heavenly jewel” +after we had caught it; we even hesitatingly thought that we might make +our joint will and leave it to the Mount Vernon Association—and then we +drove eighteen miles to secure it. I shall never forget the sickening +disappointment I felt when I saw the Martha Washington plate. There were +the names of the States; and stars there were, but not a gilt one. And +where were the touches of verdant color? All was blue—deeply, darkly, +vilely blue. At any other time we should have hailed the fine “States” +plate which was shown us with keen delight, but now we could hardly +speak or bear to look at it. At last, in sullen disparagement, we +offered a dollar for it, had our offer accepted, carelessly took it, +threw it on the carriage-seat and drove away. I reviled the farmer and +his villainous memory and vocabulary, and would not look at the +deep-dyed “States” impostor for a month, but when I heard that a +collector had paid twenty dollars for a similar plate in New York, I +unwrapped it and hung it on my dining-room wall, where it now shines a +glowing bit of dark color, a joy forever. + +Warned by many such dreary mistakes I am very shy of having china sent +to me through any interest awakened by its description, and am equally +shy of buying by proxy. + + “Let every eye negotiate for itself, + And trust no agent.” + +I have learned also to listen with attention, not placing the slightest +confidence in what I hear, and yet always to investigate with +cheerfulness and alacrity. It is not, however, from elaborately detailed +and willingly told stories that I have had knowledge of my richest +“finds.” I have learned to “take a hint”—a maxim which should be +eternally impressed on every china hunter. Learn to “grasp the skirt of +happy chance;” let your motto be, “Semper paratus.” Let no suggestion of +old people or old house-furnishings, no glimpse of blue color or +sprigged surface, even on a broken sherd of crockery by the wayside, no +hint of distant and out-of-the-way farms, no prospect of country sales, +of “New England dinners,” no news of refurnishing old houses, no +accounts of the death of old inhabitants fall on unheeding eye or ear. +For myself, I never hear the words “old china” but my heart is moved, +more than “with sound of a trumpet.” I breathe the battle afar and hurry +to the fray, to return at times victorious with dainty trophies of war, +and sometimes, alas, empty-handed, with the hanging head of sore +disappointment and defeat. Sometimes the scent is poor and broken and +you must ferret out the way to the lair; even with much trouble and +diligence you cannot always learn at once and definitely the +lurking-place of the porcelain treasures; you meet with reserve and a +disinclination to reveal. Then comes stratagem to the fore. Learn to +wheedle, to hint, to interrogate slyly, to blandly let the conversation +drift—“muster all wiles with blandished parleys, feminine assaults, +tongue batteries”—in short, vulg. dict., to “pump”—and work that pump +with judgment, with craft, and with thoroughness. Moments of quickly +repented expansiveness come to all mortals in country and in town, and +in those rare moments of telling all they know, even reticent and +secretive country people will give you many a china clue to follow. + +I have not found, as did the members of the China Hunters’ Club, that +country housekeepers would, as a rule, rather have money than china; my +country people will not sell their china willingly—they prefer china to +silver. Times have changed since 1876; a fancied knowledge, an +exaggerated estimate of the value of old “crockery” now fills many a +country soul, and a high monetary value is also placed on family relics, +on “storied urns” and on the power of association. I will confess that, +as a last resort in times of direst stress, when you really cannot go +without that Pilgrim plate, when you positively need it—if you take your +money out and lay it on the table in full sight of the plate-owner, you +wield a powerful lever to work the transfer; nor do I consider such a +statement at all derogatory to the character of my New England +neighbors, nor is the trait peculiar to them. + +But do not make too aggressively prominent the money part of the +transaction. Be courteous and careful even to extremes in addressing +your country people for purposes of china purchase. Never ask them to +sell their china—_sell_ is a most offensive and brutal word—ask them if +they are “willing to part with it.” Never hint, by word or deed, that +you fancy they really need the money. Never disparage the desired +articles, the shrewd country wives would see through your pretence at +once—“Why, if it be so commonplace, do you wish it?” A base and +deceitful, though clever, china hunter of my acquaintance declares that +she has found it invariably to her advantage to say that the coveted +article matched exactly, either in shape or decoration, something which +she had at home. The staid country mind, liking to see things in “sets,” +always appeared to be most immoderately and unaccountably influenced to +sell by this disingenuous assertion. + +We have many times during the past five years crossed the trail of a +collector who appears to have wholly depleted of china the old +farm-houses of the Connecticut Valley. We have found, through comparing +the accounts of his visits, that he has a little slyness too. He always +desires to purchase his particular bit of china simply to form a link in +a chain. He either has a specimen of the entire succession of production +of a factory except the very piece the farm-wife has, or he has a +perfect list of historical plates except the very plate she owns, or he +has a choice bit of every known color of lustre except her special +pitcher. The satisfaction of supplying the long missing link, and the +value that link will give to a history the purchaser is going to write +of such china, seem to prove a powerful lever to effect the transfer to +his catenulate collection. + +The men are, as a rule, always willing to sell china—when did man ever +reverence the vessels of his household gods? I always delight to ask a +Yankee farmer, in field or road, whether he has any old crockery that he +would be willing to part with. How he will skurry home “cross-lots,” +over the ploughed fields, or through the rows of growing corn, eager to +pull out and sell his wife’s pantry treasures! Not that he can sell them +if “Mother” isn’t willing—in her realm she reigns supreme. Even in the +midst of my sore disappointment I have thrilled with malicious +satisfaction and delight to see the calm and authoritative way in which +“Father” is turned out of the “butt’ry” when he tries to pull down from +the shelf an old blue bowl or plate to sell. “Mother” has kept her +cinnamon-sticks and nutmegs for her apple-pies in that “Blue Dragon” +bowl for forty years, and she isn’t going to sell it now to please +anyone. To hail the farmer in advance with china questions is not, +therefore, so underhanded and despicable a proceeding as might be +thought, nor so dangerous to the family peace; he really is a poor, +uninfluential, unpowered vassal in kitchen and pantry, his advice is not +asked, his word is not heeded, nor if he attempt to be at all bumptious +will his presence be tolerated. I have found it to be an unvarying rule +that the farmer is always willing and eager to sell his wife’s mother’s +china, while the wife is always openly disparaging, and cares little for +his mother’s china; and when once the source of inheritance is +discovered, the rule of action and plan of attack are plainly defined. + +It may be argued that it is neither very courteous nor very kind to walk +into a stranger’s house and ask him to sell you his household goods and +chattels. To such argument may be offered the reply that one can hardly +judge a farm home by the same rule as one does a city home. The visit of +a stranger is regarded with widely different eyes; it is a pleasure, a +treat, to most farm-wives to receive such a visit, and the farmer will +come plodding home from the distant fields, in order not to lose the +chat with the stranger and the pleasant diversion. Who would attempt to +enter and to lodge over night in a stranger’s house in the city? A +police-station or a lunatic asylum would probably quickly shelter your +intruding head. There is hardly a farm-house where such a suggestion +would be unwelcome or resented, provided you look not like a bandit or +horse-thief. Then, too, farmers and even farm-wives do not generally +regard their old furniture and furnishings with quite the same feeling +that we do ours. The old blue Staffordshire ware they consider almost +worthless, and are often glad to sell it for ready cash; but their +lilac-sprigged china, a wedding gift or a purchase with their few +hard-earned dollars, they often value and cherish as we do Sèvres. A +farmer handles very little money—his wife still less, and ofttimes the +money paid by china hunters is a godsend in country homes. Much good is +done, much comfort conferred by exchanging money for crockery. Carpers +say: “But you do not pay city prices.” Sometimes, alas, we do, fired by +our china mania, “the insane root that takes the reason prisoner,” +though we never should. The farmer does not pay city rents, he has not +the risk and expense of transfer to the city, he pays no salesman. If he +could sell all his farm products as easily, profitably, and safely as he +sells his china, lucky would he be. Sometimes the discovery that the +“old blue pie-plates” are of any value is a delight and a surprise to +him, but he sees at once that when they are worth so much he cannot +afford to keep them. Hence he is far from being offended at the easy +means of sale offered to him. + +One piece of advice I give to china hunters—advice, the wisdom and +advantage of which I have learned at the cost of much unpleasant and +disappointing experience. Do not hurry prospective china sellers: +bustling city ways annoy them, fluster them, and worry them, and in +sheer bewilderment they say “No” to get rid of you. Be tentative and +gentle in your approach. Do not—as we did—rush in upon a deaf and timid +old lady and frighten her, by the bouncing and bustling inquiries we +made, into vehement denials of china-possession and simultaneous +refusals to sell anything. This dear old “Aunt Dolly” lived in the sole +new house in a village of old colonial dwellings, and we rather +contemptuously thought to pass by the brand-new French roofed intruder, +but decided “just to ask”—and “just to ask” and receive a frightened +negative answer was all we did do, and we left with self-important +assurance, to hunt elsewhere. A tin-peddler (a “china runner” perhaps in +disguise), with quieter voice and more truly well-bred manners, carried +off her rare treasures about a week later—a canopy-topped mirror with +Washington and Franklin mirror-knobs, a “Boston State-House” pitcher, +four “Valentine” plates having Wilkie’s design, half a dozen +Staffordshire plates with the “cottage” pattern, and two Wedgwood +teapots; and Aunt Dolly took as payment two shining new tin milk-pans +and a cheap wringing-machine that wouldn’t wring. We knew her well in +after years when it was too late, and she confessed to us that at our +first meeting we talked so fast, and talked together, and “hollered so +she couldn’t hear,” and that she did not understand what we meant or +what we wanted, and said “No” to obtain peace. + +And oh! what an enviable advantage the ubiquitous tin-peddler, that +“licensed vagrom,” has over every convention-trammelled china hunter! +What a delight, what a dream it would be to go a-china hunting with a +tin-peddler’s cart; what lonely out-of-the-way roads and by-lanes I +would take, careless where I went, since wherever I wandered I should be +welcome. How I would sit on my lofty seat and view the lovely country +o’er, in the “sessions of sweet, silent thought,” with my strong and +willing and safe horse to pull me up hill and down dale; with my stock +of shining tin-ware, my brooms and notions and gaily painted pails, all +ready for advantageous exchange; with my big, red, roomy wagon, in whose +mysterious cavernous interior I could store in safety unwieldy china +treasures, such as tureens and bowls and pitchers; with my air of ready +assurance, of intimate familiarity with the family, my jovial raillery, +my opportunities of kitchen and pantry investigation, my anxious health +inquiries and profound medical advice, backed up by bottles of patent +medicines which I should sell at half-price to curry favor and china; +or, better still, exchange, giving a bottle of liniment for a “Landing +of Lafayette,” or a box of pills for a Pilgrim plate—oh! next to being a +gipsy living under the greenwood tree, who would not be a Yankee +tin-peddler a-china hunting? But perhaps the farm-wife might wish me to +take in exchange for my wares, eggs, or butter, or rolls of wool—what +should I do with a pail of butter in summer-time on a tin-peddler’s +cart? Or, worse still, old rags—just fancy it—instead of old china! I +should then answer her with an air of deep and sombre mystery: “Madam, I +would gladly take your readily exchangeable merchandise an’ I could; the +old rags are particularly desirable and attractive, but I have sworn a +vow—I have a secret which I cannot now divulge—it must be crockery or +naught, especially dark blue crockery with American designs, else I and +my glittering and uncommonly cheap wares must pass wearily on, homeless, +chinaless, a wanderer on the face of the earth.” Alack-a-day! such happy +peaceful joys are forbidden to me, not because of lack of inclination or +capacity, but—thrice bitter thought—because I am a woman. Tin-peddlering +is not for me, it is not “woman’s sphere.” Perhaps when I am old, too +old to clamber up and proudly sit on that exalted driver’s seat (though +never too old to go china hunting), perhaps when women have crowded into +every other profession, calling, and business in the land, some happy, +bold feminine soul will taste the pleasures of “advanced life for +women,” the pleasures forbidden to me, and dare to go tin-peddlering, +though there will then be no old china left in the country to buy. + +Though I have never been china hunting with a tin-peddler I have been on +the trail with a Yankee china dealer, and his unique method of +management was delightful. He worked upon the most secretive, the most +furtive plan. He never would have shared with us his coverts nor taken +us to his haunts, save for this reason: he had run down a noble prey, an +entire set of fine old English ware, and to his dismay the owner refused +to let him enter the house. Again and again had he essayed to come to +some terms, even to see the china, but without success. He felt sure, +however, that if any woman asked she would not plead in vain, hence his +divulgement as a favor to us. We made several stops at farm-houses on +the road to our goal, and his way of carrying on his business of china +buying deserves to be told as a matter of interest and instruction to +amateur china hunters, for he was a professional, a star. He never, by +any chance, told the truth about himself, and above all never gave his +correct name and place of residence, nor drove away from the house in +the way he really intended to go. He represented himself as an adopted +son, this seeming to be more mysterious than ordinary family conditions; +never gave twice alike the name of his adopted father, but had a series +of noble parents, the most prominent and influential men in the country +around. The reasons he assigned for wishing to buy the china were so +ingenious and so novel that we listened to him in delight and amazement, +and with keen anticipation as to what he would next invent; the glamour +of romance was added to the delightful madness of china hunting. He was +at one farm-house a tender-hearted, indulgent husband, whose delicate +invalid of a wife had expressed a wish for a set of old china and he was +willing to spend days of search in order to satisfy her whim. It is +needless to add that he was a bachelor. At another time his adopted +father was losing his mind and would eat off nothing but old-fashioned +china; hence he was hunting to find a set to carry dutifully home. Again +he was fitting out a missionary-box for the Western wilds, and wanted to +buy a little old-fashioned crockery to send out to the minister to +remind him of his New England home. At the next door he assumed an air +of solemnity and dignity and announced that he was founding a museum, +and was forming a collection of old New England house-furnishings as a +nucleus. At another place he swelled with paternal kindliness, and +wanted to get a few plates to give to his three little children to show +them the kind of crockery he used to eat from at his grandfather’s. Once +he boldly announced that he was a china-manufacturer and was +dissatisfied with the quality of his ware and wanted some old china to +grind up and thus learn the correct ingredients. Then he was collecting +china for the Columbian Exhibition. At another door his wife turned into +an accomplished china-painter who wanted these plates for patterns. He +curried warm favor and won much china at one house by stating that his +mother’s china set had been badly broken by her daughter-in-law and he +wished to replace the broken pieces. An aged couple who were living with +their son and his wife were easy victims to this specious invention. He +bargained for hay, for potatoes, for a whole farm; we seemed at one time +in imminent danger of being forced to buy a cow and to depart leading +her behind the wagon. Let me be just to this inventive soul; his +dishonesty lay in words only. He paid good prices for all the china he +bought, neither undervalued nor disparaged it; and showed a thoughtful +kindliness toward the dwellers in every house he visited. After a +prolonged stay within one shabby kitchen he appeared with two little +copper-lustre saucers which he rather shamefacedly acknowledged having +paid two dollars for. We extracted from him that he had found a +bed-ridden old woman alone, shivering, thirsty; that he had built a fire +for her, pumped water, and paid for her only pieces of old china double +their value because he pitied her so. + +We suggested at one house that he should say plainly that he was a +dealer and wanted to buy the china to sell. He scorned our dull, +commonplace suggestion, and said it wouldn’t be any fun, and that they +wouldn’t let him within their doors. “Half the places I go to anyway +they look out the window afore they answer me to see if I aint got a +sewing-machine in the wagon, and if they don’t see any, then they think +I must have a cyclopedy.” China hunting was to him the romance of his +life, his tournament, his battle-field. He told us of several narrow +escapes he had had from detection, and exposure of his fables. In +addition to vending old china, he sold old junk and farming tools; and +thrice farmers of whom he had bought china recognized him within his own +doors. But with the active imagination of a Dumas, he had an instant +explanation. He had either just gone into the business, or else they +were mistaken: he had a twin brother who had been adopted, etc. He +developed to us a plan of action which we were to pursue at the special +farm-house that contained the set of china. He would stop at the foot of +the hill and lurk out of sight while we climbed to the door. Then we +were to represent ourselves as relatives of the Republican candidate for +Governor, as it was within a week of election and the farmer was a +Republican. We were to tell little anecdotes of the candidate’s private +life, to hint that it was to please the Governor-elect that we wished +this china, and that it would be used in the gubernatorial mansion in +Boston. He told us exactly how we were to work up the conversation and +lead up to the purchase, what to pay and what to offer at first. All was +well and carefully arranged when a dire suspicion seized him that Farmer +Rice was a Democrat after all. This depressed him much, and he decided +to sound a neighbor on this important point ere we committed ourselves +within doors. His conversation with the guileless neighbor held us +spellbound, he represented himself as a political census taker and +hinted darkly that we were to be the candidates for high offices on the +Woman’s Rights ticket at the next election. He found that farmer Rice +was a bitter Democrat. This was a sharp blow, for neither he nor we knew +one thing about the private life of the Democratic candidate—not even +where he lived, nor indeed on our part one thing about politics anyway. +Nothing daunted, he searched a newspaper which he chanced to have, and +invented an imaginary home for the Democratic Governor, which would +doubtless have answered every purpose, with the strong points on Free +Trade and Protection which he drilled into us. We very prosaically, +however, preferred our old honest plan, and whether because of our +suspicious appearance on foot at such a great distance from any village, +or because we made an extremely inauspicious entrance, awakening a very +deaf old lady from a very sound nap, we could not buy the china either, +but we saw it, a whole chest full, and the sight was well worth the long +journey. + +Thus it maybe seen that china hunting, like many another hobby, is not a +wholly ennobling pursuit. Strange and petty meannesses develop in you, +envious longings, you have “an itching palm,” you learn to be secretive +and dissembling, “to smile and smile and be a villain.” You learn to +hide your trail, to refuse to give information to other sportsmen, to +conceal the location of your hunting-grounds, to employ any wile to gain +attention and entrance. Two worthy young men, without a fault, save an +overweening and idolatrous love for old china, can attribute their fall +from the paths of honesty and truthfulness to china hunting. Searching +one day in a country town, one of these china hunters descended from the +carriage and pounded the knocker of a fine but somewhat dilapidated +country mansion. A pompous and repelling old gentleman of extreme +deafness and reticence opened the door. What was the amazement and +mortification of the waiting friend in the carriage to hear the bold +intruder roar in his loudest and most persuasive voice, “I have come to +see whether you have any old china, or know of anyone who has old china +to sell,” and as the door was about to be slammed, he added, “My friend, +the late Judge V——, of Worcester, told me that if anyone in the country +knew of old china and relics it was you.” + +[Illustration: Millennium Plate.] + +The way that proud and shy old man rose to that transparent bait was +wonderful to behold. He ushered in the young deceiver, with +Chesterfieldian bows of welcome. The “late Judge V——” had been a man +well known and honored throughout the county, though he knew so little +and thought so little of china that he might have dined off pewter and +never known it—but he was dead, and could never be brought up as a +refuting witness, which was a great point. The lonely watcher in the +carriage sat shamefacedly waiting, cringing at the thought of his +companion’s wickedness. He listened to the loud roars into the deaf old +ears as the twain walked from room to room while “glozed the tempter,” +and the specious sounds were wafted out on the summer air; he thought of +possible treasures within, he listened and wondered and yielded—such is +the contamination of wicked example—walked into the house, and added to +the lie tenfold. As a result of their duplicity, and since the flattered +one was a widower with no woman to say nay, they captured and brought +away four Millennium plates, two Wedgwood pickle leaves, a silver-lustre +teapot, and a glorious great flip-mug. But “things ill-got had ever bad +success;” as they lifted the large and knobby newspaper parcel from the +carriage, it slipped from their contaminating grasp, and all the pieces +were broken save the flip-mug, which, being specially protected, +escaped. Though warned by this plain rebuke, they persevere; and so +hardened are they now become in their base habits of deception, that +they have worked that “late Judge V——” scheme, with some slight +variations, in a score of country homes. They always tell that +abominable falsehood whenever they have a man to deal with, not only +adding deception to deceit, but showing a most despicable lack of +originality—a “most damnable iteration.” + +They cringingly allege their intention to change the name of the +imaginary recommender as soon as any one of sufficient note and +widespread fame in the county dies, and thus through his death becomes +eligible to the position in the fable. I only wish the wraith of the +late Judge V——, a man of portentous ugliness in real life, such abnormal +ugliness that the thought of the sight of his dematerialized ghost is +really appalling—I only wish his indignant wraith would appear before +them at the lintel of the door, at the portal of some china-besieged +house, and demand, in the loud roars which characterized him in his +lifetime, the meaning of this unwarrantable and presumptuous use of his +name. + +In the meantime, unchecked and undiscovered, this simple and transparent +scheme invariably works to a charm—how proud the man always is to learn +that the late Judge V—— recommended him as a connoisseur of anything! he +hastens to sell his china, if his wife be willing and have any to sell, +and he manages to think of someone else who will probably sell, should +he chance to have none himself. The flip-mug has been filled many a time +to the old-time toast, “Success to Trade”—and yet the base china hunters +are really honest fellows enough in every-day life. Alas! that greed for +things so beautiful should so deform the soul! + +Such duplicity is, however, rare. I tell of it only to express my +abhorrence, my condemnation. Dissimulation is seldom necessary. You are +sometimes falsely accused of it when your motives are as open as the +light of day. After telling with exact truth precisely what I intended +to do with some pieces of china, I was answered, with an angry toss of +the head, “Why didn’t ye tell me first-off ye didn’t want me to know.” + +We are sometimes, in our china hunts, brought into close contact with +baser crimes than falsehood and duplicity. We have a number of +daintily-shaped pieces of sprigged china, with a graceful ribbon border, +which are known to us by the name of “Beach ware,” but which would be +generally and more correctly called “cottage china.” These six-legged +teapots and creamjugs of “Beach ware” received their descriptive and +pretty title from the simple folk of whom they were bought, not from the +name of their maker nor from their place of manufacture. “Beach ware” +was found in crates or boxes along the beach on the shores of Barnegat +Bay at the beginning of this century. It was part of the cargo of a +great English ship laden with china, which was lured to destruction and +robbed by a notorious family of Barnegat “wreckers,” one of whose +members died not many years ago at the age of ninety years, having +served in his youth a well-deserved term of twenty years’ imprisonment +in State Prison, the sentence received at his trial for cruel robbery +and murder through “wrecking.” + +[Illustration: “Beach Ware.”] + +At that time, though vessels and their cargoes were insured, the +underwriters frequently did not make their appearance down the coast at +the scene of the wreck for many days and even weeks after the ship broke +up or came ashore. And when the tardy officials did arrive, Barnegat +natives, even from far inland—honest men and knavish rogues alike—had +always managed to capture everything of value that came ashore or could +be taken from the vessel. In order to conceal their stolen salvage, +indestructible merchandise or articles that were not affected by the +action of the soil and water were frequently buried until after the +baffled insurance company and the ship’s owners had left the scene. The +arrest and sentence of the leader of this gang of wreckers caused much +apprehension and excitement in every Barnegat home, and much fine china +was pounded up or thrown into the water, as well as buried, lest its +presence seem proof of complicity in the convict’s guilt. Our pieces of +“Beach ware” remained under ground for years—it is said until the wicked +old convict served out his term in prison, since he alone could find the +spot where he had buried it. The green-ribboned and pink-sprigged +teapots and teacups look too innocent to have known aught of such +wickedness and violence, but bear no more guileless face than did the +patriarchal old wrecker in the peaceful prosperous days of his later +years when he unblushingly and unwincingly sold to us this “Beach ware,” +of which his gossiping neighbors had told to us the tale. + +Shall I have the dire name of “fence” applied to me when it is told that +I am the receiver of stolen goods? + +The best piece of Wedgwood jasper ware that I own was bought from an old +Englishman of mild appearance and junk proclivities. A second visit to +his den found it closed. A friendly plumber in the adjacent shop +explained with effusion that the junk-man was a wretched old thief, and +no one but thieves sold to him or bought of him (I winced at the +accusation); that “he broke into a museyum in England and stole a lot of +china and brought it over here to sell, and had kep’ stealin’ ever +sense,” and he (the plumber) was “glad the perlice had chased him out, +for he was a disgrace to the neighborhood.” Was not my pretty +Flaxman-designed piece of Wedgwood stolen from that English collection? + +[Illustration: Old Worcester in “Japan Taste.”] + +A beautiful cup and saucer of old Worcester in the “Japan taste,” rich +without and within in red and gold and blue, has long been regarded by +me with intense suspicion of my honest and legal right to its +possession. It was sold to me with the assurance that it had belonged to +Lucien Bonaparte; I did not doubt that part of the story, for I had seen +its sister in the possession of a family who I knew inherited it through +a gift of that Bonaparte. But how should my cup and saucer have been +offered for sale to anyone? By a curious chain of circumstances, too +tedious to repeat, I discovered that the pretty cup and saucer had been +stolen by a servant, and sold long ago to an old merchant in New York, +who should have and doubtless did know better, but who loved old china. +Shall I tell his name? Shall I hunt up the lawful heir and owner of my +Worcester teacup? + +Only one possibility mars the pleasure of a day’s china hunt—the +necessity of obtaining a midday meal “upon the road,” in any chance +farm-house you may be within at high noon. The old hunter fights shy of +such repasts by carrying her lunch with her, but when a drive of several +days is taken this course is not very attractive or possible. She must +then succumb to fate, accept the hospitality which is invariably and +cordially offered to her, and eat, or, at least, try to eat. I think +June is the most trying month for such ventures. Spring vegetables are +unknown in the land of their supposed birth. Fruits and berries are not +ripe. You are given a mysterious repast, flavored throughout with sour +milk and smelling of sour milk, which reaches its highest and sourest +point in the bread. I always plead dyspepsia and cling to a milk diet, +thus eliciting much sympathy, and hygienic and medical advice. Doubtless +in late fall or in winter, country fare might be more endurable, but, +with keen and most vivid fancy, I cannot imagine going china hunting in +the country in the winter time. Even glorious sleighing or the promise +of vast treasure trove could not englamour it with an enticing charm. +Think of shivering over snow-blocked roads under leaden skies, through +dreary, wind-wailing, naked woods, struggling up icy, snow-swept, and +blast-beaten hills to that lonely hill-top home, a New England +farm-house! Hope would perish on the road. Think of entering that drear +abode; of sitting, while you unfolded your wishes and went through the +stereotyped china questions with the stereotyped china smile, with +bursting veins and flushed face, in a stuffy, torrid, unaired room, in +front of a red-hot, air-tight stove, for there are no glorious open wood +fires nowadays in the great chimneys of country houses in New England. +Think of going from that super-heated, stifling atmosphere to a frigid +pantry or icy best room to look at china! How the congealed plates would +clatter in your trembling stiffened fingers; how you would hurry through +the repelling ordeal; never, as in summer, climbing upon chairs to peer +on upper shelves, never exploring in old window-seats, never lingering +to examine separately and lovingly each plate in a great pile. Above +all, think of ransacking a farm-house garret, “in cobwebbed corners, +dusty and dim,” with the thermometer below zero—it is beyond my power of +fancy to fathom such a scene. A fellow china hunter tells me a tale of a +lonely drive and Arctic exploration, and of riding gayly home therefrom +in the winter twilight, warming the cockles of her heart with four +Baltimore & Ohio plates pressed closely to her side, with two Lafayette +pepper-boxes and half a dozen Lowestoft custard-cups packed snugly in +her muff, and with a Pennsylvania Hospital platter in the fur robe at +her feet. I never believed her; it could not be true. China does not +grow in winter, ’tis a fair summer flower, and must be gathered under +summer suns. + +But to what out-of-the-way, simple, rustic scenes has our china hunting +led us through the long summer days, scenes to be painted by Miss +Wilkins or Mrs. Slosson. To country auctions—not the ill-ventilated, +Hebrew-jostled, bawling arenas of city life, but auctions in country +villages, on old farms, where the auctioneer, if the day be warm, stands +outside the house on a door taken from its hinges and laid across two +barrels on the green, or among the beds of flowering phlox and +marigolds; where the lots for sale, unnumbered, uncatalogued, and +unclassified are handed out, a heterogeneous company, to the presiding +seller through the open windows behind him; where every small parcel of +value is neatly tied up and labelled with the names of past owners—Aunt +Hepsy, Mrs. Catey Doten, Old Job Greening; where every queer-gowned and +queer-coated neighbor for miles around has driven over in every kind of +vehicle to look at, if not to buy, the scattering house treasures. At +these country auctions, china and ancient underclothes, or pewter +porringers with feather pillows, may form a single “lot,” and you must +buy all or none. If you purchase you pay your money at once to the +auctioneer, with much friendly change-making by hard-fisted old farmers +on either hand; the china is delivered to your eager hands, the +underclothes are thrown to you or at you by the auctioneer over the +heads of the audience; the hay-rakes, or churns, or quilting-frames, or +whatever addenda may have been tacked to your porcelain, are brought +around and piled in a little heap by the side of your chair, or if you +have “backed up” your country wagon, are placed therein. I once bought +six large bundles of neatly labelled pieces of woollen cloth, pieces of +all the old petticoats and breeches and greatcoats that had been worn in +that house for forty years, just to get one India china plate. A +rugmaking—or I should say, “mat-braiding”—dame at my left, seeing my +dismay at my unsought treasures and noting my love of china, offered to +give me a modern match-box for the tidy bundle of pieces, which kindly +exchange I gladly accepted as being less cumbersome, if not more +beautiful. + +Surely the summer sunlight never flickered down on a more typical New +England scene than a country auction. Sad are the faces around, quiet +reigns; no one smiles, no one jests as the hoarse-voiced auctioneer +holds up, explains, and extols some very mirth-provoking “lots.” This +breaking up and disbanding of a home has no droll side to country minds. +The last country auction I attended was at an old house in Rutland. At +it were sold the effects of an ancient lady of ninety years, who had +just died. Her nephew, a lively lad of eighty, carried away by the +excitement of the sale, or by the sight of so much ready money, +recklessly handed out to the auctioneer, as he stood under the dusty +lilac bushes, a large number of articles of furniture and table-ware +which had been temporarily stored in the house by the old lady’s +housekeeper, an equally ancient matron. The unconscious theft was +discovered late in the afternoon, just as we were about to drive off, +and the old man, overcome with horror at his unwitting crime, or dread +of the results of its discovery, tearfully forced us to disgorge half a +dozen McDonough’s Victory plates and several mugs and pitchers which we +had eagerly purchased and gleefully packed away. He “comforted us with +apples,” however, pressing upon us a peck of red-streaked, spicy Sapsons +to console us for our evident disappointment—and our sorrow that we had +not sensibly and cannily departed at an earlier hour. + +But do not fancy that every gathering of country wagons in country +door-yards, every row of patient horses hitched at barn doors and along +the fence, denotes an auction within the doors of the farm-house. Draw +no such rash conclusion, and make no hasty and unheralded entrance +within, else you may find yourself, with china smiles on your lips and +china inquiries on your tongue, an impetuous and mortified intruder at +the saddest of all sad scenes, a country funeral. I cannot resist +telling that, after one such impertinent intrusion on that solemn +function, we returned in a few hours, when on our way home, to apologize +and explain our infelicitous and uninvited entrance at so unfitting a +time. When we stated that we were hunting for old-fashioned china, a +gleam of comprehension entered the faces of the two elderly women who +sat rocking by the fireside in the lonely kitchen, and as a result a +china-closet was raided, and we bought a number of pieces of unusually +fine Canton and Lowestoft china. At the time of purchase, we innocently +fancied that we gained this treasure honestly from the new-made heirs, +but have since then had harassing suspicions that the china was sold to +us by temporary care-takers who remained to “redd the house,” while the +mourning relatives had driven to the country graveyard, and who thus +snatched from the jaws of death a most dishonest penny. + +Nor can you be over-confident that all auctions held in the country are +true country auctions. The ways of “antique men” are past finding out. A +sale of the household furnishings of an old farm-house in the heart of +the White Mountains, attracted a vast number of summer travellers, and +brought forth purchase sums that bewildered the farm residents for miles +around. Ere the sun went down on the day of the sale, a thrifty dealer +who happened to be present had had a conference with the farm-wife, and +as a result it was announced that she had a reserve stock of furniture +and china in her garret, which would be sold the following week. Back to +town sped the dealer, packed up a vast collection of unsalable débris +which he chanced to have on hand, and an “assorted lot” of modern +willow-pattern ware, freshly imported Canton china, new copper-lustre +and painted tea-sets, with a sparse sprinkling of old pieces. He sent +the entire lot by rail to the New Hampshire town; conveyed it by dead of +night to the farm-house; placed the crockery in the cupboards, the +brand-new brass candlesticks on the mantels, and the flimsy new andirons +in the old fireplaces, arranged all the furniture in judicious shadow, +and had a successful auction of “rare old colonial furniture and family +china.” + +A famous starting-point, or rather rallying-point, on a china hunt is +the district school. Driving along the quiet country road, you chance, +in some barren and unlovely spot, often at some lonely cross-roads, upon +a small unshaded, single-storied building, whose general ugliness and +the beaten earth of whose door-yard tell to you its purpose and +character without the proof of the high-pitched and precise chorus of +monotonous three-syllabled words that vibrates shrilly out through the +open window. Hitch your steed to a tree, a fence, by the roadside, and +enter one of the twin portals of the abode of learning, passing by the +low-hanging rows of ragged straw hats, gingham sun-bonnets, and chip +“Shakers,” over the “warping floor,” in front of the “battered seats, +with jack-knife’s carved initial.” “Teacher” is glad to see you, the +children are gladder still. She sends a grinning barefooted boy out to +draw a pail of fresh well-water. You are asked, as a distinguished +visitor, to address the scholars. If you are a man, and thus of course +an orator, you do so with fluent tongue. If you are a woman, and thus +tongue-tied in public, you can ask for “recess” to be given, and make +your address informally to each little freckled face. You are, of +course, anxious to refurnish a house like the one in which you lived +when you attended the village school in the days of your youth. Do the +children know of any old blue china plates with trees and houses on +them? Have their mothers or grandmothers any pitchers with pictures of +soldiers, or sailors, or ships? Of course the children know; they know +everything—far more than grown people. You soon have an exact ceramic +report from every house in town whose little sons and daughters are in +the school, and of the homes of all their neighbors too. You have +extracted an unbiassed account from a set of little ready-tongued and +keen-eyed spies, whose penetration is acute, and whose memory is active. +If you can draw you can quickly show the children with chalk and +blackboard the kind of china you wish, and can depart with a long list +of houses which will repay you to visit. + +But why do I longer tell the story of the chase, or vainly try to give +advice and rules for china-finding? I can only “pay you my penny of +observation,” knowing well that “Gutta fortunæ præ dolio sapientiæ.” Nor +can I fitly paint the pleasures, nor tell the pains of the search, more +than I could mould and shape the treasures it has brought to my home. +Nor can I hope to fire in other veins the fever that burns in mine; I +must be content to say with Olivia, “’Tis a most _extracting_ frenzy of +mine own.” + + + + + II. + TRENCHER TREEN AND PEWTER BRIGHT + + +The history of the use of china as table-ware in America would be +incomplete and ill-comprehended, without some reference to the preceding +forms of table furnishings used by the earliest colonists, the dishes of +wood and pewter, which so long influenced the form and even the +decoration of their china successors. As in the “Life of Josiah +Wedgwood” we are given an account of the pottery and porcelain of all +times, so in my story of china in America I tell of the humble +predecessors that graced the frugal boards of our ancestors. + +In a curious book, Newbery’s “Dives Pragmaticus,” written in 1563, a +catalogue of English cooking utensils and table-ware is thus given by a +chapman: + + “I have basins, ewers of tin, pewter, and glass, + Great vessels of copper, fine latten, and brass, + Both pots, pans, and kettles such as never was. + I have platters, dishes, saucers, and candlesticks, + Chafers, lavers, towels, and fine tricks; + Posnets, frying pans, and fine pudding pricks; + Fine pans for milk, trim tubs for souse.” + +These were practically the table and kitchen furnishings brought by the +Pilgrims to New England, and for similar furnishings they sent to old +England for many years. + +The time when America was settled was the era when pewter ware had begun +to take the place of wooden ware for table use, just as the time of the +Revolutionary War marked the victory of porcelain over pewter. Governor +Bradford found the Indians using “wooden bowls, trays, and dishes,” and +“hand baskets made of crab shells wrought together.” Both colonists and +Indians used clam-shells for plates, and smaller shells set in split +sticks as spoons and ladles. + +The Indians made in great quantities for their white neighbors, even in +the earliest days, bowls from the knots of maple-trees that went by the +name of “Indian bowls,” and were much sought after and used. One large +bowl taken from the wigwam of King Philip is now in the collection of +the Massachusetts Historical Society. The settlers also established +factories for dish-turning. One thrifty New England parson eked out his +scanty and ill-paid salary by making wooden bowls and plates for his +parishioners. Wooden “noggins,” low bowls with handles, are often +mentioned in early inventories, and Mary Ring, of Plymouth, thought in +1633 that a “wodden cupp” was quite valuable enough to leave “as a token +of friendship.” + +In Vermont bowls and plates of poplar wood were used until Revolutionary +times, and fair white dishes did that clean hard wood make. Sometimes +the wooden plates used by the poor planters were only square blocks +slightly hollowed out by hand—whittled, without doubt. Wooden trenchers, +also made by hand, were used on the table by the colonists for more than +a century. I find them advertised for sale with pewter and china in the +_Connecticut Courant_ of May, 1775. These trenchers were either square +or oblong. From an oblong trencher two persons, relatives or intimate +friends, sometimes ate in common, just as they had done in old England. +Two children frequently ate from the same trencher, thus economizing +table furnishings. In earlier times man and wife ate from a single +trencher or plate. Walpole relates that the aged Duke and Duchess of +Hamilton, in the middle of the last century, sat upon a dais together at +the head of their table and ate from the same plate—a tender tribute to +unreturnable youth, a clinging regard for past customs, and a token of +present affection and unity in old age. + +A story is told of a Connecticut planter, that having settled in a +quickly-growing town and having proved himself to be a pious God-fearing +man, his name was offered to his church for election or ordination as a +deacon. Objection was made to him, on the ground that he had shown undue +pride and luxury of living in allowing his children each to use and eat +from a single plate at the table, instead of doing as his neighbors +did—have two children eat from one trencher. He apologized for his +seemingly vain manner of living, and gave in excuse the fact that +previous to his settlement near New Haven he had been a dish-turner, so +it had not then been extravagant for the members of his family to have a +dish apiece; and having grown accustomed to that manner of “feeding,” he +found it more peaceable and comfortable; but he was willing to change +his ways if they considered it desirable and proper, as he did not wish +to put on more airs than his neighbors. + +But wooden trenchers, even in the first half of the first New England +century, gave place to pewter, and the great number of pieces of pewter +table-ware still found in New England country homes would alone prove to +how recent a date pewter utensils were universally used. The number +would doubtless be much larger if it were not deemed by metal-workers +that new pewter is of much better substance if the metals composing it +are combined with a certain amount of old pewter. Hence old pewter +always has commanded a good price, and many fine old specimens have been +melted up to mould over again for the more modern uses for which pewter +is employed by printers and lapidaries. + +The trade of pewterer was for two centuries a very respectable and +influential one. The Guild of Pewterers in London was a very large and +powerful body, and English pewterers, men of worth, came with other +tradesmen at once to the Colonies. Richard Graves was a pewterer of +Salem in 1639, and Henry Shrimpton, an influential merchant who died in +Boston in 1666, made large quantities of pewter ware for the +Massachusetts colonists. The pewterers rapidly increased in numbers in +America, until the War of Independence, when, of course, the increasing +importation of Oriental and English china and stone-ware, and the beauty +and interest of the new table-ware, destroyed forever the pewterer’s +trade. Advertisements of pewter table furnishings appear frequently, +however, in American newspapers until well into this century. + +Nor was it different in England at the same date. Englishmen and +Englishwomen clung long to pewter. In a poem written in 1828 by J. Ward, +of Stoke-upon-Trent, upon the Potter’s Art, he says: + + “The housewife, prim in days we know ourselves, + Display’d her polished pewter on her shelves; + Reserv’d to honour most the annual feast, + Where ev’ry kinsman proved a welcome guest. + No earthen plates or dishes then were known, + Save at the humble board as coarse as stone, + And there the trencher commonly was seen, + With its attendant ample platter treen.” (Wooden.) + +It is a curious fact that in the inventory of the household possessions +of Thomas Wedgwood, the potter, made at Burslem in 1775, we find that he +had forty-four pewter plates worth seven pence half penny each, and +twenty-four pewter dishes worth two shillings each, though the inventory +of the goods at his factory at that time included two hundred and +ninety-five dozen table plates of best white ware. + +At a very early date all well-to-do colonists had plenty of “latten +ware,” which was brass, as well as pewter. All kinds of household +utensils were made, however, of the latter metal; even “pewter bottles, +pints, and quarts,” were upon a list of goods to be sent from England to +the Massachusetts Colony in 1629. I have never seen an old pewter +bottle, even in a collection or museum, and they must soon have been +superseded by glass. + +In the Boston _Evening Post_ of July 26, 1756, appeared this +advertisement: “London pewter dishes, plates, basons, porringers, +breakfast bowls, table spoons, pint and quart pots, cans, tankards, +butter cups, newest fashion teapots, table salts, sucking bottles, +plates & dish covers, cullenders, soop kettles, new fashion roased +plates, communion beakers and flagons, & measures.” A vast number of +names of other articles might be added from other lists of sales of +pewter at that time—“quart & pint jacks,” “bottle crains,” “ink pots,” +“ink chests,” “ink horns,” “ink standishes,” and “ink jugs.” + +Pewter “cans for beer, cyder, and metheglin,” were in every household; +pewter mugs and pewter “dram-cups with funnels,” pewter “basons,” +cisterns, and ewers graced the “parlour,” which contained also the best +state bed, with its “harrateen” or “cheney” curtains. Pewter +candlesticks held the home-made, pale-green candles of tallow and spicy +bayberry wax. “Savealls,” too, were of pewter and iron. “Savealls” were +the little round frames with wire points which held up the last short +ends of dying candles for our frugal ancestors. + +Salt-cellars and spoons were of pewter, while extremely elegant people +had spoons of alchymy, or occonny, alcaney, alcamy, occomy, ackamy, and +accamy, as I have seen it spelt, a metal composed of pan brass and +arsenicum. Forks were almost unknown, and fingers played an important +part in serving and eating at the table. A lady traveller, in 1704, +spoke with much scorn of Connecticut people, because they allowed their +negro slaves to sit and eat at the same table with themselves, saying +that “into the great dish goes the black hoof as freely as the white +hand.” + +[Illustration: + + “The porringers that in a row + Hung high and made a glittering show.” +] + +Pewter porringers, or “pottingers,” of every size were much prized. One +family, in 1660, had seven porringers, while another housewife was proud +of owning nine, and one silver queen porringer. The smaller porringers +were called posnets, a word now obsolete. Posnet was derived from a +Welsh word, _posned_, a little round dish. In these posnets posset was +served, and they were also used as pap-bowls for infants. Posnets and +porringers, when not in use, were hung by their handles on the edge of +the dresser shelf. The porringers with flat pierced handles are of +English or American make, while the “fish-tail” handles are seldom found +in New England, being distinctly Dutch. + +Plates and platters were much valued. Governor Bradford, of +Massachusetts, left to his heirs fourteen pewter dishes and thirteen +platters, three large plates and three small ones, one pewter +candlestick and one pewter bottle—a most luxurious and elaborate +household outfit. Governor Benedict Arnold, of Jamestown, R. I., and Mr. +Pyncheon, of Springfield, Mass., bequeathed their pewter plates and +dishes in the same list, and with as much minuteness of description, as +the silver tankards and bowls, and the humble pewter was as elaborately +lettered and marked with armorial devices as was the silver. Miles +Standish left to his heirs sixteen pewter dishes and twelve wooden +trenchers. + +Pewter was not thought to be too base a metal to use for communion +services. In 1729, the First Church of Hanover, Mass., bought and used +for years a full communion service and christening basin of pewter; and +the bill of purchase and the old pieces are still preserved by the +church as relics. The pewter communion service of the Marblehead Church +is now in the rooms of the Essex Institute, and until this century +advertisements of “Pewter Communion Flagons” appeared in New England +newspapers. + +These pewter dishes and plates were a source of great pride to every +colonial housekeeper, and much time and labor was devoted to polishing +them with “horsetails” (_equisetum_), or “scouring rush,” till they +shone like fine silver; and dingy pewter was fairly counted a disgrace. +The most accomplished gentleman in Virginia, of his time, gave it as a +positive rule, in 1728, that “pewter bright” was the sign of a good +housewife. + +In some old country homes, either lack of money, the power of habit, or +the strong love of ancient articles and associations, caused the +preservation of the old pewter utensils, and they now form the cherished +ornaments of the kitchen and dining-room. In the lovely old town of +Shrewsbury, which stands so high on Massachusetts hills that the +railroad has never approached its lonely beauty, there stands on the +edge of the “Common” a house, in which everything that is good and old +has been preserved, and appears as when the house was built, in the year +1779. + +The old fireplaces have cranes and iron “dogs,” are festooned with ears +of yellow seed-corn, and are surmounted by the old fire-arms, while by +the chimney sides are hung old-fashioned brooms of peeled birch. These +brooms are made of birch splints, carefully split and peeled, and tied +in place with hempen twine on the strong handle; and many a farmer’s +boy, years ago, earned his first spending-money by making them, for six +cents apiece, for the country stores. Old settles, chairs, and tables +stand on the white-scoured floors; and in the “living-room” is a piece +of furniture seldom seen in New England, though common enough in +Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey in olden times—a “slaw bank.” The +word is a corruption of _sloap bancke_, or sleeping bench, and the slaw +bank was the great-grandfather of our modern cabinet folding-bed. At one +end of the room are doors apparently belonging to cupboards, which, upon +being swung wide open, disclose the oblong frame of a bed with a network +of ropes to serve as springs. This bed-frame is fastened at one end to +the wall with heavy hinges, and was hooked up against the wall in the +day-time, and at night was lowered to a horizontal position and +supported on heavy wooden turned legs, which fitted into sockets in the +frame; and it was thus ready for use. This bed is still kept made up as +of old, with hand-spun linen sheets, hand-woven “flannel sheets,” a +“rising-sun” patchwork quilt, and blue and white woollen bedspread. + +But in the dining-room and kitchen of this old Shrewsbury homestead are +the greatest treasures—corner cupboards and shallow dressers full of +pewter dishes, which greet their owner with “shining morning faces” at +breakfast, and reflect in a hundred silvery disks the goodly cheer on +his table at midday and night. Round plates and platters are there of +every size, up to the great round shield on which was placed of old the +enormous Thanksgiving turkey. All are round, for oval platters seem to +have been then unknown. + +The deep bowls, in which vegetables were served, stand there in “nests” +of various sizes. Teapots, too, and cream-pitchers and sugar-bowls, or +sugar-boxes, but no pewter teacups. I believe the little handleless +teacups were among the earliest pieces of porcelain imported from China, +and were often used when the rest of the “tea equipage” was of pewter. +Pewter salt-cellars, mustard-pots, flip-mugs, and syrup-cups are +interspersed among the larger pieces on the dresser. + +Some of these articles are marked with initials and dates, not engraved, +but stamped, as with a die, J. S. and B. K., 1769. Doubtless these were +wedding gifts, and I doubt not that a set of shining pewter plates and +platters was as graceful and welcome a gift to Betsey Sumner in 1769, as +is a set of Royal Worcester porcelain to her great-granddaughter Bessie, +in 1892. + +Some of the teapots are really beautiful in shape, and are decorated +with a quaint engraved design of leaves and round flowers. These were +undoubtedly of Dutch manufacture, and are identical in shape and +ornamentation with teapots authentically known to have been imported +from Holland. These teapots were probably used for company “tea +drinkings” and such state occasions, and thus the engraving on the soft +metal was not worn by daily use. + +Pewter spoons, too, are there in every size, though Betsey Sumner surely +had silver teaspoons, for were they not inherited from her by her son, +the old parson? As these pewter spoons were liable to be quickly bent, +worn, or broken, every thrifty household had its various sized spoon +moulds of heavy metal, into which the melted pewter was poured and came +out as good as new, or, according to the apparent law of pewter, better +than new. Button moulds, too, were common enough, containing deep holes +to form half a dozen buttons at once. And perhaps Betsey Sumner turned +her old spoons into buttons to adorn John’s coat, and polished them till +they shone like the silver and cut-steel buttons of the French Court. + +Many of the pewter articles in this homestead have had recently engraved +upon the underside various commemorative dates, and the names of past +owners, and the outlines of any eventful story connected with the dish, +if story there fortunately be remembered to tell. And every owner of +pewter plate or porringer, who knows by tradition the story of his old +relic, should have the statement engraved now upon the back of the +piece, for even in one generation these facts are forgotten, and the +article is rendered valueless as an historic record. + +In the kitchen of the great colonial house at Morristown, N. J., now +owned and occupied by the Washington Association of New Jersey, may be +seen a fine collection of old pewter table and cooking utensils; while +at Indian Hill, at Newburyport, still is shining in cupboard and dresser +the rare pewter collected by Ben Perley Poore. + +To a day well within the remembrance of many now living, round pewter +meat platters were used in farm-houses, long after the other pewter +dishes had vanished; for it does not dull a carving-knife to cut upon +pewter as it does upon porcelain or crockery, and old farmers cling +stubbornly to usages and articles that they are acquainted with; and no +“boiled dinner” ever could taste quite the same to them unless all +heaped together on a great shining pewter platter. + +Another pewter piece often found, and often still used, is the hot-water +jug with its wicker-covered handle. This was brought every night, in +colonial and Revolutionary times, well filled with boiling water, to the +master of the house, for him to mix the hot apple-toddy or sangaree for +the members of his household, who drank their share out of pewter cups +or heavy greenish glasses. I know of two of these pewter jugs which have +been in daily use for certainly forty years (though in the more +temperate vocation of hot-water jugs to carry shaving-water to the +bedrooms), and still retain, sound and firm, the old wicker coverings on +the handles, which may have been woven upon them a hundred years ago. +Truly, our grandfathers made things for use, not for sale. + +Strange hiding-places have these old forsaken and forgotten pewter +dishes. They lurk in tall and narrow cupboards by the side of old +chimneys, or in short and deep cupboards over the mantel. They lie in +disused fireplaces, hidden from view by gaudy modern fireboards. They +are at the bottom of deep boxes under wide window-seats, and are shoved +under the dusty eaves of dark attic-lofts. On the highest pantry +shelves, under cellar stairs, in old painted sea-chests, in the +woodhouse, are they found. From the floor of henhouses have they been +rescued, where they have been long ignominiously trodden under foot by +high-stepping and imperious fowl. + +Let us take them from these obscure corners, and preserve them with +care, for though they have no intrinsic value like silver, no brilliancy +like glass, no beauty of color or design like china, they are still +worth our interest and attention, for they were the first table-ware +used by our ancestors. We are a young nation of few years and few +relics, let us then reverently preserve the old pewter plates and +platters, remembering that these simple dishes of inexpensive metal +illustrate the frugal home-life of the men and women who were the +founders of the Republic. + + + + + III. + EARLY USE AND IMPORTATION OF CHINA IN AMERICA + + +The knowledge and use of porcelain in England did not long antedate the +departure of the Pilgrims for the New World. As early as 1506, one +exceptional importation of Chinese porcelain bowls is spoken of; but +even in 1567—half a century later—one of Queen Elizabeth’s valued gifts +was a “poringer of white porselyn and a cup of green porselyn,” and the +notice paid such intrinsically valueless and small articles by their +mention proves their rarity. Great ignorance of the processes of +porcelain manufacture existed; even that learned, that marvellously +well-informed man, Lord Bacon, wrote of “mines of porcelain,” and had +the queer idea that china was developed in the earth, out of the common +clay, by some strange and mysterious process of purification. Another +universal belief was, that porcelain was a sovereign detector of poison, +that it instantly showed the presence of poison in any draught that came +in contact with it. Shakespeare speaks once of china, in his “Measure +for Measure,” “a dish of some three-pence, your honors have seen such +dishes, they are not china dishes, but very good dishes.” Ben Jonson +refers more frequently to porcelain. + + “_Broker._ ’Tis but earth + Fit to make bricks and tiles of. + + _Shunfield._ ’Tis but for pots or pipkins at the best + If it would keep us in good tobacco pipes— + + _Titus._ Or in porc’lane dishes.” + +Again he says: + + “The earth of my bottles which I dig + Turn up and steep, and work, and neal, myself, + To a degree of porc’lane.” + +By the time of Pope and Dryden, china had become more widely known in +England, and these writers and their contemporaries frequently refer to +it. It is not probable that much china came to England until 1650, when +the English East India Trading Company was established, though the Dutch +had even then a large trade with China. Doubtless tea and china became +plentiful in Europe together. + +Addison wrote in 1713, “China vessels are playthings for women of all +ages.... I myself remember when there were few china vessels to be seen +that held more than a dish of tea; but their size is so greatly enlarged +that there are many capable of holding half a hogshead.” + +It is asserted that pieces of Delft ware were brought to America by the +first English and Dutch settlers. It had been manufactured since the +fifteenth century; but when our Pilgrim Fathers made their night-trip +through Delft, no plebeian persons had Delft ware on their tables; hence +the Pilgrims could have brought few pieces to New England on the +Mayflower. Nor is it probable that those frugal souls owned any India +china. The earliest Dutch settlers of New Netherlands were not likely +either to have brought to the new land any pieces of the aristocratic +Delft ware, though I have seen many Delft plates and teapots that bore +the reputation of such ownership. + +“Blew & white ware” is however not an infrequent item on early +inventories of the last half of the century. John Betts, of Cambridge, +Mass., had before his death, in 1662, “Som duth earthen platters & Som +other Earthen ware,” valued at 6s. 8d. A citizen of Salem had in 1664 +“17 pieces of blew & white earthen ware” worth 8s. 6d. John Cross, of +Ipswich, left behind him in 1650 his “Holland jugs.” All these were +doubtless Delft or the early imitations of Delft. + +The oldest and most authentic piece of stone-ware in the country is the +fine jug preserved in the collection of the American Antiquarian +Society, at Worcester. It was the property of Governor Winthrop, who +died in 1649, and was given to the Society by a descendant, Adam +Winthrop. It stands eight inches in height and is apparently of German +Gres-ware, and is richly mounted in silver. The lid is engraved with a +quaint design of Adam and Eve with the tempting serpent in the +apple-tree. Estienne Perlin, writing in Paris in 1558, says, “The +English drink beer not out of glass but from earthen pots, the cover and +handles being made of silver for the rich. The middle classes mount them +with tin.” Another writer, in 1579, spoke of the English custom of +drinking from “pots of earth of sundry colors and moulds, whereof many +are garnished with silver or at leastwise with pewter.” Such is this +“beer mug” or tankard of Governor Winthrop’s, which is certainly three +hundred years old. Other Massachusetts colonists had similar beer-mugs. +Jacob Leager, of Boston, left in 1662 a “stone judg tipt with silver;” +Henry Dunster had a “tipt jugg” in 1655; and Thomas Rix had in 1678 “3 +fflanders jugs.” + +[Illustration: Winthrop Jug.] + +Lisbon ware, which was earthen ware, was left by will in Massachusetts +in 1650; and Spanish platters and painted platters are mentioned in an +inventory in 1656. Peter Bulkeley, of Concord, Mass., had in 1659 “ten +paynted earthen dishes” valued at ten shillings. In the lists and +inventories of the town of Stamford, from 1650 to 1676, only two +shillings worth of earthen ware is entered, and Stamford planters were +far from poor. In the _Boston News Letter_ of February 9, 1712, six +hogsheads of earthen ware, including teapots, were advertised for sale. +These early teapots are said to have been of black earthen ware. + +One of the earliest mentions of china in America is in the inventory +made in 1641, of the property of Thomas Knocker, of Boston, “1 Chaynie +Dish.” In 1648, in the estate of President Davenport, of Harvard +College, was, “Cheyney, £4.” This was doubtless India china. Governor +Theophilus Eaton had a “cheny basen.” In the list made in 1647, of the +possessions of Martha Coteymore, a rich widow (who afterward married +Governor Winthrop), is seen this item, “One parcel cheyney plates and +saucers, £1.” Katherine Coteymore had “3 boxes East India dishes,” +valued at £3. As early as October, 1699, John Higginson wrote to his +brother with regard to importations from India, that “china and +lacker-ware will sell if in small quantity,” and without doubt some +small importations from India were made. + +After the first decade of the century many rich Bostonians, such as +Elizur Holyoke, had china. Isaac Caillowell’s estate in 1718 contained +“Five China Dishes, One Doz. China Plates, Two China Muggs, a China +Teapott, Two China Slopp Basons, Six China Saucers, Four China Cupps, +and One China Spoon Dish.” + +The earliest mention of the sale of china table-ware which I have seen +is not in 1732, as given by Mr. Felt in his “New England Customs.” There +are several notices of sales of china of earlier dates. In the _New +England Weekly Journal_ of April 15th of the year 1728, were advertised +for sale, at the Sun Tavern in Boston, “Chainey Bowles Dishes Cups +Saucers and Teapots;” and “china cups & saucers” on June 17th. This +“chainey” was probably all India china. In 1729, William Welsteed, a +Boston merchant, had a large number of plates and “pickle caucers” for +sale. In 1731, Andrew Faneuil announced that he had for sale at his +warehouse “All sorts of Dutch Stone and Delf ware just imported from +Holland.” In 1730 John Buining and Mrs. Hannah Wilson both advertised in +the _Boston News Letter_, that they had “several sorts of china for +sale;” and another Boston shopkeeper announced at the same time that he +was going to sell out everything he owned, including china ware, and +that his fellow-townsmen had better flock to his shop, for “buyers have +reason to Expect good Bargains for this will be the Packing Penny,” +which I suppose was the colonial slang expression for “bottom price.” At +a later date the “Packing Penny” became “to buy the pennyworth.” It was +not till 1737 that china ware was sold by “Publick Vandoo or Outcry,” or +by “Inch of Candle,” in Boston, thus showing that it was being imported +in larger quantities. In September of that year there was sold on +Scarlett’s Wharf, with spices and silks and negro slaves, + + “A Rich Sortment of China Ware. A Parcel of fine large Enamel’d + Dishes. Ditto of divers Sizes of Bowles burnt & Enamel’d. Ditto of all + Sorts of Plates. Sundry Complete Setts of Furniture for the Tea-Table. + Blue & White Bowles; Blue & White Cups & Sawcers. Several sorts of + small Baskets, &c.” + +By this time Boston milliners and mantua makers, and fan mounters, and +lace menders, had all begun to announce the sale of “chayney” in their +show-rooms and shops. Fair Boston dames picked their way along the +narrow streets, or were carried in stately sedan chairs, to “Mistress +Alise Quick’s, over against the Old Brick Meeting House on Cornhill, at +the sign of the Three Kings,” or to “Widow Mehetable Kneeland’s,” to see +her “London baby drest in the latest fashioned Hooped Coat and lac’d +Petty Coat with ppetuna hood;” or to “Mrs. Hannah Teatts, Mantua Maker, +at the head of Summer Street, Boston,” who charged five shillings for +showing her “Baby drest after the Newest Fashion of Mantues and Night +Gowns and everything belonging to a Dress, latilly brought over on +Captain White’s ship from London”—these bedizened doll-babies being the +quaint colonial substitutes for fashion plates. These modish New-English +dames first pulled over and tried on the “rayls and roquilos and +cardinals,” and admired the ivory and cocoa paddle stick-fans; and +peeped at their own patched faces and powdered hair in the lacquered +looking-glasses; and then, perhaps, selected some flower seeds for their +prim little gardens—their pleasaunces, “blew and yellow lewpin, double +larkin-spur, sweet feabus, Love lies bleeding, Queen Margrets, Brompton +flock, and sweet-scented pease;” and then they turned, unwearied and +unsated, to the “Choise Sortment of Delph, Stone, Glassware, and China, +viz., Bowles of Divers Sizes, Plates of all Sorts, and Dishes, Teapots, +Cups & Saucers, Strayners, Mugs of Divers Sorts and Colors, Creampots +pearl’d & plain, Bird Fountains, Tankards,” and they held up the tiny +china teacups to the light and examined the painting, and perhaps sipped +a little of the mantua maker’s Orange Pekoe or Bohea. And I doubt not +many a china teapot or teacup stood cheek by jowl with quoyfs and +ciffers on colonial milliners’ bills, and many a feathered “Kitty Fisher +Bonnet,” or silver shape, or peaked Ranelagh cap was sent home to the +daughters of the Puritans, packed with “catgut,” and “robins,” and +“none-so-prettys,” in an India china punch-bowl. + +Of the prices paid for these colonial ceramic luxuries we know but +little. The enterprising outcrier, who cried out and vandooed at the +“Blew Boar, at the South End of Boston,” announced in February, 1749, in +the _Boston Independent Advertiser_, that he had “Fine blue & white and +Quilted China Plates at Eleven Pounds the Dozen, or Six Pounds the Half +Dozen.” So the shades of our ancestors can hardly cry out to us for +extravagance. These quilted china plates were, I think, from subsequent +references to them, plates impressed in the paste with a basket design, +as we often see now on Chinese porcelain; or possibly with a larger, a +truly quilted design, such as I have seen on rare old Oriental +porcelain. In the inventory of the estate of John Jekyll, of Boston +(made in 1732), we learn that “2 Burnt China Bowls were worth £2, 6 +Chocolate Bowls £2, 1 Pr China Candlesticks Tipt with Silver £4, 12 +Coffe cups with handles £1 7s.” In many inventories such a number of +pieces are “crackt” or “mendid,” and so little hint of quality or +decoration is given, that it is impossible to compare justly the values +assigned with those of the present day. John Jekyll also had a “sett of +burnt china.” The first mentioned sale of a “set” of china is in the +_New England Weekly Journal_ of April 19, 1737—“A Fine Double Sett of +Burnt China for sale, Enquire of the Printer.” Until then the precious +porcelain had been sold only in single pieces, or in small numbers. The +wills and inventories of the times speak of no sets of china, though the +lists of the possessions of all persons of wealth, the advertisements of +sales of estates, contain many items of china ware. Governor Burnet, who +died in 1729, owned much china—three hundred pieces—as became a man who +had £1,100 spent on his funeral; and his friend and neighbor, Peter +Faneuil, had a bountiful supply of china and glass, as he had of other +luxuries. + +There are far more frequent mentions and advertisements of china in old +New England newspapers than in other American papers of the same years. +The southern publications of colonial times that I have seen contained +no announcements of the sale of china. None appeared bearing date until +after the Revolutionary War. And it is plain, from the evidence of +inventories, “enroulments,” wills, and newspapers of the eighteenth +century, that porcelain was far more plentiful in New England than +elsewhere in America at the same date. Mr. Prime says, “Few of the +people of Revolutionary times had seen porcelain;” but when it had been +advertised in every New England newspaper; had been sold in grocers’, +milliners’, chemists’, dry-goods, saddlers’, and hardware shops; had +been displayed at the printers’ and book-shops and writing-schools in +every town of any size throughout New England; and sold in considerable +quantities by all the little Boston shopkeepers—the Amorys, Waldos, +Brimmers, Adamses, Sheaffes, and Boylstons, I fancy all New England good +wives must have owned a few pretty pieces. + +Doubtless the wealthiest Virginians of colonial times also had some +china. It is not, however, named in Baltimore inventories until after +the year 1700. Nor was it plentiful in New York; one of the earliest +mentions of china in New York is in the list of the possessions of +wealthy Cornelius Stienwerck, “Ten pieces of china dishes or porcelain +£4.” In August, 1748, the _New York Weekly Journal_ contained its first +announcement of the sale of china—“A choice parcel of China Ware just +imported to be sold at Wholesale. Enquire of the Printer.” Now, the +“Printer” at that date was a woman, the Widow Zenger, wife of the former +owner of the newspaper, and with her assumption of the printing and +editing business came various feminine advertisements such as this of +china ware, others of mantuas and hair-powder, and of “bonnet-papers,” +which she cut and made and sold in large numbers; but this china sale +was certainly exceptional in New York at that date. + +China did not abound in New York, either in Dutch or English families, +until after the Revolutionary War. Nor did advertisements of it +frequently appear in ante-Revolutionary New York newspapers. In an +inventory made at that time of the contents of a house on the Neutral +Ground in Westchester County, there were such wealth-evincing items as +twenty-six horses, thirty-six table-cloths, rich and abundant furniture, +bed-linen, and clothing, large quantities of fine silver; and of pewter, +“1 Coffee Kettle, 1 Teapot, 27 Dishes, 12 Plates, 12 Soup-Plates, 6 +Butter Plates, 3 Mugs, 2 salons, 5 basons, 6 Spoons, 3 Measures;” and +not one piece of china. This list of household belongings is not +exceptional. China is seldom mentioned. But few pieces of porcelain or +pottery are named in the inventories of the possessions of the New +Jersey farmers whose houses were burned, and whose household goods were +either destroyed or stolen by the soldiers in the Revolutionary War, and +who expected to receive indemnity from the Government for their losses. +We discover therein that each family seldom owned more than three or +four china cups and saucers. These records are extremely valuable for +reference, as they are true and faithful lists of the entire household +belongings of well-to-do people at that time; they indicate that china +was far from plentiful in New Jersey at that date. Watson says in his +“Annals,” “When china was first introduced into America, it was in the +form of tea-sets; it was quite a business to take in broken china to +mend. It was done by cement in most cases, but generally large pieces, +like punch-bowls, were done with silver rivets or wire.” An +advertisement in the _Boston Evening Post_ in 1755 reads: “This is to +give Notice to all Them that have any Broken China, at the Lion and Bell +on Marlboro Street, Boston, they may have it mended by Riveting it +together with a Silver & Brass Rivets it is first put together with a +Cement that will stand boiling Water and then Riveted.” + +China appears to have been more plentiful in Philadelphia than in New +York. Benjamin Lay, the “Singular Pythagorean Cynical Christian +Philosopher,” to show his hatred of the use of tea, brought in 1742 all +his wife’s china into the market-place at Philadelphia, and began to +break it piece by piece with a hammer; “but the populace, unwilling to +lose what might profit them, overset him, scrambled for the china, and +bore it off whole.” As the “Singular Pythagorean Philosopher’s” wife was +dead, this wanton destruction of her dear china was not so cruel as at +first appears. An old lady wrote in 1830, about things as they were +before the War of Independence—“Pewter plates and dishes were in general +use. China on dinner tables was a great rarity. Glass tumblers were +scarcely seen. Punch, the most common beverage, was drunk from a silver +tankard. China teacups and saucers were half their present size, and +china teapots and coffee-pots with silver nozzles were a mark of +superior finery. Where we now use earthen ware they then used Delft ware +imported from England, and instead of queen’s ware (then unknown) pewter +platters and porringers made to shine along a dresser were universal. +Some, especially country people, ate their meals from wooden trenchers.” + +That frugal and plain-living man, Benjamin Franklin, though he +constantly impressed upon his wife, as well as upon the public, the +wisdom and necessity of great economy, and the propriety and good taste +of simplicity in all modes of living, still could find time and money to +pick out for her, when he was in England, and to send to her many a +piece of china for her beaufet in Philadelphia. He writes thus from +London, in February, 1758, to his Deborah: “I send you by Captain Budden +a large case and a small box containing some English china, viz: melons +and leaves for a dessert of fruit and cream or the like; a bowl +remarkable for the neatness of the figures, made at Bow, near this city; +some coffee-cups of the same; and a Worcester bowl, ordinary. To show +the difference of workmanship, there is something from all the china +workers in England; and one old true china basin mended; of an odd +color.... I also forgot among the china to mention a large, fine jug for +beer, to stand in the cooler. I fell in love with it at first sight, for +I thought it looked like a fat, jolly dame, clean and tidy, with a neat +blue and white gown on, good-natured and lovely, and put me in mind +of—somebody. Look at the figures on the china bowl and coffee-cups with +your spectacles on, they will bear examining.” This was certainly a very +tender attention on the part of Franklin, and one particularly grateful, +doubtless, to his good dame, if she loved china as do others of her sex. +In 1765 she wrote to her “dear child” (of over three score years) while +he was in France, and thus describes a room that she had been +furnishing: “The blue room has a set of tea china I bought since you +went from home, a very handsome mahogany stand for the teakettle to +stand on, and the ornamental china.” This latter clause refers doubtless +to the fine English pieces which he had sent her eight years previously. +In spite of all this fine array, Mrs. Bache wrote thus to her father, on +October 30, 1773: “We have no plates or dishes fit to set before your +friends, and the queen’s ware is thought very elegant here, particularly +the spriged. I just mention this, as it would be much cheaper for you to +bring them than to get them here.” Let us hope her father took this +broad hint and brought the “spriged” dishes to his daughter; and as +there still exist among her descendants, pieces of a set of china +bearing little sprigs, I choose to think that they are parts of this +very set. + +[Illustration: Province House Pitcher.] + +A very interesting pitcher of English ware of yellowish paste, with a +raised design of vine leaves in vari-colored lustres, is known to us by +the name of the Province House Pitcher, because it was found, with two +tall pewter drinking-cups, hidden behind a panel in the wainscoting of +the historic old Province House in Boston. I fear it is not old enough +to have been held by the fair hands of gentle Agnes Surriage, but I +doubt not some romance attended its imprisonment. + +By Revolutionary times a change appeared in the character and quality of +the china that was imported to America. In the _Connecticut Courant_ of +September, 1773, we read in the advertisement of the “Staffordshire and +Liverpool Warehouse,” on King Street, Boston, that they have “for little +more than sterling cost, a fine sortment of Crockery Ware, consisting of +almost every kind of China, Glass & Delph: Cream color, white, blue & +white, black, brown, agot, tortoise, melon, pineapple fruit pattern, +enaml’d, and many other kinds of Stoneware. A few complete table +services of very elegant printed and painted and guilt ware;” and at a +later date “Cream Color Pyramids, Candlesticks, Inkstands, & Chamber +Lamps.” The advertisements of this importing house are found in the +files of New England papers for many years. Every notice of “English +goods” arrived from England for Jolley Allen, for Hopestill Capen, for +Cotton Barrell, three thrifty Boston shopkeepers, contained items of +English and of India china. “Large & Neat Sortment of India China Dishes +of Various forms & sizes, viz: Pudding, Soup, Mackrel, round, oval, +Octagon, ribb’d, scallop’d. Also a variety of table & Butter Plates; +Patty Pans, Bowls & Sauceboats.” Even in war times there still was china +in many shops outside of poor besieged, war-swept Boston, though often +only “a few crates well Sortid considering the Scarsity.” By 1778 china +began to pour into other ports than Boston. In New Haven were sold in +August of that year (and strange to tell, were advertised to be sold at +the very highest price) “Oval Dishes of Several Different Sizes, small +Cream coloured Plates, Punchbowles, cream colour’d Teapots, Red ditto, +Blue ditto, Colliflower ditto, Cream colour’d coffee-cups & sausers, +Tortoise-shell bowles, enamel’d flat bottom cups.” The cream-colored +wares of Wedgwood and of Liverpool make, were evidently just beginning +to be fashionable, though the latter had been named in the _Boston +Gazette_ as early as 1749. In 1780 we first see the advertisement of +Queen’s ware in the _Providence Gazette_, the _Connecticut Courant_, the +Boston newspapers. In October, 1783, “An Assortment of Yellow ware such +as cups, saucers, mugs,” was advertised in the _Providence Gazette_, and +again “Yellow ware both flat and hollow,” meaning plates and pitchers. +Yellow ware was Liverpool ware, and is still so called by country people +on the sea-coast. In 1783 there came into Baltimore, on the ship +Brothers, from Liverpool, “Queen’s ware & Liverpool ware,” and on the +ship Yungfrau Magretha, from Copenhagen, more Queen’s ware; and on the +ship Pacifique, from France, “boxes and barrels of china ware;” and on +the ship Candidus, from Amsterdam, “Delph ware”—and these vessels with +their cargoes were all advertised at the same date, bewildering +Baltimore housewives with the array of “richness.” Then came +announcements of “burnt china”—as if it were not all burnt! In May, +1785, “Beautiful Pencil Chinney Tile,” and then frequent announcements +of “Pencil China,” “Pencil ware,” “Pensil’d Yellow ware,” all of which +were one and the same—Liverpool ware printed with engraved designs. +“Enameled ware” doubtless meant glazed ware, and was so called to +distinguish it from the unglazed wares of Wedgwood. The “Amiled Milk +Pots” in the _Boston Evening Post_ of 1749 were doubtless also +enamelled. In 1784 and 1785, in all American newspapers of note appeared +announcements of sales of Nottingham ware, a favorite importation before +the war. Soon, with the growth of ship-building and Oriental trade, came +the vast influx of Oriental porcelain direct from China, and +advertisements of Canton china crowded the columns of every American +newspaper. + +It is interesting to note the various shapes of china and the names of +the pieces that were imported in colonial and Revolutionary times, as +well as the variety of wares. In the _Boston News Letter_ of 1742 I find +“china boats for spoons.” In the _Boston Evening Post_ in 1749, “china +mugs, pitchers, and Turk caps,” which latter mysterious articles were, I +am sure, china also. What are “Mint Stands in delph,” or rather what +were they in 1751? In 1753 they had “custard-dishes” for sale; and did +they have “terines” or “terreens” before 1760? I do not find them named +at an earlier date. A year later came “sallade bowls” and the first +“china handle coffee-cups,” though John Jekyll had had handles on his +cups in 1732. Not until 1772 do I find “Enamel’d Tea cups & Saucers, +with handles to the cups.” In 1763 china patch-boxes and china sweetmeat +boxes came to New England. China stoves were advertised, but I think +they were rare. “China tumblers, with covers,” seem strange to us. What +were the “yellow klinckers and Red glaz’d pantils” advertised in the +_South Carolina State Gazette_ in 1787? China “sweetmeat and pickle +saucers” came in 1773, and “half pint blue & white enameled Basons with +Sawsers.” China milk-jugs, milk-pots, milk-cups, milk-ewers, and +creamers, all antedated the milk-pitcher. We had sugar-boxes, +sugar-basons, sugar-pots, and sugar-dishes before we had sugar-bowls. +“Twifflers” were of porcelain also—pudding-dishes we call them now. + +“China voiders” also are advertised for sale. These colonial ceramic +articles of nomenclature most unpleasing in sound to modern ears, were +really only an ancient type of what are known to dealers nowadays as +“crumb-trays.” Into a voider fragments of food remaining on the +table—bones and the like—were gathered after a meal by a voiding-knife. +Pewter voiders abounded, and “china baskets and voiders” appear in +newspaper lists in 1740. + +Doubtless many of these voiders and Turk caps, twifflers, and mint +stands have descended to us, but are known now by the uniform and +uninteresting name of dishes. + + + + + IV. + EARLY FICTILE ART IN AMERICA + + +In all our wanderings and searchings we have never found any specimens +of old American china, for one author says that, like the snakes in +Iceland, there are none. The history of the early manufacture of +porcelain in this country is so meagre that it is quickly written, and +records of early pottery works are not plentiful, and specimens are +comparatively unobtainable, and frequently far from beautiful or +instructive. Still I believe that America deserves a fuller ceramic +history, and has had a larger manufacture of pottery and porcelain than +is generally known. + +One class of pottery relics should not be neglected by collectors—those +of the North American Indians. When our Pilgrim Fathers landed on the +bleak shores of New England they found the red man using rough bowls and +pans of coarse earthen ware as cooking utensils. Gookin wrote of them +thus: “The pots they seethe their food in are made of clay and earth +almost in the form of an egg with the top broken off.” Bradford wrote +that the colonists also found great pottery vessels buried in the earth, +containing stores of maize. Perfect specimens of the work of New England +savages are rare, and are usually in a simple bowl shape. In the +fragments found in the Connecticut Valley mica is mingled with the clay, +as in the old Celtic wares of Ireland. Wherever the white man landed, to +whatever spot he penetrated, he found Indians, and he also found the +Indians using coarse pottery vessels, “akeeks,” of their own +manufacture. The early accounts of the country—Spanish, Portuguese, +French, and English—all tell of the use and manufacture of pottery among +the Indians. In the “Brevis Narratio” of Le Moyne de Morgues, written in +the sixteenth century, we are given illustrations purporting to be of +some forms of pottery used by the Florida Indians at that time. Father +Hennepin, writing about 1680, asserts that before the arrival of +Europeans in North America, “both the Northern and Southern Salvages +made use of, and do to this day use, Earthen Pots, especially such as +have no Commerce with the Europeans from whom they may procure Kettels +and other Moveables.” It is the fashion among antiquaries to place no +confidence in Father Hennepin, but I think we may believe this statement +of his, since we have so much additional evidence, both through past +writers and present discoveries. + +In Hariot’s “Virginia,” of the date 1590, we learn that the Virginian +Indians “cooked their meate in earthen pottes. Thier women know how to +make earthen vessels with special Cunninge, and that so large and fine +that our potters with thoye wheles can make no better; and they Remoue +them from place to place as easeleye as we can doe our brassen kettles.” + +The Cherokee Indians, having fine clays of various colors to work with, +made a good class of pottery, far better than any made by northern +Indians, some of the vessels being of large size. Lieutenant Timberlake, +who visited them in 1765, says he saw one at a “physic-dance” that would +hold twenty gallons. Adair, writing in 1775, says that they made +“earthen pots of very different sizes, so as to contain from two to ten +gallons, large pitchers to carry water, bowls, platters, dishes, basons, +and a prodigious number of other vessels of such antiquated forms as +would be tedious to describe and impossible to name. Their method of +glazing them is, they place them over a large pit of smoky pitch pine +which makes them smooth, black, and firm. Their lands abound with proper +clay and even with porcelain, as has been proved by experiment.” A +description of the vessels of “antiquated forms” would, of course, have +made his account of far more use and interest to us nowadays. William +Bartram, that intelligent observer, writing in 1773, confirms the +accounts of other travellers among the Indians in South Carolina and +Georgia, and tells of the discovery of a very interesting earthen pot +found in an Indian mound on Colonel’s Island, in Liberty County, Ga. He +says “it was wrought all over the outside representing basket-work, and +was undoubtedly esteemed a very ingenious performance by the people at +the age of its construction.” This burial urn (for such the pot proved +to be) was indeed a very good piece of work for an Indian potter, and is +still preserved. It is about fifteen inches in height and ten in its +greatest diameter, of graceful outline, and is covered with an impressed +design of fine basket-work. It was made with an admixture of gravel and +powdered shell, which rendered it strong enough to resist the +disintegrating influences of the soil by which it was surrounded. It was +enclosed in two outer vessels of ruder workmanship, which crumbled into +fragments upon exposure to the air. Within the inner vessel were the +bones of a young child. Too young to own any earthly possessions to be +buried with him, this little Indian baby was interred in the tumulus of +shell and clay, in his earthen coffin alone. + +In the burial mounds of grown persons vast amounts of broken vessels and +ashes of other burnt property are discovered. All peoples have at some +period of their history had the custom of burying articles of use or +value with their dead, or of burning these possessions at the time of +the burial of the dead owner. To this custom, which existed among the +North American Indians, we owe the preservation of nearly all the +specimens of their poorly baked, fragile cooking utensils and burial +urns that we now possess. Many filled with food and drink were whole +when placed in the mound, but were quickly destroyed and crushed by the +sinking earth, or disintegrated by the moisture. Many also remain, and +sherds of Indian pottery are constantly being brought to light by our +civilized ploughshares. It has been erroneously thought by some students +that Indian pottery was only sun-dried; had it been so, no specimens +would have withstood for so many years the action of the soil and +elements, but would have returned ere this to their old clayey +consistency. + +In examining this Indian pottery it is easy to see the natural way in +which the earliest forms were developed. The gourd, the shell, the +basket, the square box of bark—all these primitive shapes of vessels +were copied in the pottery. The ornamentation, too, was compassed in a +simple fashion; the vessel was sometimes modelled within a rush basket +or frame of reeds—thus the impressed design remained upon it. Rude dyes +were applied. One indented design is said to have been formed by the +finger-nail of the Indian potter; other designs have been impressed by +twisted thongs. All these methods and forms of ornamentation were also +used by the Celtic potters. Little pieces of mica or shell were inserted +in the wet clay pot, and were fired in as a further ornament. + +The earthen vessel was either baked in a rude kiln or inverted over +coals of burning wood. We have several very good descriptions of the +methods of manufacturing and firing of Indian potters at a later date. +Dumont writes in 1848, of the Louisiana Indians: “After having amassed +the proper kind of clay and carefully cleaned it, the Indian women take +shells which they pound and reduce to a fine powder; they mix this +powder with the clay, and having poured some water on the mass, they +knead it with their hands and feet and make it into a paste of which +they form rolls six or seven feet long, and of a thickness suitable to +their purpose. If they intend to fashion a plate or a vase, they take +hold of one of these rolls by the end, and fixing here with the thumb of +the left hand the centre of the vessel they are about to make, they turn +the roll with astonishing quickness around this centre, describing a +spiral line; now and then they dip their fingers into water and smooth +with the right hand the inner and outer surface of the vase they intend +to fashion, which would become ruffled or undulated without that +manipulation. In this manner they make all sorts of earthen vessels, +plates, dishes, bowls, pots, and jars, some of which hold from forty to +fifty pints.” + +This is a prettier and more domestic picture of the Indian wife than +many we have of the draggled, overworked squaw digging in the fields, or +carrying the tent-poles on her back like a pack-horse. The whirling coil +of clay, the growing earthen jar, the deftly-shaping hand, are certainly +picturesque and homely. The Indian women were potters in all the tribes, +it being deemed unmanly work for a lordly brave. + +The Indians of the Mohawk Valley, the Iroquois, made much and varied +pottery. In the fine collection of Indian relics owned by A. G. +Richmond, Esq., of Canajoharie, N. Y., are some very interesting pieces +of pottery which have been taken from Indian mounds—among them two jars +of so delicate and friable a character that one wonders how they have +ever escaped disintegration and destruction; also a rare fragment +wrought with a representation of the human figure. + +Another form of Indian pottery must not be forgotten, for the +significance of the pipe in the early history of our country cannot be +over-rated. The calumet was a moral, religious, and political influence; +on its manufacture and ornamentation the Indian expended all his skill +and his best labor; and to its suited and significant use he gave his +deepest thought. The use of the pipe was a devotional service—the Great +Spirit smoked His pipe, and his followers did likewise in His honor; it +was a political signal—no war was declared, no treaty of peace was +signed without the accompaniment and symbolical use of the pipe. +Lieutenant Timberlake says that the Cherokees made pipes “of the same +earth they made their pots with, but beautifully diversified,” and he +pathetically records that he was forced to smoke so many pipes of peace +with them that he was made very unpleasantly sick thereby. This special +tribe of Indians had such fine blue clay, and knew so well how to mix +and prepare it, that they made better pipes than their neighbors, and +thus pipes became a medium of exchange—Indian money. The strong clay +pipes of the English settlers were, as soon as imported, eagerly sought +for and quickly purchased by the Indians. + +Fine and varied specimens of the pottery vessels and pipes of the +various Indian nations may be found in the cabinets of the Smithsonian +Institution, in the rooms of the various State historical societies, in +the buildings of our colleges and natural history associations, and may +be studied to advantage by the student of ceramics. A full or worthy +history of the fictile art of the North American Indians has yet to be +written. + +I doubt if the colonists ever used the Indian pottery, for at an early +date they began to manufacture bricks and earthen ware, and having +wheels to help them in shaping their pots, could far outdo the Indians. +They made laws to protect such manufacture. The General Court of +Massachusetts ordered, as early as 1646, that “tyle earth to make sale +ware shall be digged before the first of 9 mo and turned over in the +last or first before it be wrought.” John Pride, of Salem, was +registered as a potter in 1641. He may have helped to establish a +pottery in Danvers, then a suburb of Salem, for the manufacture of +earthen ware in that town was coeval with the existence of the +settlement; and the Danvers pot-works were, I believe, the first to be +established in America by any of the colonies. Higginson, writing from +Salem in 1629, said, “It is thought here is good clay to make bricks & +tyles and earthen pot as may be. At this instant we are setting a bricke +kill to worke to make brickes and tyles for the building of our houses.” + +William Osborne was the first Danvers potter, and his descendants +carried on the business in that immediate vicinity for about two +centuries. Mr. Joseph Reed then took charge as the successor of the +house of Osborne. At the end of the eighteenth century the production of +“Danvers ware” was extensive. Morse’s _Gazetteer_ of 1797 says, “Large +quantities of brick and coarse earthen ware are manufactured here.” A +resident of the town wrote thus in 1848, “Table-ware of Danvers China +brought a high price during the late war.” To call the common red +pottery “china” is certainly flattering, but may be pardoned on account +of the local pride of the writer. + +At the “time of the late war”—the war of 1812—there were no less than +twenty-six of these pottery works where now there is only one. The +situation of the residence and pot-works of William Osborne is still +known, and the manufacture of earthen ware has gone on in the same place +without interruption ever since. Simple forms only have been made—often +lead-glazed—bean-pots, jugs, pitchers, milk-pans, jars, etc. We must +except, of course, the table-ware of war times. This Osborne kiln is +situated in what is called Peabody, but in the town of North Danvers +there was discovered a few years ago the foundation of an old forgotten +kiln, which had been owned by a potter named Porter. There is no finer +quality of clay than is still found in large quantities within a quarter +of a mile of this old Porter kiln. This clay is, however, carried to +Boston and elsewhere instead of being manufactured where it is dug. +Potters make good citizens. Staffordshire men say, “working in earth +makes men easy-minded,” and a community of potters is always orderly, +law-abiding, thrifty, and industrious. A larger and constantly +increasing manufacture of Danvers ware should have been encouraged. + +An enthusiastic local minstrel sings thus of Danvers pottery and +patriots: + + “Here plastic clay the potter turned + To pitcher, dish, jug, pot, or pan, + As in his kiln the ware was burned, + So burned the patriot in the man, + Into persistent shape, which no + Turning could change back to dough. + It might be broken, ground to dust, + But ne’er made ductile as at first.” + +The Quakers kept up with the Puritans in the attempt to establish home +manufactures and home industries. Father Pastorius wrote in 1684, “Of +brick kilns and tile ovens, we have the necessary number.” Gabriel +Thomas found in Pennsylvania, in 1696, both brick kilns and pot-works. +He writes thus to encourage emigration from England, and to show the +high wages in the new land. “Brick-makers have twenty shillings per +thousand for their bricks at the kilns, and potters have sixteenpence +for an earthenware pot that may be bought in England for fourpence.” + +In New Jersey, at Burlington, Governor Coxe, of “West Jersey,” +established in 1690 a pottery of considerable size and pretension. The +Virginians kept pace with the Quakers and Puritans. As early as 1649 +there were several pot-works in Virginia. + +Potteries were also established on Long Island in the eighteenth +century. On March 31, 1735, “The widow of Thomas Parmynter offers for +sale her farm at Whitestone, opposite Frogs Point. It has twenty acres +of clay ground fit for making tobacco pipes. For sale also two negroes, +with utensils and other conveniences for carrying on that business.” On +July 3, 1738, the same farm, with its “beds of pipe-making clay,” was +again sold. On May 13, 1751, this advertisement appeared: “Any persons +desirous may be supplied with vases, urns, flower-pots to adorn gardens +and tops of houses, or any other ornament made of clay, by Edward Annely +at Whitestone, he having set up the potter’s business by means of a +German family that he bought (?), who are supposed by their work to be +the most ingenious that arrived in America. He has clay capable of +making eight different kinds of ware.” This was evidently quite a +pretentious start in the pottery manufacture, and with the assistance of +the ingenious family of German potters, and the advantages of convenient +beds of clay, Edward Annely should have succeeded; but no record remains +to indicate either his success or failure. + +Upon the old farm of John Lefferts, in Flatbush, Long Island, there +exists a large pond called by the apparently incongruous name of +Steenbakkery. This pond was formed by the removal of clay for use in a +steenbakkery or pottery upon the place, and from the size of the +excavation vast numbers of bricks and coarse stone-ware must have been +made. The ruins of the racks for the bricks remained standing within the +memory of persons now living. This pond having, of course, no outlet +through its clay bottom, has in our present age of sanitary drainage +been ordered to be filled in. In New York City, near “Fresh Water Pond,” +back of the City Hall, a German potter named Remmey established works, +but his descendants were crowded out by the growing city, and removed to +South Amboy. + +In 1748 the State of Massachusetts offered bounties to encourage the +manufacture of earthen ware, and many new pot-works were established. +“Mangness” for the use of potters was offered for sale in the +newspapers, and the would-be purchaser was to inquire of the printer, +who in colonial days seemed literally to have a finger in every pie. One +of the oldest of these colonial potteries was started previous to the +year 1765, by a man whose descendants of the same name still conduct the +pottery works known as the factory of A. H. Hews & Co., in North +Cambridge, Mass. The record of this family firm is so remarkable for +America that it should be told at some length. Not only has the company +continued in the same business in an uninterrupted line of the same firm +name, but it possesses a record of a century and a third of unspotted +integrity in business dealings. It has passed through times of foreign +and civil wars, through business crises and depressions, in an even +career of honor and fair-dealing, and now has earned a deserved and +independent position, having the largest manufactory of flower-pots in +the world—making many millions yearly—as well as a large and varied line +of art pottery. When Abraham Hews was pottering around in his little +pottery in Weston, in 1765, making milk-pans and bean-pots, and jugs and +teapots, and exchanging them for general merchandise, in which New +England rum and molasses took no inferior part, he little foresaw the +vast business enterprise that would be carried out by his great-grandson +in 1891. The clay used by him in Weston was brought from Watertown, and +later from Cambridge, and the firm did not move their works to Cambridge +until 1870. Abraham Hews, second, lived to be eighty-eight years old +(being postmaster for fifty-one years), and his son lived to be +eighty-one years old, dying in 1891—the good old Puritan stock showing +in long life as well as in honest life. Thus does a chain of only three +lives reach to ante-Revolutionary times, and an ante-Revolutionary +pottery. + +In the _Norwich Gazette_ of September 15, 1796, we find this +advertisement of a pottery: “C. Potts & Son inform the Public that they +have lately established a Manufactory of Earthen ware at the shop +formerly improved by Mr. Charles Lathrop, where all kinds of said Ware +is made and sold either in large or small quantities, and warranted +good.” This pottery was on Bean Hill. It is referred to in Miss +Caulkin’s “History of Norwich,” Dr. Peters’s “History of Connecticut,” +and in Morse’s _Gazetteer_. + +At the commencement of the Revolutionary war a man named Upton came from +Nantucket to East Greenwich, R. I., and there manufactured earthen ware. +The pottery when made was baked in a kiln which stood at the corner of +King and Marlboro Streets. He made pans, bowls, plates, cups, and +saucers of common red clay, a little finer than that now used in the +manufacture of flower-pots. As little porcelain was imported from Europe +during the War, people used willingly, and even eagerly, the coarse +plates, and drank their “Liberty Tea” from the coarse cups and saucers. +The clay came from Goold’s Mount, now owned by Mr. Henry Waterman, of +Quidneset. After the war was ended Potter Upton went back to his +safety-assured home on Nantucket, and the Greenwich pottery was closed. + +In 1793 there was a flourishing pottery in Quasset, Windham County, +Conn., and the pottery carts of Thomas Bugbee, the proprietor, were well +known throughout the county. He made inkstands, bean-pots, jugs, jars, +and many other common shapes, and the demand for milk-pans alone always +kept his kiln running all summer. There was at this time another similar +pottery in Stonington, owned by Adam States, who made gray jugs and pots +and jars with salt-glaze. Another firm at Norwalk manufactured red ware +with a lead glaze. There is a specimen in the Trumbull-Prime collection. +Mr. Prime says they manufactured mugs, teapots, jars, and milk-pans at +this Norwalk pottery. In 1794 a Mr. Fenton, of New Haven, set up in Lynn +Street, Boston, a pottery where “all manner of stone vessels were made +after the manner of imported Liverpool ware and sold at a lower rate.” +The clay for this manufacture was brought from Perth Amboy, N. J. + +An article in the _American Museum_ in 1791, on the existing state of +American manufactures, said, “Coarse tiles and bricks of an excellent +quality, potters’ wares, all in quantities beyond the home consumption, +a few ordinary vessels of stone mixed with clay, some mustard and snuff +bottles, a few flasks or flagons, a small quantity of sheet glass, and +of vessels for family use, generally of inferior kinds, are now made.” +Dr. Dwight, in 1822, gave among his list of Connecticut factories and +manufactures, “potteries twelve,” “value of earthen and stone-ware +$30,940;” and for Massachusetts, “earthen ware, $18,700.” + +Though nothing but coarse earthen ware was made in America in these +colonial days, the new land played no unimportant part in the first +steps toward porcelain manufacture in England in the middle of the +eighteenth century. It was the custom, when English vessels had +discharged their freights in southern American ports, for them to take +samples of the alluvial deposits of North and South Carolina, of Georgia +and Florida, to carry back to England for English potters and chemists +to experiment upon. The Bow china-works began to manufacture porcelain +about the year 1744. In that year a sample of china-clay being brought +from America, a patent was taken out by Thomas Frye, of West Ham, Essex, +and Edward Heylyn, of Bow, for the production of porcelain, of which one +of the ingredients was “an earth, the product of the Cherokee nation in +America, called by the natives ‘_unaker_.’” When this patent was renewed +in 1794, no mention was made of “unaker.” + +In Plymouth a shrewd old Quaker, William Cookworthy, also had his eye +upon the American china-clay. He wrote to Mr. Hingston on May 30, 1745, +saying that kaolin and petuntse had been discovered in America, and that +he had seen specimens said to have been manufactured from the American +materials. One letter of his on the subject runs thus: “I had lately +with me the person who hath discovered the china-earth. He had with him +several samples of the china ware of their making which I think were +equal to the Asiatic. ’Twas found on the back of Virginia, where he was +in quest of mines, and having read Du Halde, he discovered both the +petuntse and the kaolin. ’Twas this latter earth which he says is +essential to the success of the manufacture. He is going for a cargo of +it, having bought from the Indians the whole country where it rises. +They can import it for £13 per ton, and by that means afford their china +as cheap as common stone-ware. The man is a Quaker by profession, but +seems to be as thorough a Deist as I ever met with.” In 1768 Cookworthy +established the Plymouth china-works, but no further mention is made of +the deistical Quaker and his promised cargo of china-earth. + +In 1655 a box of “porcelain-earth from the internal parts of the +Cherokee nation, four hundred miles from hence (Charleston) on mountains +scarcely accessible,” was consigned to another English potter, Richard +Champion, who founded the Bristol china-works. This box of clay was sent +by Champion’s brother-in-law, Mr. Caleb Lloyd, of Charleston, to be +forwarded to the Worcester china-works to be used there in experiments. +At the same time another box was sent to Champion for a relative of his, +the Earl of Hyndford, who desired Champion to open it and make +experiments with it, or to give it to Mr. Goldney, “who is a very +curious gentleman.” The curious Mr. Goldney declined using the clay, and +Champion experimented unsuccessfully “on the principle of Chinese +porcelain,” and then decided to use clay from Cornwall, which was “not +so fine as the Cherokee; however, there can be no chance of introducing +the latter as a manufacture when it can be so easily procured from +Cornwall.” + +In 1766 the English Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, +and Commerce gave a gold medal to Mr. Samuel Bowen, with the inscription +that it was given to him “for his useful observations in china and +industrious application of them in Georgia.” It was doubtless the +industrious Mr. Bowen’s china that was referred to in Felix Farley’s +_Bristol Journal_, in the issue of November 24, 1764. “This week some +pieces of porcelain manufactured in Georgia was imported; the materials +appear to be good, but the workmanship is far from being admired.” +Though this china venture was of enough importance to be-medal its +projector, all traces of its location, progress, and fate have been +lost. + +Other and more pretentious pot-works were brought into life by the +Massachusetts bounties. In the _Boston Evening Post_ of October 30, +1769, we read, “Wanted immediately at the new Factory in New Boston, +four Boys for Apprentices to learn the Art of making Tortoise-shell +Cream and Green Colour Plates, Dishes, Coffee and Tea Pots, Cups and +Saucers and other Articles in the Potter’s Business, equal to any +imported from England. Any Persons inclined to Bind out such Lads to the +aforesaid Business is desired to apply immediately at the said Factory +or at Leigh’s Intelligence Office.” + +It is very evident, from many advertisements at about this date, that a +strenuous and well-directed effort was made to establish and maintain +pot-works in Boston. Thus on May 12, 1769, there appeared in the _Boston +Evening Post_ this notice: “Wanted Samples of different clays and fine +White Sand. Any Person or Persons that will send about 5 lbs. of Clay +and a Pint of fine white Sand to Leigh’s Intelligence Office, in +Merchants’ Row, Boston, if it is the sort wanted the Proprietors will +have advantage of Proposals made to them to supply a quantity.” Good +wages, too, for the times, were offered to workmen, practised potters. +“Twenty Dollars per Month with Victuals Drink Washing and Lodging given +to any persons Skill’d in Making Glazing and Burning common Earthen ware +who can be well recommended. Enquire of the Printer.” + +All this applying and experimenting and establishing, and the fact that +a Quaker named Bartlam, an unsuccessful English master-potter, had +started a pottery in Camden, S. C., in the very heart of the clay +supply—all this seriously alarmed that far-seeing and shrewd business +man, Josiah Wedgwood. He had once before lost his foreman, Mr. Podmore, +who left him with the intention of establishing pot-works in America. +Mr. Chaffers, a Liverpool manufacturer, had caught the intending +emigrant during his pre-embarking stay in Liverpool, and finding that +Podmore showed so much intelligence and practical knowledge of the +business, had made him sufficiently liberal offers to induce him to +remain in England. English potters had also emigrated in large numbers. + +Wedgwood wrote thus at that time to his patron, Sir W. Meredith: “Permit +me, Sir, to mention a circumstance of a more public nature, which +greatly alarms us in this neighborhood. The bulk of our particular +manufactures are, you know, exported to foreign markets, for our home +consumption is very trifling in comparison to what is sent abroad; and +the principal of these markets are the Continent and Islands of North +America. To the continent we send an amazing quantity of white +stone-ware and some of the finer kinds, but for the islands we cannot +make anything too rich and costly. This trade to our colonies we are +apprehensive of losing in a few years, as they set on foot some +pot-works there already, and are at this time amongst us hiring a number +of our hands for establishing new pot-works in South Carolina, having +got one of our insolvent master-potters there to conduct them. They have +every material there, equal if not superior to our own, for carrying on +that manufacture; and as the necessaries of life and consequently the +prices of labour amongst us are daily advancing, it is highly probable +that more will follow them and join their brother artists and +manufacturers of all classes who are from all quarters taking a rapid +flight indeed the same way.” + +Wedgwood did not intend to be left out or left behind in the “flight” +into the benefits and resources of the New World; Pensacola clay was +brought to him in 1766; and in 1767, from Ayoree (or Hyoree as he spelt +it), other clays were fetched, and the canny potter at once attempted to +secure a patent right to the exclusive use of them. A man named +Griffiths, who had owned in South Carolina a one-third share in three +thousand acres of land, where he had “attempted the manufacture of +maple-sugar after the manner of the Indians,” now became Wedgwood’s +agent in America, under heavy bonds. Griffiths, the owner of the +ill-situated maple grove and sugar factory, went to the Cherokee country +and sent home clay to Wedgwood to experiment upon. The growing and free +use of the Cornish clays, however, rendered the importation of American +clays as superfluous as it was expensive and inconvenient; and the +interference of the Revolutionary war destroyed all fear of American +competition in the manufacture of pottery. The vicinity near Camden, S. +C. (where the Bartlam pottery had been established), was particularly +devastated, many fierce battles being fought around it. + +In 1784, Richard Champion, who was always an enthusiastic lover of +America, and who had unsuccessfully experimented in England with the +Cherokee clays, left Bristol and came to live on a plantation named +Rockybranch, near Camden. Wedgwood must have felt many apprehensions and +fears when Champion took this step, for he knew well the energy and +determination of the emigrant to America, who had in previous years +completely routed him in a long-contested and bitter lawsuit over the +use of certain English clays in the manufacture of china. Wedgwood knew, +too, Champion’s ability and capacity as a potter, and without doubt +dreaded lest the man who had done such good work at Bristol should do +more and better still when in the land of the Cherokee clay, at Camden. +His fears (if they existed) were destined never to be realized, for +Champion became a planter, filled several public offices in the State, +died in 1793, on the seventh anniversary of the day he left England, and +was buried near Camden. + +In the year 1770 china-works were in operation in Philadelphia. They +were established by Gousse Bonnin and George Anthony Morris. On December +20, 1769, an advertisement was printed in a Philadelphia newspaper, +which read thus: “New China Works. Notwithstanding the various +difficulties and disadvantages which usually attend the introduction of +any important manufacture into a new country, the proprietors of the +China Works now erecting in Southwark have the pleasure to acquaint the +public that they have proved to a certainty that the clays of America +are as productive of good Porcelain as any heretofore manufactured at +the famous factory in Bow, near London.” Later Messrs. Bonnin and Morris +advertised for “broken flint-glass and whole flint-stone,” and also for +“shank-bones” to be delivered at the china factory in Southwark. In +April, 1772, they advertised for “several apprentices to the painting +branch,” and encouragement was offered to “china painters either in blue +or enamel,” which latter notice shows that their china products were +decorated. They also offered a reward for the production of _zaffre_, a +compound of cobalt. + +This china venture failed, the real estate of the company was sold, and +the proprietors returned to England asking public attention and charity +for their poor workmen. Thus forlornly ended the first porcelain factory +in America; and thus tamely subsided the rivalry between English and +American china materials. When we consider the vast natural resources in +America for the china-maker to draw from—the inexhaustible supply of raw +materials—the unlimited beds of rich kaolin, the vast stores of pipe, +potter’s, ball, and fire clay—the endless mines of quartz and felspar, +the tinted earths of Alabama, the colored kaolin of Illinois, the mines +of lithomarge in Tennessee—to say nothing of the boundless wealth of +supplies in the far West—it seems to us that America was very +slow—indeed is still very slow in taking advantage of the hints given by +Cookworthy, by Champion, and by Wedgwood in the eighteenth century. + +This quickly-ended china factory of Bonnin and Morris is the one +referred to in the _Edinburgh Weekly Magazine_ of January, 1771, which +says: “By a letter from Philadelphia we are informed that a large china +manufactory is established there, and that better china cups and saucers +are made there than at Bow or Stratford.” Benjamin Franklin, writing to +his wife from London in January, 1772, after thanking her for the +cranberries and apples and various American home reminders that she had +sent to him, adds, “I thank you for the sauce-boats, and am pleased to +see so good a progress made in the china manufactory. I wish it success +most heartily.” But writing to an English potter in November, 1773, he +says, “I understand the china-works in Philadelphia is declined by the +first owners; whether any others will take it up and continue it, I know +not.” + +Mr. Prime, in his book, gives the information that there were “some +undoubted specimens of the work deposited in the Franklin Institute on +exhibition.” I do not know where those specimens now are. A pair of +vases at the H. L. D. Lewis sale in Philadelphia, in December, 1890, +were catalogued as having been made at this first porcelain manufactory. +There is no existing record of the fact that they were produced there, +and no stamp or mark to prove it, and I do not know why they were thus +assigned. They were purchased by the Mount Vernon Association for +eighteen dollars each, and can now be seen in Washington’s old home. +They stand ten inches in height, are flat in shape, about six inches in +diameter, have gilded griffin handles and polished gilt faces, and are +decorated with highly colored views of naval battles. They have an +interest to all collectors as being specimens of the first china factory +in America, as well as from the fact that they were early ornaments of +Mount Vernon. + +Philadelphia seems to have taken and kept the lead in the manufacture of +porcelain in America, or else we are more fortunate in having the +records of Philadelphia pot-works preserved for us. The Pennsylvania +Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures offered in 1787, a “plate +of gold to the value of twenty dollars,” as a prize for the “best +specimen of Pennsylvania-made earthen ware approaching the nearest in +quality to the delft white stone or queen’s ware,” and an equal prize +for the best salt-glazed ware; and in 1792 a prize of $50 for similar +ware. In 1808 Alexander Trotter exhibited at Peale’s Museum, in +Philadelphia, some of the articles manufactured at his Columbian +Pottery, which was situated on South Street, between Twelfth and +Thirteenth Streets, in that city, while the warehouse was at No. 66 +North Second Street. This business continued until 1813. The proprietor +advertised “tea and coffee-pots, pitchers, jugs, wine-coolers, basins, +ewers, and baking dishes;” and it was also stated that an “elegant jug +and goblets from the queen’s ware manufactory” were used at the +Republican dinner on July 4, 1808, at Philadelphia. This ware was +similar to the Staffordshire stone wares. In the same year a firm named +Binney & Ronaldson made in South Street, in Philadelphia, red and yellow +teapots, coffee-pots, and sugar-boxes. At the beginning of the century +D. Freytag advertised that, at 192 South 5th Street, Philadelphia, he +would decorate piece china with gold and silver; hence he must have had +a kiln for firing. In the year 1800 a pottery, called the “Washington +Pottery,” was established by John Mullawney on the north side of Market +Street, near Schuylkill South, in the same city. The productions were +called “Washington ware,” and consisted of pitchers, coffee-pots, +teapots, cream-pots, sugar-boxes, wash-basins, bowls, etc. It was +carried on by the same proprietor until 1816, and was in operation for +many years after. In 1813 the Northern Liberty Pottery was founded by +Thomas Haig on the corner of Front and Market Streets, and the +manufacture of earthen ware is still continued by one of his +descendants. David G. Seixas had a similar manufactory at about the same +time, from 1817 to 1822, at Market Street near Schuylkill 6th. In 1817 +George Bruorton announced through the Philadelphia press, that he would +enamel and gild arms, crests, ciphers, borders, or any device on china, +or queen’s ware as good as any imported. Also “china mended by burning +in and warranted as sound for use as ever.” In 1826 Joseph Keen also +decorated china in Market Street, near Eleventh Street. So we can +plainly see how much the question of china decoration and china-works +was thought of in that town. + +In the year 1828, William Ellis Tucker had a china store at 86 Arcade, +in Philadelphia. He thus advertised: “American china of a quality equal +in strength and beauty to any that can be imported, and upon the most +reasonable terms. Initials or fancy work to suit the taste of +individuals will be executed agreeably to order in the neatest style.” + +In the year 1868 Miss Peters presented to the Historical Society of +Pennsylvania a porcelain pitcher which had been made at the +establishment of Messrs. Tucker & Hemphill. At the request of the +Society, Mr. Thomas Tucker prepared the following paper on the +manufacture of porcelain in the United States. + + PHILADELPHIA, May 13, 1868. + + TO THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA: + + GENTLEMEN: Herewith please find a small account of the manufacture of + porcelain in the United States. + + William Ellis Tucker, my brother, was the first to make porcelain in + the United States. My father, Benjamin Tucker, had a china store in + Market Street, in the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1816. He built + a kiln for William in the back-yard of the store, where he painted in + the white china and burned it on in the kiln, which gave him a taste + for that kind of work. After that he commenced experimenting with the + different kinds of clays, to see if he could not make the ware. He + succeeded in making a very good kind of ware called queen’s ware. He + then commenced experimenting with felspar and kaolin to make + porcelain, and, after much labor he succeeded in making a few small + articles of very good porcelain. He then obtained the old water-works + at the northwest corner of Schuylkill, Front, and Chestnut, where he + erected a large glazing kiln, enamelling kiln, mills, etc. He burned + kiln after kiln with very poor success. The glazing would crack and + the body would blister; and, besides, we discovered that we had a man + who placed the ware in the kiln who was employed by some interested + parties in England to impede our success. + + Most of the handles were found in the seggars after the kiln was + burned. We could not account for it until a deaf and dumb man in our + employment detected him running his knife around each handle as he + placed them in the kiln. + + At another time every piece of china had to be broken before it could + be taken out of the seggar. We always washed the round Os, the article + in which the china was placed in the kiln, with silex; but this man + had washed them with felspar, which of course melted, and fastened + with every article to the bottom. But William discharged him, and we + soon got over that difficulty. + + In the year 1827 my brother received a silver medal from the Franklin + Institute of Pennsylvania, and in 1831 received one from the Institute + in New York. In 1828 I commenced to learn the different branches of + the business. On August 22, 1832, my brother William died. Some time + before he connected himself with the late Judge Hemphill. They + purchased the property at the southwest corner of Schuylkill, Sixth, + and Chestnut Streets, where they built a large store-house or factory, + which they filled with porcelain. After the death of my brother, Judge + Hemphill and myself continued the making of porcelain for some years, + until he sold out his interest to a company of Eastern gentlemen; but + being unfortunate in their other operations, they were not able to + give the porcelain attention. In the year 1837 I undertook to carry it + alone, and did so for about one year, making a large quantity of very + fine porcelain, many pieces of which I still have. The gilding and + painting is now as perfect as when first done. + + I herewith present you with a pitcher which I made thirty-one years + ago. You will notice the glazing and transparency of this specimen is + equal to the best imported china; but the gilding, having been in use + so many years, is somewhat injured. I would like to give you a larger + article, but I have but few pieces left. + + Very respectfully yours, etc., + THOMAS TUCKER. + +I cannot understand why Thomas Tucker should have fancied that his +brother was the first to make porcelain in the United States. Could he +not have known of the ante-Revolutionary china-works of Bonnin & Morris? + +There are in the Trumbull-Prime Collection several specimens of Tucker’s +“natural porcelain.” The paste and glaze are excellent, but the forms +are commonplace, and the decorations indicate want of experience and +taste, gold being profusely used. + +At an early date, certainly in the eighteenth century, pot-works were +established in Allentown, Pa., and in Pittsburg, where decorated pottery +was made which resembled German manufactures, and which was often +ornamented with mottoes and legends in slip decoration. + +From 1793 to 1800 John and William Norton made red ware in Bennington, +Vt.; since then stone-ware has been made in the same works. In 1847 +Messrs. Lyman & Fenton started a pottery in Bennington, in which they +made both pottery and soft-paste porcelain. These works continued for +about twelve years. Specimens of their tortoise-shell wares are in the +Trumbull-Prime Collection. One in the shape of a lion is here shown. +They also made figures of men and animals in Parian wares, the first, +doubtless, produced in America. The impressed circular mark on some of +the enamelled pottery was “Lyman Fenton & Co. Fenton’s Enamel, patented +1849, Bennington, Vt.” + +[Illustration: Bennington Ware.] + +In the year 1837 by far the most important enterprise in the manufacture +of pottery and porcelain that had ever been organized in America was +started under the supervision of Mr. James Clews, who had been a potter +in Cobridge, England, from the years 1819 to 1829, and who was the +largest manufacturer of dark blue Staffordshire wares at that date. An +account of many pieces of his production in his English pottery, and of +the stamps and marks used by him, is given in Chapter XVII. + +He emigrated to America, and went to what was then the Far West—to +Indiana; and with capitalists from Louisville, Ky.—Reuben Bates, Samuel +Cassiday, William Bell, James Anderson, Jr., Edward Bainbridge, Perly +Chamberlin, William Gerwin, John B. Bland, Willis Ranney, and James +Lewis—incorporated a company, under the name of The Indiana Pottery +Company, with a capital of $100,000 and power to increase to $200,000. A +special act of January 7, 1837 (see Indiana Local Laws, Twenty-first +Session, p. 7), states that these parties had “heretofore associated +themselves together for the purpose of manufacturing earthenware and +china in the State of Indiana, under the name and style of The Lewis +Pottery Company.” + +The Indiana Pottery Company built its works in Troy, Perry County, thus +having means of easy transportation by the Ohio River to New Orleans and +other important points. + +Mr. Clews had amassed much wealth in his Cobridge works, but he quickly +lost it in this new enterprise in the new land, which proved far from +successful. The chief difficulty lay in the hiring of proper workmen. +The English potters proved wholly unreliable in this country, and the +expense of importing fresh relays of workmen was too great to be +endured. Nearly three hundred potters were brought over from England. +The founders also found it impossible to make white ware with the clay +in the vicinity of Troy, and of the vast beds of fine kaolin which exist +in Indiana they were doubtless ignorant. The dark blue ware which they +manufactured proved far from satisfactory, and though so brilliantly +started by practical and wealthy men, this pottery was quickly closed, +after making a considerable quantity of yellow and Rockingham ware. In +1851 a firm named Sanders & Wilson leased the buildings, which were +burned in 1854, but were rebuilt. There are now two potteries in Troy. + +In the early part of this century, probably in 1827, a china factory was +established in Jersey City, N. J., which made hard-paste porcelain. +Specimens of pure white with gilded vines are in the Trumbull-Prime +Collection. In 1829 the works became known as the American Pottery +Company, and pieces of their manufacture at that date bear that mark. +This pottery is still in existence, though known by another name. They +made from the year 1830 the embossed brown pottery pitcher with “hound +handle,” which was also such a favorite with English potters from the +time it was manufactured at Fulham. The design for these American +hound-handled pitchers was made by Daniel Greatbach, a prominent English +modeller, who came to this country many years ago. A specimen which I +possess is of mottled tortoise-shell, green, brown, and yellow, and +bears the design of a hunt around the body and grape-leaves on the top, +but more frequently the pitchers are simply colored brown. Some have a +mask of Bacchus on and under the nose, and one I own has the nose formed +by an American “spread eagle.” They were a favorite hot-water jug in the +early years of their manufacture, their size, strength, and shape making +them particularly suitable for such a purpose. They were sometimes +fitted with metal covers fastened to holes drilled through the pottery. +I have seen them twenty inches in height, and at least three feet in +circumference. In some parts of the country they are known as “tavern +pitchers,” perhaps from power of association. Such is the one herewith +shown, now owned by Robert T. Van Deusen, esq., of Albany. Some were +doubtless from English potteries, but many are American. Glazed brown +“tobys” with the circular impressed mark “D. & J. Henderson, Jersey +City,” were also made, but the exact age of such pieces is unknown. + +[Illustration: Hound-handled Pitcher.] + +Of the later porcelain factories which have been established in America +I will not speak—the factories of Trenton, Baltimore, East Liverpool, +Long Island City—which now number over five hundred. Their story will +doubtless be written ere long by some historian of the ceramic art in +America, but hardly comes within the bounds of this work. Specimens of +their manufacture, especially of the truly artistic productions of the +Baltimore China Works, should, however, be secured by every china +collector, though they do not appeal so strongly to the china hunter, to +whom the pleasures of the chase often exceed the delight in the spoils, +and to whom old china, like old wine, is better than new. + + + + + V. + EARLIEST POTTERY WARES + + +The first rare pieces of porcelain owned by the American colonists were +India china; but Delft ware, salt-glazed ware, and the tortoise-shell or +“combed” wares were the earliest forms of pottery that were imported to +any great extent. + +Many pieces of heavy blue and white Delft have been found in New +England, some being Dutch, some English. The shapes, decorations, and +pastes are so similar that it is impossible for even the most careful +observer definitely to judge of the place of manufacture, and there are +seldom guiding and aiding marks. In Connecticut much Delft is found, +sometimes with Dutch words and inscriptions. Doubtless the Connecticut +planters bargained and traded with the New York Dutch, who perhaps took +onions and notions from the canny Connecticut men in exchange for Delft. +In New York, along the Hudson River to Albany, much fine Delft is still +preserved in old Dutch families, especially in the old Dutch farm-houses +and manor-houses. At the Albany Bi-centennial Loan Collection, in 1886, +a fine showing was made of old Delft by representatives of the families +of the old patroons—of the Ten Eycks, Ten Broecks, Bleeckers, and Van +Rensselaers. + +A few stray Delft wanderers may be found in Massachusetts and New +Hampshire—meat dishes and plates, pale and ugly, as if the journey +inland had faded them out. On Long Island, Delft is still kept and used +in Dutch families—it is not the oldest Delft, however, nor is it much +prized. The typical Delft vases, decorated in blue, yellow, and white, +once graced the high mantel or beaufet of many a low, comfortable Dutch +farm-house in Flatbush, New Utrecht, and Gravesend, and occasionally one +can still be found. A fine set is in the old “pirates’ house” at +Flatlands. The Dutch made many teapots, we are told, but I have never +found an old Delft one in America. I have seen a few dull blue and white +Delft flower-pots—possibly one hundred years old—clumsy, ugly things, +whether old or new. I wish I could drive through the old Dutch +settlements on Long Island—New Utrecht, and Flatlands, and New Lots, and +Gravesend—and ransack the great, spacious garret of every concave-roofed +story and a half farm-house I passed. I know I could bring many a piece +of Delft to light—forgotten and unheeded by its stolid owners. + +That Delft was not very highly prized by the Dutch settlers, nor by +their descendants, may be proved by many inventories and lists, such as +this, of the estate of John Lefferts, of Flatbush, made in 1792: + + £ s. + 25 Pewter plates (1s. each) 1 5 + 37 Earthen plates 10 + 9 Pewter dishes 1 15 + 8 Earthen dishes 1 + 6 Sets china cups and saucers 3 + 27 Delft plates 13 + +Pewter was plainly much more valued than Delft, and India china was +still more highly prized. + +[Illustration: Delft Tea-caddy.] + +Old Delft tea-caddies are both curious and pretty. Here is one shown, +marked with the names “Aalta Evert and Gerrit Egben” and the date, 1793. +It was doubtless a wedding or betrothal gift. In this piece the dark +blue decoration is under the glaze, and the red and black quaint +Dutch-dressed figures and the inscription are over the glaze, and were +doubtless painted to order and fired when the piece was purchased for a +gift or token. This labor-saving device was brought to perfection by a +Dutch potter named Zachary Dextra, though the cunning Chinese and +Japanese had employed it when they held supremacy over the Dutch market. +If a skilled painter painted under the glaze, an inferior workman could +easily do the finishing touches over the glaze. + +The Delft apothecary jars are the rarest and most curious pieces seen, +and form a charming posy-holder. They are eight or ten inches in height, +and are lettered with the abbreviated names of drugs. “Succ: E. Spin: +C.,” “U. Althae,” and “C: Rosar: E.” are on three of my jars. They +frequently have a spout on one side, and are then usually globose in +shape, with a spreading base. Some have handles. When the Dutch used +these jars, a century or more ago, they covered the open top with +tightly-tied oil-skin and poured the medicinal or chemical contents from +the spout, which, at other times, was kept carefully corked. These jars +are identical in shape with the old “sirroop-pots” of Dutch museums; for +instance, the one made by Haarles, the eminent _plateelbakker_, in 1795, +as a “proof of his skill,” and now preserved in the archives at Delft. + +The most familiar and universal decoration on Delft plates and meat +dishes is the conventionalized “peacock” design. It sometimes takes +rather a ludicrous appearance, often forming a comical caricature of a +ballet-dancer. A coarsely-drawn basket of flowers is also common. I have +also seen in America specimens of the “musical plates” of Delft. These +bear designs of musical instruments, scores of song or dance music, or +simply a staff with a few notes, a motif, accompanied usually by +inscriptions, mottoes, or couplets, sometimes in Dutch, sometimes in +French, the latter showing usually so decided a touch of extreme +opera-bouffe _équivoque_ that such “musical plates” would scarcely be in +demand for family use, and make us turn to the Dutch-lettered pieces as +being more desirable simply because the language of their decoration is +less widely known and comprehended. Even these cannot be positively +classed as Dutch, for the early English potters copied servilely the +Dutch designs. The vases often have figures of men and animals and Dutch +landscapes. A fine collection of Delft plates and placques and vases may +be seen in the Trumbull-Prime Collection. + +[Illustration: Delft Vase.] + +“Fine Holland Tile” was advertised in the _Boston News Letter_ of June +11, 1716—the first announcement of the sale of Delft in America, though +not in the form of table-ware—and in the same paper, under date of +August 10, 1719, we find a notice of “Dutch Tile for Chimney.” From that +date, all through the century, in the various newspapers, we find +constantly recurring advertisements of Delft chimney tiles on the +arrival of every foreign ship. They must have been imported in vast +numbers, and were not expensive; “9 dozen Dutch tiles, £1 10s., 10 dozen +Dutch tiles, £2 10s.,” were the values assigned. In spite of these facts +I have found them very rare in New England—they have wholly disappeared. +In historical rooms, in museums, they may be seen, but seldom in old +houses. The Robinson House in old Narraganset has a fine set; in a few +old houses in the Connecticut valley I have seen sets of the coarsely +painted “scripture tiles” so disparaged by Benjamin Franklin, but they +are rare. Even on Long Island and on the banks of the Hudson they are +now seldom found. Storytellers of New England life usually place blue +and white tiles around their Yankee fireplaces, but they are more +plentiful in the imagination of such narrators than in reality. With the +various changes in the manner of heating New England dwellings, the +chimney tiles have all vanished, even when the houses still stand, and +nearly all the old city houses have been entirely removed to make way +for more modern business structures. English potters made tiles in such +close imitation of the Dutch that it is impossible to distinguish +between them. Doubtless many of the “blue and white chimney tile” so +largely advertised were English manufactures imported under the name of +Dutch tiles, while still others were not chimney, but roof tiles. + +There have been found in New England, in numbers which seem rather +surprising when we consider their age, ale-jugs of gray and blue +stone-ware which are universally known as Fulham jugs. They resemble in +quality and coloring the German stone-ware or our common crocks, being +of the same gray ware with a lead glaze. They are decorated with rich +blue like the German wares, and have an incised design of leaves and +scrolls, circles or simple flowers. I have seen a number which bore in +the front an oval medallion with the incised initials G. R., sometimes +also a crown. These are said to refer to Georgius Rex, the first of the +English Georges. I know of one G. R. mug which has an additional +interest in the form of a bullet of the Revolution imbedded in its tough +and uncracked side. Some of these Fulham jugs have apparently had silver +or pewter lids attached to them. They are what are known as +bottle-shaped, round and protuberant, narrowing to a small neck and +base; others are more slender, almost cylindrical. There are no marks to +prove them to be Fulham jugs, but as such they are known. + +Other Fulham jugs are found of brownish mottled stone-ware with hound +handle and raised decoration in the body of figures of the chase, and +with mask of Bacchus forming the nose. These have been frequently +reproduced in American potteries and when unmarked, it is difficult to +determine which are English. + +[Illustration: Fulham G. R. Jug.] + +Pieces of salt-glazed ware have been found in country homes by many +china hunters, and are among the most pleasing articles to be obtained. +The date of their manufacture was from 1680 to 1780. An interesting +story is told of the discovery of the process of glazing this ware. A +servant maid having, in the year 1680, allowed a pot of brine to boil +over, the dull earthen pot containing the brine became red hot, and when +cold was covered with a bright glaze. A sharp potter perceiving it, at +once utilized the hint. The story is pretty, but it can scarcely be +true, for such a glaze could not be formed in an open place. But +salt-glaze there is, and in America too, of the very earliest +manufacture—Crouch-ware, or, as it is incorrectly and inappropriately +called, Elizabethan-ware. Crouch is the name neither of a person nor of +a place, but of the white Derbyshire clay. The paste made from this clay +is very dense, and is of a greenish tint. The Elers-ware of buff ground +with simple raised scrolls and rosettes of white are also of early date. + +Some of the salt-glazed pieces were shaped by pressing the moist paste +into metal moulds, other pieces were “cast” in moulds of plaster of +Paris, the slip or liquid paste being introduced to line the mould, and +allowed to set, and this operation being repeated until the piece was of +required thickness. As the taste for light delicate wares increased, +some were made as light and thin as paper. If the piece were “cast” the +handles, nose, and feet (if it possessed any) were moulded and placed on +separately. The moulds used were frequently the worn-out moulds that had +been used for casting silverware; hence pieces of salt-glazed ware +usually resemble in shape the pieces of silver of the same date. + +The characteristic feature of salt-glazed ware—the quality from which it +derives its name—is its glaze. This is easily recognized. It does not +run and spread like other glazes, but seems to form into minute +coagulated drops or granulations resembling somewhat the surface of +orange-peel. The glaze is often unequal, being higher on some portions +of the piece than others, the vapor of soda (through which the glaze was +made) not penetrating with equal power to every point. Thus one side of +a piece may be dull and the other highly glazed. + +The largest and finest example of salt-glazed ware which I have seen in +America is the exact duplicate of the best specimen in the Museum of +Practical Geology, in Jermyn Street, London, numbered G. 111. It is thus +described in the catalogue of that museum: “Large oval soup-tureen, +cover, and stand. Height, ten inches; greatest diameter, fourteen and +one-half inches. Body decorated with pressed ornaments, including +scroll-work and diaper and basket pattern; the tureen mounted on three +lion’s claws with masks.” This tureen is dated 1763. The beautiful and +delicate specimen found in America is absolutely perfect. It bore the +difficult process of making and firing (specially difficult in so large +a piece), crossed the water to the new land of Virginia, passed through +generations of use and the devastations of the Revolutionary and civil +wars, was gathered in by a travelling dealer, brought in safety by rail +to New York, and ignominiously sold for a dollar and a half to its +present proud possessor. It was doubtless cast in the same mould as the +one in the museum. Another similar piece is in the well-known English +collection of Lady Charlotte Schreiber. + +A large number of smaller pieces of salt-glazed ware have been found, +including salt-boxes, creamers, and one beautiful teapot which is so +graceful and unique in design that it has been honored by being borrowed +by a prominent china-manufacturer in England to reproduce in his modern +ware. Thus this frail waif from the middle of the last century has +thrice crossed the ocean in safety. + +[Illustration: Sportive Innocence Pitcher.] + +[Illustration: Farmer Pitcher.] + +The pitchers shown are of salt-glazed ware and may be Crouch-ware, +though they are apparently of rather later date. The first bears in a +heart-shaped medallion a design of high-colored children at awkward +play, and is labelled “Sportive Innocence.” Similar ones are frequently +found in America. I know of at least a dozen. Some bear on the reverse +side a different design with the same children entitled “Mischievous +Sport.” In this the boy is frightening the little girl with an ugly +mask. Other pitchers of precisely the same shape and borderdecorations +in orange, green, and blue have different designs in the medallion, a +peacock being frequently seen. The farmer’s pitcher has the motto +“Success to Trade,” and is surely older as well as gayer in color than +the “Sportive Innocence” pitcher. + +There were imported to America in great quantities, as is shown by many +eighteenth-century advertisements, “tortoise-shell” and “combed pattern” +wares, also the pretty cauliflower, melon, and pineapple wares that have +been reproduced in our own day. These were manufactured chiefly at +Little Fenton by Thomas Whieldon, a man who influenced much the potters’ +art in England from the year 1740 to 1780, during five of which years he +was a partner with Wedgwood. There are only two specimens of these wares +in the Museum of Practical Geology, and Mr. Jewitt wrote in 1873: “These +wares are now very scarce and are highly and deservedly prized by +collectors.” At the time he wrote he could have gathered in America +scores, even hundreds, of pieces of the Whieldon wares for English +collections. Dr. Irving Lyon, of Hartford, has a fine collection of them +which he picked up in the cottages of the Connecticut Valley—a +collection which any English china-lover would envy. + +Whieldon was a man of great energy, with a practical knowledge of his +art, and he spent much time in his works perfecting his patterns and +processes. He compounded the bright green glaze so admirable in his +ware, shown so beautifully in the cauliflower and melon patterns, +through the contrast with the cream color. He also was a modeller, and +from the imitation of leaves, and fruits, and vegetables derived his +best-known and most successful patterns, and the novelty and ingenuity +of many of them charm us even in the present day. The bird and animal +shapes being grotesque rather than useful, seldom came to America. I +have seen here, however, several tortoise-shell cows and one combed +bird. The tail of the cow forms the handle of the pitcher, the liquid +being poured from the nose. Reproductions of these are now made at +Jeffords Pottery in Philadelphia. Little cradles and posy-holders, too, +are found, sometimes with dates. Whieldon’s two-handled “parting-cups,” +ornamented with raised grapes, leaves, and tendrils and a head of +Bacchus, are much more scarce than the melon and cauliflower teapots, +mugs, and dishes; and his perforated ware I have never seen in America. +Some of the pieces of his manufacture are stamped and afterward shaped +somewhat by hand, others are cast, others pressed in moulds. The “cast” +pieces are considered to be of earlier date, and may be known by their +being thinner and more delicate than the moulded ones. The mottled +browns, greens, and yellows of the tortoise-shell and combed wares, like +all of Whieldon’s decorations, are under the glaze, and are very rich in +tone, forming a delightful bit of color in cupboard or cabinet. +Occasionally a purple mottle is seen. The colors were sponged, floured, +or blown on, painting and printing on pottery being then unknown. These +pieces of Whieldon’s are all unmarked, and doubtless many specimens in +America came from the Wedgwood factory, for similar wares were made +there. + +I hardly know how to account for the fact that I have found so few, +comparatively few, pieces of undoubted Wedgwood ware in old houses in +New England. That vast quantities came to America we cannot doubt. +Wedgwood says so himself in his letter quoted on page 88. In other +letters he refers again and again to consignments made to the American +market, “the green and white wares,” “the Queen’s wares,” “the cream +wares,” etc. That these consignments were sent largely to the various +points supplied from the Charleston and Philadelphia markets is known, +and in those regions the black basalts-ware, at least, is more plentiful +than in New England. Much Wedgwood ware must have come also to the ports +of Boston, Newport, and New Haven. These wares may have been plentiful +in the Connecticut Valley, but I have seen little in other parts of New +England. A good opportunity of studying the various productions of the +Wedgwood factory is given through the specimens in the Trumbull-Prime +Collection. There are at least one hundred “lots” of Wedgwood there +shown, and the cameos and intaglios, the jasper-wares, the basalts, the +queensware, the painted wares are all illustrated by choice and varied +pieces. + +The story of Wedgwood’s life I will not even give briefly, though the +beauty and lesson of it make one long to tell it till every American +china-manufacturer learns to read between the lines the story of +personal supervision, patient trial, unwearied labor, honest ambition, +and liberal broadness that made his life a success and his productions a +delight. Miss Meteyard and Mr. Jewitt have given it in careful detail, +and every word is of keenest interest and importance to the china +collector. From these books, and from the beautiful volumes of +engravings and photographs of Wedgwood ware preserved in English +collections, the American china hunter can learn, if not from the +specimens themselves. + +A few of the Wedgwood cameo medallions are found in America. Wedgwood +sent as a gift to Thomas Jefferson three exquisite medallions; two were +oval and one oblong in shape. They were in blue and white jasper, with +mythological designs. The largest was twelve inches long and six inches +wide, and bore the lovely design of Cupid and Psyche with troops of +attending loves. Jefferson had them set in the front of a mantel in a +room at Monticello, and one of them dropped out and was destroyed before +the family sold the house. The others were picked or cut out and stolen. +Mrs. Ellen Harrison, the oldest living descendant of Jefferson, tells me +that during a visit to Monticello, some years before the present owner +took possession, she found on the floor a tiny bit of blue jasper +showing the foot and leg of one of the loves. Thus did this English +cherub cast from his feet the dust of an inartistic and relic-hunting +nation of vandals. Oh, the pity that things so beautiful could be so +wantonly destroyed! Would that everything that Wedgwood made had been +endowed with qualities of immortality and indestructibility to live +forever as lessons and examples for future generations of potters. + +Occasionally a jasper medallion is found here with Wedgwood’s famous +anti-slavery design, a kneeling slave with fetters falling from his +hands, and the motto, “Am I not a Man and a Brother?” Dr. Darwin says +that “Wedgwood distributed many hundreds of these to excite the humane +to attend to and assist in the abolition of the detestable traffic in +human creatures.” + + “Whether, O friend of art, the gem you mould + Rich with new taste, with ancient virtue bold, + Or the poor tortur’d slave on bended knee, + From Britain’s sons imploring to be free.” + +Many found their way to America and a few are still preserved. + +Occasionally also a rich dessert-service of old Wedgwood ware is seen. +Two superb ones were brought across the water by a sea-captain at the +beginning of this century and landed at Hudson, N. Y. A fair young bride +saw and coveted one of these china treasures, but stern and frugal +parents were horrified at the thought of spending seventy dollars for +such an unnecessary luxury. The bridegroom, Silas E. Burraws, at a later +date the starter of the monument to the mother of Washington, more +extravagant and more indulgent, bought it as a wedding gift. It is +“queen’s ware” of the rich blue, red, and gold design which is known +among American dealers as “Queen Charlotte’s pattern.” The fruit dishes +and comports are of the unique and perfect shapes often found in +Wedgwood ware. I have seen a single plate of this pattern in a shop +labelled with the price “thirty dollars.” The price given for a similar +one in the South Kensington Museum was four pounds. I know also of one +or two dinner services of yellow Wedgwood ware, with the vine and grape +border in white, early works of Wedgwood, clear and firm in outline and +beautiful in quality. + +The frail fluted bowl, the graceful pitcher with twisted handle, and the +fragile creamer of queen’s ware shown on page 1 are all Wedgwood of +lovely shape and so thin and delicate a paste, that it is wonderful that +they have been safely preserved for a hundred years outside a +collector’s cabinet, and stranger still, have been used upon the +tea-table of a country home. + +[Illustration: Castleford Teapot.] + +A pottery was founded at Castleford in 1770, and black basalt ware, much +like Wedgwood’s, was made, and white stone-ware which must have been +imported to this country in vast quantity, for specimens are not rare. A +teapot commonly seen is here shown. It is found both in black basalt, a +curious brown ware, and salt-glazed cream ware. Special raised work +designs of the figure of Liberty and the American eagle were used, and +the sugar-bowls, creamers, and teapots bearing such designs were +doubtless made entirely for this market. The white surface of Castleford +ware was frequently divided into compartments by raised lines which were +colored blue or green. Teapots were made with lids hinged on metal pins, +or with sliding lids, and were exceedingly pretty and convenient. They +are often called Wedgwood, as are also pieces of Castleford black ware. + + + + + VI. + ENGLISH PORCELAINS IN AMERICA + + +As soon as porcelain was manufactured to any extent in England it was +exported to America. The _Boston Evening Post_ of November, 1754, +advertised “a variety of Bow China Cups and Saucers and Bowls,” and +other sales of Bow china were made, and special pieces also brought +across the ocean to wealthy Americans. Specimens of Plymouth and Bow +china may still be occasionally found in America, but any such that have +been preserved and gathered into private collections can be positively +identified only by comparison with authenticated and marked pieces in +public collections. It would be impossible to give any definite Bow +marks. The stamp or design of the anchor and dagger is popularly +considered proof that the piece thus marked is Bow. The triangle, +formerly regarded as a positive Bow mark, now appears to have a rather +shaky reputation, and is as frequently assigned to Chelsea. The +character and shape of the ware, and the style of the decoration are +better grounds to base identification upon than any marks. Excavations +made upon the site of the old Bow china-works revealed much débris of +broken pieces of china, and these specimens afford the most positive +means of identifying the paste and ornamentation. An account of these +discoveries was given in the _Art Journal_ of 1869. All the fragments +found were of porcelain, milky-white in color, and relatively heavy for +the thickness; some were ornamented in relief, with the May flower or +hawthorn; with a little sprig of two roses and a leaf on a stalk; with +the basket pattern; or with vertical bands overlaid with scrolls. Some +were painted in blue under the glaze with Chinese landscapes, flowers, +and figures. All were hand-painted, none were printed. These hints may +serve as guides in the detection and identification of Bow china. + +I have seen in America cups and saucers painted with the partridge +pattern, which I believe are Bow, though the same pattern is found on +Worcester and Plymouth china. The well-known and exceedingly valuable +goat milk-jugs that, after forming for years the immovable standard from +which streamed defiantly the flag of Bow, are now calmly turned over to +Chelsea. These creamjugs are ornamented with two white goats in relief +at the base, and a bee is modelled on the front under the nose. The +handle is rustic with raised flowers. These jugs often have the triangle +mark. Some are painted with flowers, others are plain white porcelain. +Mr. Jewitt says they were sometimes made without the raised bee, but I +have never seen such an one. Two of these Bow jugs were in the +Strawberry Hill collection. + +A very excitable young woman came rushing home one cold winter day, in +New York, with a demand for the “china books.” She had seen in an +antique shop, such a funny and pretty little pitcher, with a raised bee +on it, and she was sure that there was a picture of it somewhere in the +books—and she found it in Mr. Prime’s book on pottery and porcelain—a +Bow goat cream-jug. Well, it snowed, and was cold, and was late in the +afternoon, and the confident young collector deferred a purchasing visit +till the following morning. Alas! such a sickening disappointment—some +miserable despoiler had chanced to “drop in” on his way up-town and had +carried off the treasure. Worse still, the small boy who had sold it did +not know the purchaser’s name. + +[Illustration: Plymouth Salt-cellar. Bow “Goat Cream-Jug.”] + +Deeply did she mourn her ignorance, her indecision, her indolence, her +carelessness. The opportunity of a lifetime had thus been lost, to have +a goat cream-jug such as was sold at the Cother sale in London, in 1876, +for twenty-five pounds, to have such a jug offered for the paltry sum of +one dollar, and to refuse it—not to know enough to grasp such a +treasure. The bitterness of regret and of self-reproach nerved her to +action, and with the friendly and actively interested aid of the +antique-shop-boy, the jug-buyer was waylaid within a month’s time and +cajoled into reselling his purchase, which he did willingly enough. He +had bought it to keep his shaving brush in, because his father used to +keep his shaving brush in a similar one in England. With flecks of dried +shaving soap clinging to the goat’s horns, and mottling the bee’s wings, +she triumphantly brought her treasure home. It varies slightly in height +and by the turn of a leaf and twig from my Bow goat cream-jug, which +came from the Cavendish-Bentinck sale in London. The porcelain of the +New York captive of the chase is not so pure and clear and it may be of +Chelsea manufacture. + +Another dainty piece of Bow found by a friend is a creamer or sauce-boat +of the overlapping leaf pattern. The handle is formed by a leaf stem; +raised flowers are at the base of the handle, and on the leaves flowers +are delicately painted. This is like Number “H. 12” in the Museum of +Practical Geology. + +The beautiful tall coffee-pot here shown is Plymouth with embossed +surface and Chinese style of decoration in blue. Its cover was +destroyed, alas! by some careless Newburyport housewife. The salt-cellar +of pure unpainted porcelain on page 121 is undoubtedly Plymouth also, +being clearly marked. The design of vine leaves and grapes is very +delicate and perfect. The piece came from an old home in Baltimore. + +Though Bristol china was manufactured only from the year 1768 to 1781, +and though pieces are rare and high-priced in England, it is possible to +obtain specimens in America. Perhaps some invoices of the ware of the +short-lived factory were sent to the new land by Richard Champion, the +founder of the Bristol Works, for he was an enthusiastic lover and +admirer of America. In the Trumbull-Prime Collection are a large number +of pieces classed as Bristol because they have the Bristol cross, but +not assigned definitely to that factory. + +[Illustration: Plymouth Coffee-pot.] + +The few Bristol pieces I have seen in American homes are portions of +tea-services, teapots being more plentiful than other forms. Some have +an imperfect or blistered glaze, but occasionally fine specimens are +found. It is impossible to state the value of Bristol china. In the +Governor Lyon sale there were two lovely Bristol cups and saucers +decorated with a heavy gold rim and oriental landscape in dark blue, +that sold for four dollars each. A plate with the same decoration +brought only a dollar and a half. + +The most beautiful and interesting piece of Bristol porcelain in +existence is in America. It is owned by Mrs. James M. Davis, of Camden, +South Carolina. She is a great-granddaughter of Richard Champion and +inherited it from him. This lovely piece is a funerary design—a mourning +female figure leaning against a pedestal bearing a funeral urn. In one +hand she holds a wreath. The beauty of the figure, the grace of the +attitude, and the elegance of the drapery combine to make this statue +exceedingly exquisite. It was made by the English potter as a memorial +for his daughter, Eliza Champion, who died in early youth—a memorial +such as was tenderly though crudely suggested by the carefully made +burial urn of the Indian mother. The inscription is so simple and so +touching, and is couched in such quaint old-time diction that I copy it +in full. + + ELIZA CHAMPION + Ob. XIII Octob. MDCCLXIX + AEtat XIV + Nat. XXI Mart. MDCCLXVI + +On the cornice of the pedestal are the words: + + “OSTENDENT TERRIS HANC TANTVM FATA NEC VLTRA ESSE SINENT.” + +[Illustration: Bristol Memorial Figure.] + +On the dado this inscription: + +“We loved you, my dear Eliza, whilst you were with us. We lament you now +you are departed. The Almighty God is just and merciful, and we must +submit to His will with the Resignation and Reverence becoming human +frailty. He has removed you, Eliza, from the trouble which has been our +Lot, and does not suffer you to behold the Scenes of horror and distress +in which these devoted Kingdoms must be involved. It is difficult to +part with our beloved Child, though but for a season. Yet our Interest +shall not be put into competition with her felicity, and we will even +bear her Loss with Chearfulness. Happy in each other, we were happy in +you, Eliza, and will with contented minds cherish your memory till the +period arrives, when we shall all again meet and Pain and Sorrow shall +be thought of no more. R.C.—I.C.” + +On the plinth lines altered from Book I., Ode XXIV., of Horace are +printed thus: + + (QVIS DESIDERIO SIT PVDOR AVT MODVS + TAM CHARI CAPITIS?— + —CVI PVDOR, ET JVSTITIAE SOROR + INCORRVPTA FIDES, NVDAQVE VERITAS + QVANDO VLLAM INVENIENT PAREM? + DVRVM! SED LAEVIUS FIT PATIENTIA, + QVICQVID CORRIGERE EST NEFAS.) + +On the base: + +“THIS TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF AN AMIABLE GIRL WAS INSCRIBED ON HER +COFFIN THE 16TH OF OCTOBER, 1779, BY A FATHER WHO LOVED HER.” + +Who could read, even after a century’s time, this beautiful and tender +tribute to the gentle young girl, who died so many years ago, without +feeling deep sympathy with the bereaved father, “who loved her?” The +unsuccessful worker and the patriot speak plainly also in the lines: + +“He has removed you from the trouble which has been our Lot and does not +suffer you to behold the scenes of horror and distress in which these +devoted Kingdoms must be involved.” + +Mrs. Davis also possessed some of the beautiful Bristol figures of +Spring, Summer, and Winter, and she patriotically sent them for +exhibition at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876. Like +many another rare and beautiful article sent confidingly there at that +time, they were never returned to their owner. This loss must have been +hard to endure with patience, not only from the historical and +hereditary value and interest of the pieces, but also because the +previous year duplicate pieces of Bristol were sold in London for £54 +each. + +One of the most beautiful of Richard Champion’s productions in England +or America is the medallion plaque of Franklin, described in Chapter +XIV. + +Mr. Owen’s description of Bristol china is very clear and concise. “The +pieces are graceful in form and well moulded, the flowers brilliant in +colour and skilfully painted; and the gilding, bright though +unburnished, is of that particularly rich and solid character that +always distinguished the manufacture. Though it often bears Dresden +marks, and is moulded in Dresden shapes, the quality of the paste is so +different that it is easily distinguished from the Dresden. The glaze is +rich and creamy white, while the Dresden has a cold, glassy surface.” + +[Illustration: Crown Derby Covered Dish.] + +Crown Derby is seldom picked up by the china hunter—never I believe in +country homes in New England. Near New York a few rare pieces have been +found. Miss Henrietta D. Lyon, of Staten Island, has part of an +exceedingly rich and elegant Crown Derby dinner service painted in +delicate colors and gold, one covered dish of which is here shown. The +gilding and painting upon these pieces is in the highest style of +artistic beauty and dexterity. They bear the mark used at the Derby +factory from 1784 to 1796. + +The most common piece offered to the china hunter in New England is what +is known as the willow-pattern ware. It was made first by Thomas Turner, +at Caughley, in 1780. He manufactured both pottery and porcelain. I +often have wished that he had never invented that willow-pattern. I have +had it thrust in my face for purchase until I could scarcely bear to +look at it. I have had visions of dainty Bow, Bristol, and Plymouth +china brought before me through vivid but uncertain description, only to +come face to face with more printed willow-pattern. I should imagine +that a large proportion of all that ever was made was sent to America. +And it has been made in vast quantities, too, for it has been certainly +the most popular pattern ever printed anywhere on stone-ware or +porcelain. Mr. Jewitt says: “Early examples bearing the Caughley +mark—the cups without handles and ribbed and finished precisely like the +Oriental, are rare.” Of course they are, in England, but not in America; +as the prices prove at the Governor Lyon sale. Old willow-pattern plates +sold there for one dollar each. + +Pieces of willow-pattern ware are often of astounding age and fabulous +value. Forty dollars is the favorite price that knowing country owners +assert they can get in the city for their willow-pattern platters. I +have a favorite formula which I always use in answer to these aspiring +traders—my “willow-pattern answer.” I reply, gravely, “Yes, that pattern +is priceless.” It does not mean anything and it pleases them, and if you +told them that the platter was worth about two or three dollars they +would look upon you as a swindler. Modern willow-pattern ware is also +offered at fancy valuations. I have never been able to decide whether an +old farmer who brought two willow-ware plates about a year old to sell +to me, assuring me (though they bore the visible mark and stamp of +modern production) that “this old crockery had been in his fam’ly more’n +a hundred year”—I have never decided whether that ingenuous bucolic were +a deep-dyed swindler or the innocent tool of some crafty sharper. I +answered him soberly with my patent “willow-pattern answer”—“That +pattern is priceless,” and he went away hugging his antiques with +delight. I have seen within a year at a well-known dealer’s in New York, +a modern willow-pattern platter upon which was pasted this printed +inscription: “This platter belonged to Miles Standish, and was often +used by him, and is therefore very rare and of great historical value.” +This was an auction label cut from the catalogue of a sale, and the +dealer let it remain as a joke for the knowing ones, and possibly as a +bait for the unsophisticated. + +“The Broseley Blue Dragon” and the “Broseley Blue Canton” pieces and +their imitations are frequently found. These patterns were also made at +the Caughley or Salopian Works. The “cabbage leaf jugs” came from that +manufactory. + +I have never been able to understand why the willow-pattern should have +been so much more popular than the Blue Dragon. The latter is certainly +very handsome and consistent, or rather congruous throughout, while the +willow-pattern is neither “fish nor fowl nor good red herring”—it is not +English, and it is certainly not wholly Oriental. The color is good, as +was all blue at that time. + +At a later date than the reign of Lowestoft on “company” dinner tables +in New England, the fine “best tea china” of well-to-do people was +English porcelain of copper-lustre and pink and green decoration. Many +of these pretty lustre sets are still preserved and can be bought of +country owners. A terrible blow has been dealt, however, to the desire +to purchase such wares by the fact that modern reproductions showing +equal beauty of color and similar designs have appeared in large numbers +within the past two years. Pitchers of pottery, “prankt in faded antique +dress” of light brown or pinkish purple lustres are now manufactured. +They bear no marks and cannot be distinguished from the old ones—and are +just as good, perhaps, for every one but a china hunter. The solid +lustre teapots, sugar-boxes, and pitchers—copper-colored, brownish +lustre or silver on a pottery ground, have not, so far as I know, been +reproduced. On many pieces the lustre is diversified by a pretty design +in white, sometimes in relief or by painted flowers. The finest old +pitcher of this ware that I have ever seen bore a graceful embossed +design which was decorated upon the highest reliefs in pink, green, and +gold lustre. This was positively affirmed to be part of the Mayflower +cargo. Most of these lustre pieces are unmarked, hence it is impossible +to assign them to any factory. A few of them, the clearest and purest in +paste, and most delicate in decoration are New Hall, for I have plates +so marked. The stamp is a cursive New Hall not enclosed in a ring. This +stamp is not given in English books of stamps and marks. Mr. Jewitt says +such pieces are rare in England. They certainly have not been rare in +New England. Some of the lustre pieces may be assigned to Newcastle. The +Woods also manufactured them, while at Shelton were made pieces with +lustre borders and black printed designs signed “Bentley, Weare and +Bourne, Engravers and Printers, Shelton, Staffordshire.” + +I have never seen a dinner set of lustre ware—only tea-sets, comprising +usually a teapot, sugar-box, creamer, bowl, a dozen tea-plates (often of +different design and paste), two cake-plates, a dozen cups and saucers, +and sometimes a dozen little cup-plates. Salt-cellars, pepper-boxes, and +mustard-pots of similar lustre are seen, and sometimes wine-glasses, or +rather wine-cups—but never any of the pieces of dinner services. +Pitchers appear in various sizes. The china is usually clear and fine in +quality, but the design is often confused. A few punch-bowls of +copper-lustre on coarse pottery have also been found in New England, but +are curious rather than beautiful. + +I have never been able to add to my collection, through china hunting, +but one piece of Worcester porcelain, the one shown on page 29, nor have +I ever seen in a country home a piece of Chelsea, Coalport, Pinxton, or +Nantgawr porcelain, and but one set of Spode, which was seized from an +English vessel by a Yankee privateersman in the war of 1812, and brought +triumphantly into Salem Harbor. Nor, may I add, have I ever seen a piece +of pottery or porcelain of Continental manufacture, save Delft. For any +porcelain save that made in China and England, American collectors must +turn to china dealers. + + + + + VII. + LIVERPOOL AND OTHER PRINTED WARE + + +At the end of the past and beginning of the present century, great +numbers of cream-colored pottery pitchers and mugs were printed in +England with various designs and were sent to the United States for +sale. These pieces were advertised in early Federal days, and are known +as “yellow ware” and Liverpool ware, and are found in seaport towns on +the Atlantic coast, especially in New England. Many bore mottoes, +inscriptions, likenesses, and views relating to America and the +celebrated Americans of the time, and thus form interesting mementos of +the wars of the Revolution and of 1812. I have never seen a Liverpool +pitcher in an inland country home, nor have I ever had one offered to me +for sale in an inland town, either in a private home or an antique shop. +The reasons for this are very simple: many of them were brought to +America by Yankee sailors and sailing-masters who lived, as a rule, in +seaport towns, and importations of these pitchers were not transported +inland in ante-railroad days with the facility and safety that we find +possible nowadays; and, best reason of all, nine-tenths of them with +their ornamentation of ships and brigs and ropes and anchors were made +to tickle the fancy of a seafaring man, and did not appeal to the +sentiment of a land-lubber of a farmer. + +It is always a great delight to the inland-dwelling and novelty-seeking +china hunter when she enters a low, single-storied seaside home, and +spies on the mantelpiece a creamy Naval or Sailor pitcher flanked by a +carved Indian idol and an elaborate model of the “Nimble Nine-pence,” +the “Belisarius,” or the “Three Wives” (named by one stanch old widower +after he was married to wife number four). Her joy is, as a rule, +quickly turned to lamentation, for the housewife who values her +Liverpool pitcher enough to place it on her parlor mantel, will never be +“willing to part with it.” And here let me render my thanks to the +American merchant service. Blessings on those dead and gone old +seafaring Yankees who risked their lives on the stormy seas and brought +home “behind their wooden walls” the variety and wealth of china and +crockery that have descended to us, a pathetic reminder of the weary +watch on deck and the homesick hours in cabin or forecastle. + +A few Liverpool plates with Masonic designs are found, and some teapots, +but the majority of Liverpool ware that was imported to this country was +in the form of mugs and what are known as “watermelon” pitchers. I know +of one great yellow ware cheese-dish in Newport—a curious stand or frame +in which a whole cheese two feet in diameter could be placed upright on +its edge and thus served and cut on the table; but such pieces are +exceptional. + +I am impressed when looking over the lists of sales and the catalogues +of existing collections in England, that china collectors find in +America more, cheaper, and more varied specimens of Liverpool wares, +especially those bearing transfer prints, than can be found in England. +They abound in American antique shops. Even the rarest and most +interesting of all—prints on tiles, pitchers, and teapots bearing the +mark of Sadler—are often discovered here. A whole set of Sadler’s tiles +was taken from an old colonial house in Newport. + +Previous to the Revolutionary War no porcelain or pottery was made +specially for America, or, at any rate, none with special designs; but +after we became a separate nation the English potters made much china +and crockery for the American market, and made patterns for individual +purchasers as well. Washington and Franklin were the American names best +known in England previous to the year 1800; and I have never seen +Liverpool pieces that could be assigned to an earlier date of +manufacture than 1800 that bore the names even of any other +Revolutionary heroes or statesmen, except, possibly, two pitchers +decorated with battle-scenes, which are entitled respectively, “Death of +Warren” and “Death of Montgomery;” a pitcher with a portrait of Adams, +and one mug printed with the name and portrait of John Hancock. +Englishmen had vague ideas of the names of our States as well, for +Boston and “Tenasee” often appear on these wares in the list of the +thirteen States. + +The number of stars depicted upon the American flag or shield on these +and Staffordshire pieces is often held up as ample testimony to the date +of the piece. Such reasoning is, of course, absurd. English engravers +and potters were as ignorant about the number of States as they were +about the names of the States, and might easily have given fifteen stars +when there were only thirteen States, or clung to the number thirteen +long after we had twenty States. I have seen several designs with the +United States flag bearing twelve and even nine stars. + +Many of these pitchers are decorated with designs relating to the +character, life, and death of Washington, and such are known as +Washington pitchers. A list of the prints upon these pitchers is given +in Chapter XIII., devoted to the china commemorative of Washington. +These pitchers bear portraits and sentiments, verses or inscriptions +eulogizing the virtues and bravery of the “glorious American,” or +indicative of our national loss, and grief at his death. The lines, +“Deafness to the ear that will patiently hear, and dumbness to the +tongue that will utter a calumny against the immortal Washington,” were +much favored and printed by English potters, and were placed on pitchers +and mugs of many sizes and shapes. The legend fails to tell, however, +the awful fate which should fall on the hand which limned the senile, +feeble, forlorn caricatures of the face of Washington which usually +appear in company with the lines, and make us suspect intentional malice +in the British artist. These absurd likenesses vary as much as did the +canvas portraits of the Father of His Country at the recent Centennial +Loan Collection at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and in some +cases bear no resemblance whatever to the well-known benign countenance, +and are evidently a portrait of some English general falsely labelled +Washington. + +[Illustration: An English Notion of Washington.] + +There is a print found on cream-colored teapots and plates and jugs that +look like Liverpool ware, which is sometimes called “Washington and +Martha Drinking Tea,” by American dealers who assert that the two +figures in the out-of-doors tea-party are intended for the General and +his “lady,” as he called her. The man in this print certainly bears a +marked though somewhat mincing likeness to our first President, while +the fact that the servant who approaches with a teakettle is a negro, is +offered as conclusive proof that the scene is laid in America; and +indeed, I have seen one teapot upon which was pasted a paper label with +the words, “Scene at Mount Vernon, George and Martha Washington Drinking +Tea.” Of course every china student, and indeed every person of art +education, knows that the figures of negro servants appear in many +English tea-party prints of that date, in such, for instance, as the +watch-back of Battersea enamel engraved by Richard Hancock, of the +Worcester China Works, and in the transfer prints by the same artist, +shown on page 235, Vol. I., of Jewitt’s “Ceramic Art in Great Britain.” +The pieces bearing this “George Washington” print that I have seen, bore +no stamp to show the place of manufacture; but there is a tea-canister +numbered G 252 in the Museum of Practical Geology, printed with this +scene, which has the impressed mark “Wedgwood.” It also has on the other +side of the canister the same group of shepherds and sheep that I have +seen on many pieces in America. I am afraid we cannot claim this as a +Washington print. It was engraved when Washington was a struggling +surveyor, when no Englishmen, and few Americans, even knew his name. +Miss Meteyard says that this group is from one of Jenssen’s printed +enamels, and she gives an illustration of it on page 64, Vol. II., of +her “Life of Wedgwood.” I only mention this among the Liverpool prints, +and as possibly eligible to the Washington list, in order to prove (to +make an Irish bull) that it is certainly not the one and probably not +the other. It is quite as interesting, however, to the china collector +(if not to the historical student or the relic hunter) as an example of +Hancock’s designs for transfer-printing; and when one of these teapots +is offered for $1.50 (as I have had one in a New York shop within a +year), it is well for any collector to buy it. + +I will say here that these cream-ware pitchers are not from Liverpool +factories alone, they are from various Staffordshire potteries, but all +cream-colored printed pitchers are generally known in America by the +name of Liverpool ware. Some, of course, are unmistakably so, for they +bear the various marks of the Herculaneum Pottery, or the figure of the +bird which was the crest of the arms of Liverpool—the liver or lever. A +special design or mark of the American eagle with the words “Herculaneum +Pottery, Liverpool,” seems to have been made for pieces intended for the +American market, and often appears upon them. + +The heroes and victories of the American navy form frequent decorations +of the specimens of this printed pottery that are found in America. The +first Naval pitchers bore the design of a ship or a frigate under full +sail, with the American flag and the words, “Success to the Infant Navy +of America.” These were printed to commemorate Truxton’s capture of the +French frigates Insurgente and La Vengeance while he was commander of +the Constellation during our little marine war with France in 1799. This +capture was honored in a popular song called “Truxton’s Victory,” and +was as great a source of delight to Englishmen as to Americans. Truxton +received from England many tokens of esteem, including a service of +silver plate worth over $3,000. Long and bitterly during the constant +naval defeats of the English in the War of 1812 must those British +merchants have regretted that silver token of encouragement to the +American Navy. A gold medal was ordered by Congress to be struck in +honor of this victory, as was also done in honor of each of the naval +heroes of the war of 1812. And many pitchers and mugs were decorated +with their portraits and names in order to commemorate their victories. + +It seems odd that English potters should have made so many pitchers +bearing testimony to the victories of their late enemies, unless they +were ordered by American dealers specially for the American market; but +I have never seen anything to prove that such orders were given. + +Many pieces bear the portrait of Perry and the words of his famous +dispatch, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” I never look at a +Perry pitcher without thinking with interest and pleasure of this brave +young captain, who was only twenty-seven years old when he achieved his +famous victory. He fought the fierce naval battle clad in his sailor’s +suit, but changed at the last to his full-dress uniform in order to +receive the surrendering English officer with full dignity. Nor do I +ever see the jolly round face of Hull on pitcher or mug without thinking +of his comical appearance during the naval battle between the +Constitution and the Guerrière, in which he won such deserved honors. +Hull was very fat, and being somewhat dandified wore very tight +breeches. When, in that fierce contest, he gave his first roar of +command to the gunners, “Now, boys, pour into them—Free Trade and +Seamen’s Rights!” he bent over twice in his intense excitement and split +his tight breeches from waistband to knee. He was more of a soldier than +a dandy, however, for he finished the battle and captured the English +ship in that “undress uniform.” + +Of course the pitchers decorated with American subjects are most +interesting to Americans, but there are many other Liverpool pitchers +found in New England, which bear, instead of American heroes and +battles, such lines as these: + + “Dear Tom this brown jug + Which now foams with new ale, + Out of which I will drink + To sweet Nan of the Vale.” + +Another has the jovial inscription, “One Pot more—and then—why +then—Another Pot of course.” + +And this sharp warning is given to those who would wish to drink and not +to pay: + + “Customers came and I did trust ’em, + So I lost my money and my custom, + And to lose both it grieves me sore, + So I am resolved to trust no more.” + +A few pieces bear less decorous and elegant verses, such as the mug +deriding the Established Church, labelled, “Tythe in Kind or the Sow’s +Revenge.” A clergyman bent on collecting tithes is being attacked by a +sow in a pigsty. The farmer’s family are laughing while the parson is +crying out: + + “The fattest pig it is my due; + Oh! save me from the wicked sow.” + +Another pitcher has a fling at the Romish Church, for it bears a +likeness of his Satanic Majesty and of a priest, with the words, + + “When Pope absolves + The Devil smiles.” + +I have seen in America a number of drinking-mugs of cream-colored ware, +which may properly be spoken of here, though it is doubtful whether many +of them were made in Liverpool. They have the raised figure of a toad or +frog placed inside, with the pleasingly jocose intention of surprising +and scaring the drinker, who would fancy as the ugly head rose out of +the decreasing liquor that it was a real batrachian climbing up the side +to jump down his throat. One of these mugs had the frog tinted a dull +green and brown, entirely too natural and life-like in color to prove +pleasant or appetizing. Another two-handled Frog mug was of coarse white +ware, unpainted, and had an exceedingly modern look. This was probably +Newcastle ware. The price asked for these in “antique shops” is usually +three or four dollars apiece. I have seen none with mottoes as has the +one numbered S 17, in the Museum of Practical Geology. + + “Though malt and venom + Seem united, + Don’t break my pot + Nor be affrighted.” + +These Frog mugs are usually large in diameter, and are sometimes +decorated externally with designs of ships or naval heroes. The frog’s +appearance in sight would then prove more effectually terrifying than if +the drinker were warned by an instructive motto of the figured reptile +within. + +Another agreeable old English practical joke is in the shape of puzzle +jugs, specimens of which exist in England, but have been rarely found in +America. They were made in Liverpool and Staffordshire in the +seventeenth and eighteenth century, and in salt-glazed stone-ware at +Nottingham in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were so +constructed that when lifted to the lips they emptied by secret passages +their liquid contents over the face and breast of the drinker. Sometimes +there were three spouts from the rim. If the drinker covered two of the +spouts with his fingers, he could drink from the third. This motto is on +a puzzle jug of earthenware, of Liverpool make, in the collection of +George M. Wales, Esq., of Boston: + + “Here, gentlemen, come try y^r skill; + Ill hold a wager, if you will, + That you don’t drink this liq^r all + Without you spill or let some fall.” + +Another rhyming inscription reads: + + “From mother earth I took my birth, + Then form’d a Jug by Man, + And now I stand here filled with good cheer— + Taste of me if you can.” + +Another short invitation reads: + +“This ale is good, taste.” + +And when you tasted, in good faith, you received a beery shower-bath, +which was no doubt considered very funny by eighteenth-century +Englishmen. + +On another is written: + +“Mathew the V 16.” + +—not a very appropriate text-reference. + +Still another rhyming challenge reads thus: + + “A Crown Ile bet + That None can get + The ale that’s in this Jug, + Nor drink his fill + Without he spill + And shall not use a plug.” + +A puzzle jug in the possession of the Vintners’ Company is in the shape +of a milkmaid bearing a pail. The pail is set on a swivel, and when the +drinker tries to swallow the liquor, the pail sends its contents over +his chest. + +[Illustration: Masonic Pitcher.] + +Cream-ware pitchers bearing Masonic emblems are frequently found, +usually having also the name of the person by whom they were ordered, or +for whom they were made. These rather egotistical lines were prime +favorites among these pitcher-buying Masons: + + “The world is in pain + Our Secret to gain, + But still let them wonder & gaze on, + For they ne’er can divine + The word nor the sign + Of a Free and Accepted Mason.” + +Another much-used set of Masonic verses runs thus: + + “We help the poor in time of need + The naked cloath, the Hungry feed; + ’Tis our Foundation stone. + We build upon the noblest plan, + Where Friendship rivets man to man + And makes us all as one.” + +And a third: + + “To judge with candour and to speak no wrong, + The feeble to support against the strong, + To soothe the wretched and the poor to feed, + Will cover many an idle, foolish deed.” + +Some of these Masonic pitchers are of enormous size, as if the buyers +wished as much of a pitcher as possible for their money. Many of them +were printed at the Worcester factory. I have also seen some fine +designs that had been drawn with a pen by hand in mineral colors and +then fired in. Pitchers and mugs of Chinese porcelain are also seen with +decorations of Masonic emblems and mottoes. + +Sailor pitchers are found in comparatively large numbers, with touching +prints of a sailor bidding an affectionate farewell to his lass, under a +flag and over an anchor, accompanied by such appropriate verses as the +following: + + “When this you see + Pray think of me + And keep me in your mind; + Let all the world + Say what they will, + Think of me as you find.” + +Or this legend, a misquotation from Charles Dibdin’s song: + + “D’ye see a cherub sits smiling aloft + To keep watch o’er the life of poor Jack.” + +This is often accompanied by the figure of a fat little cherub perched +in the rigging of a ship. These Sailor pitchers were brought home +frequently at the end of a voyage as gifts for a sweetheart or a wife, +as is plainly seen by these verses printed with a picture called “The +Sailor’s Return”: + + “I now the joys of Life renew + From care and trouble free, + And find a wife who’s kind and true + To drive life’s cares away.” + +And also this tender sentiment: + + “The troubled main, the wind & rain, + My ardent passion prove + Lashed to the helm, should seas o’erwhelm + I’ll think on thee, my love.” + +Or these lines: + + “Kindly take this gift of mine, + The gift and giver I hope is thine, + And tho’ the value is but small + A loving heart is worth it all.” + +It is a curious fact that feminine owners are exceptionally unwilling +“to part with” these Sailor pitchers. A halo of past romance, of +sentimental fancy, surrounds the yellow ware love token that “Uncle Eben +brought from Injy to Aunt Hannah,” or “my grandpa got painted in Chiny +for my grandma when he was courtin’ her” (for even these staidly sombre +English pitchers are gloriously Oriental in country owners’ eyes). This +latent longing for sentiment, this tender sympathy with youthful love +and affection, lies hidden deep in every woman’s heart, no matter what +her age; and, in the dull, repressed life of many New England homes, +finds expression in a stolid clinging to the only visible token of a +love and lovers long since dead. One stout old woman, with calm face but +suspiciously shaky voice and hands, brought out for our admiring view, +in company with a crimson silk crêpe shawl, a pair of small Liverpool +pitchers printed with a spirited marine view of a full-rigged ship, the +names John Daggett and Eliza Maxom, and this doggerel rhyme: + + “No more I’ll roam, + I’ll stay at home, + To sail no more + From shore to shore, + But with my wife + Lead a happy, peaceful life.” + +“Who gave you them pretty picture pitchers, Grandma?” said the little +child who was clinging to her skirts. “John Daggett ordered ’em painted +for him an’ me in Liverpool on the last trip he ever went on. He was the +han’somest man ye ever see! He died on the v’yage home, an’ yer Granpa, +he was a-seafarin’ then, he stopped an’ got ’em on the way back, an’ +brought ’em home ter me.” Alas! poor John Daggett! your thoughtful gifts +of love furnished forth another wedding-feast with the considerate +sailor-companion as groom and comforter. But though passed to “a happy, +peaceful life” on a far-distant shore, you are not forgotten, but +through the reminiscent power of your last gift, live a tender idealized +memory, a dream of eternal unchanging youth and beauty, in your dear +lass’s thoughts. Your two Liverpool pitchers have never been +thoughtlessly or carelessly used in your shipmate’s, in “Grandpa’s,” +home; they have lain for half a century unscratched, unnicked, unbroken, +true cinerary urns of vanished hopes and promises, wrapped in the +crimson crêpe shawl in the deep drawer of a high chest in your old +sweetheart’s “spare-room.” + +In this case we encountered a sentiment which we have met more than +once—a willingness on the part of the owner, when she found we admired +the piece, to let us have it, since we would cherish it safe and +unharmed, rather than to give it or leave it to relatives who had openly +derided it or called it a worthless old thing. As this New England +sentimentalist expressed it, while she slowly folded the shawl around +the beloved pitchers, “I’d almost ruther let ye have ’em, ye seem to set +such store by ’em, than ter leave ’em ter Asa’s wife, she aint brought +up the children extry careful, an’ I know they’d smash ’em in no time, +or put ’em in hot water or knock the nose off. Come again next year an’ +I’ll think it over, I hate ter part with ’em just yet after I’ve kep’ +’em fer fifty-two year an’ three months, but I’ll see.” + +Various prints that are of more interest to Englishmen than to Americans +are seen on these Liverpool pitchers; such is the view on the large mug +owned by an old Newport resident, which bears the inscription, “An East +View of Liverpool Lighthouse and Signals on Bilston Hill, 1788.” In the +centre of the design is a lighthouse with forty-four signals around it. +Each signal is numbered, and below is a key with the names of the +vessels and their owners. This print also occurs on plates. In the days +before the telegraph Liverpool merchants were wont to go down to the +riverside, about two or three hours before high tide, to see whether +there were any flags hoisted on the lighthouse poles, as was always done +when a vessel came in sight. Thus were owners notified a few hours in +advance of the approach of their craft to port. + +Another mug owned by the same gentleman has a map with a caricature of +Napoleon Bonaparte standing with one foot on Germany. The other foot, +having been placed on England, has been cut off by John Bull, who says, +“I ax pardon, Master Boney, but, as we say, Pares of Pompey, we keep +this spot to ourselves. You must not dance here, Master Boney.” Napoleon +is saying, “You tam John Bull, you have spoil my dance, you have ruin my +projects.” A second Bonaparte mug has a red print of John Bull sitting +upon a pedestal, inscribed “The British Constitution.” He looks across +the Channel at Napoleon, who is weeping and crying out, “O! my poor +Crazy Gun Boats, why did I venture so far from home,” while John Bull +says, “I told you they would all be swamp’d, but you would be so Damned +Obstinate.” The inscription is “Patience on a Monument smiling at +Grief,” with this distich: + + “The Mighty Chief with fifty thousand Men + Marched to the Coast and March’d back again. + Ha! Ha! Ha!” + +A third Bonaparte mug is thus described in _Notes and Queries_: + + “Under a trophy of arms are figures of John Bull and Napoleon. John + Bull is in the act of striking his opponent with his right fist a + severe blow on the nose; the nether end of Napoleon is at the same + time in collision with sturdy John Bull’s left boot. Inscription, + ‘See here John Bull drubbing Bonaparte!’ On either side of the + picture we have, + + ‘What! to conquer all England how dares he pretend, + This ambitious but vain undertaker, + When he knows to his cost that where Britons defend, + He’s unable to conquer one Acre!’ + + ‘If your beggarly soldiers come among us, they’ll soon have enough of + it; and, damn me, if any ten of you shall have my person or + property—so be off!’ ‘Damn ye! you black-hearted, treacherous + Corsican! if you were not such a little bit of a fellow in spite of + your large cocked hat, I’d crack your skull in an instant with my + fist.’” + +Another bears these short and pointed lines: + + “May England’s oak + Produce the bark + To tan the hide + Of Bonaparte,” + +which, though shaky in rhyme, are certainly more effective than the +illiterate, profane, and overlong inscriptions on other Bonaparte mugs. + +A well-engraved and well-designed Liverpool print is that of “The +Farmers’ Arms,” with armorial design ingeniously formed of hay-rakes, +scythes, flails, ploughs, churns, sickles, etc., the mottoes being “In +God we Trust,” and “Industry produceth Wealth.” On the other side are +these verses: + + “May the mighty and great + Roll in splendor and state, + I envy them not, I declare it, + I eat my own Lamb, + My own chicken and ham, + I shear my own sheep and I wear it. + I have lawns, I have Bowers, + I have Fruits, I have Flowers, + The Lark is my morning Alarmer; + So you Jolly Dogs now, + Here’s God bless the plow— + Long life and content to the Farmer.” + +One of these really artistic Farmer pitchers with this inscription and +design sold at an auction in New York for only seven dollars and a half, +in spite of the catalogue’s alluring description of its “having once +belonged to Robert Burns.” A similar one, numbered S 32, is in the +Museum of Practical Geology in London, and is also described in Mayer’s +“Art of Pottery and History of its Progress in Liverpool.” + +Besides the design of the “Farmers’ Arms” is found that of the +“Blacksmiths’ Arms,” with the motto “By Hammer and Hand all Arts do +Stand;” the “Bucks’ Arms,” with stag and huntsmen, and the motto +“Freedom with Innocence;” the “Bakers’ Arms,” and the motto, “Praise God +for All;” the “Hatters’ Arms,” with the motto, “We Assist Each Other in +Time of Need.” + +Many of these Liverpool pitchers have an individual interest connected +with their original manufacture. They were the favorite expression of +respect of ships crews to their commanders, of workmen to their +employers. Such is the beautiful pitcher owned by A. M. Prentiss, Esq., +bearing the motto, “Success to Henry Prentiss and his Employ, 1789.” +Henry Prentiss was a Revolutionary hero, a member of the Tea Party, a +wealthy Boston merchant, a large cotton manufacturer, a successful +horticulturist, a man whose name brings to old residents of Boston and +Cambridge the memory of many a story of his shrewdness and intelligence. + +S. Yendell, great-grandfather of the present Governor of Massachusetts, +was similarly honored by a mammoth presentation pitcher, which is owned +by Mrs. Russel, of Cambridge. It bears a print of the Columbia, on which +ship Mr. Yendell sailed on the famous voyage when the Columbia River was +discovered, in 1791. That does not seem very long ago! Mr. Yendell lived +till 1867. To be sure, he was then the oldest man in Boston, +ninety-seven years of age. + +The art of transfer-printing on pottery and porcelain, by which all +these pieces are decorated, has completely revolutionized the business +of china decoration in England, and cheapened the price of decorated +crockery, as did the invention of types and printing cheapen and +multiply books. John Sadler, who invented the process of +transfer-printing, was originally an engraver. He had his attention +first called to the possibility and desirability of china-printing by a +very trifling incident—by seeing some children when playing “doll’s +house” paste on broken pieces of crockery, pictures cut from waste-paper +prints which he had thrown away. + +For years he and his partner, Guy Green, managed to keep his invention +enough of a secret, so that he printed not only for Liverpool works, but +for many others. Much of the Wedgwood Queens-ware was stamped by him, +being made at the Wedgwood factory, carried in wagons over bad roads to +Liverpool, and, after being printed, returned in the same manner to +Burslem to be fired. In spite of all this manipulation and +transportation it could be sold cheaply, for Sadler’s tariff of prices +for transfer-printing was very low. “For printing a table and +tea-service of two hundred and fifty pieces for David Garrick, £8 6s. +1½d. Twenty-five dozen half-tiles printing and colouring, £1 5s.” These +printed half-tiles were sold for 2s. 6d. a dozen, while the black +printed whole tiles brought only 5s. a dozen. + +Sadler’s process was very simple. He printed on paper with an ordinary +copper or steel plate, then laid the print while wet on the glazed piece +of pottery. Then, upon pressing it, the ink was transferred to the +pottery piece, and afterward burnt in. Nearly all these wares were +printed in black, but some have the prints in blue, and some in +vermilion. Others, printed in black outlines, are filled in by hand with +various colors, sometimes with very good effect. + +Hancock and Holdship followed quickly in Sadler’s wake, in printing on +pottery and porcelain in Worcester, and there bat-printing was +introduced at a later date. In this process linseed-oil was used instead +of ink, and the oil design was printed on a “bat,” or sheet of prepared +glue and treacle, which, being pliable, adapted itself readily to the +shape of the pottery article to be printed, and transferred to it the +oil lines of the design. Powdered color was dusted on these oil lines, +the superfluous color being removed by cotton wool, and then fired in. +Engravings for bat-printing were usually in stipple work, and the prints +can readily be recognized and distinguished from those of +transfer-printing. + +It is interesting to us to know that an American who seemed to have a +hand in every invention of his day, had also his little share in the +suggestion, if not in the discovery, of printing upon pottery and +porcelain. Benjamin Franklin wrote thus from London, November 3, 1773, +to some unknown person: + +“I was much pleased with the specimens you so kindly sent me of your new +art of engraving. That on the china is admirable. No one would suppose +it anything but painting. I hope you meet with all the encouragement you +merit, and that the invention will be what inventions seldom are, +profitable to the inventor. Now, we are speaking of inventions, I know +not who pretends to that of copper-plate engraving for earthen ware, and +I am not disposed to contest the honor with anybody, as the improvement +in taking impressions not directly from the plate, but from printed +paper, applicable by that means to other than flat forms, is far beyond +my first idea. But I have reason to apprehend that I might have given +the hint on which that improvement was made; for, more than twenty years +since, I wrote to Dr. Mitchell from America proposing to him the +printing of square tiles for ornamenting chimneys, from copper-plates, +describing the manner in which I thought it might be done, and advising +the borrowing from the booksellers the plates that had been used in a +thin folio called ‘Moral Virtue Delineated,’ for that purpose. The Dutch +Delft-ware tiles were much used in America, which are only or chiefly +Scripture histories wretchedly scrawled. I wished to have those moral +prints, which were originally taken from Horace’s poetical figures, +introduced in tiles, which, being about our chimneys are constantly in +the eyes of the children when by the fireside, might give parents an +opportunity in explaining them to express moral sentiments, and I gave +expectations of great demands for them if executed. Dr. Mitchell wrote +me in answer that he had communicated my scheme to several of the +artists in the earthen way about London, who rejected it as +impracticable; and it was not till some years after that I first saw an +enamelled snuff-box, which I was sure was from a copper-plate, though +the curvature of the form made me wonder how the impression was taken.” + +Sadly and deprecatingly must “Poor Richard” have examined the printed +tiles of John Sadler, for no “moral virtues delineated” thereon are +depicted. He found, instead, the representation of such trivial and +unmoral pastimes as dancing, beer-drinking, pipe-smoking, +fortune-telling—the latter design being of an astrologer seated at a +table telling the fortunes of two young women. One fair maid smiles with +delighted anticipation as she receives a paper of prophecy inscribed “A +brisk husband and son,” while the other poor creature is departing, +shedding bitter tears of disappointment, with a similar paper bearing +the depressing words, “Never to be married.” American children doubtless +lost much desirable and laudable parental instruction when Franklin’s +worthy scheme failed in execution, but they were also spared many a +fireside lecture and nagging. How they would have come to hate the sight +of those moral lesson tiles! + +And while I am speaking of transfer-printing, let me call attention to +some pretty little ceramic relics of a quaint old-time fashion, that are +sometimes overlooked by collectors—“mirror-knobs”—“Lookeing Glasse Nobs” +I find them called in ante-Revolutionary advertisements. These knobs +consisted usually of a painted or printed medallion, frequently +enamelled on the metal, or on little oval porcelain placques or discs, +which were then fastened in brass, gilt or silvered frames, and mounted +on a long and strong screw or spike. Two of these knobs were screwed +into the wall about a foot apart, so that the oval-framed medallions +stood out two or three inches from the wall. The lower edge of a mirror +or picture frame was allowed to rest on the iron screws behind these two +ornamental heads. These mirror-knobs were also used to fasten back +window curtains. The head of the mirror-knob was usually decorated by +the process of transfer-printing; sentimental views of shepherds and +shepherdesses, mincing heads of powdered French dames, and +unintentionally funny likenesses of many of our Revolutionary heroes and +statesmen. The portrait of Washington which was employed was fairly +good; of Franklin in the fur-cap, quite well drawn; but the others that +I have seen vied with one another in comical ugliness, save that of John +Jay, always too fine in feature to be caricatured. In the Huntington +collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, may be seen a +few of these mirror-knobs with portraits of Franklin, John Jay, C. +Thompson, W. H. Drayton, John Dickinson, S. Huntington, Major-General +Gaines, and an exceptionally ugly one of H. Laurens, with a phenomenally +attenuated neck, a mere bone of a neck. Often these little printed +miniatures are in black and white, but more frequently they are printed +in outline, and faintly and delicately colored. I wish I knew where they +were made, and who ordered them and imported and sold them, and who drew +them. I think that they were made in Worcester, not in Liverpool. Aged +country people tantalizingly tell me of mirror-knobs made of discs with +white raised heads and figures on blue grounds—Wedgwood medallions, were +they not? But they have all vanished from my ken, even the printed knobs +are now seldom seen. I know one drawer of an old dressing-case in quiet +Hadley town that holds fifteen beautiful mirror-knobs, all whole, +uncracked, unscratched; but you will never see them nor buy them. You +might steal them, perhaps, if you only knew which elm-shaded house +contained them—you might steal the whole dressing-case, indeed, if you +were only quiet about it, and you might walk the entire mile and a half +of the beautiful main street with the stolen furniture on your back and +meet not a soul to question or wonder. + +Of the same class and decoration and of the same materials were many +dainty snuff-boxes and patch-boxes that were made and used in England +and imported to America. The latter pretty trinkets were tiny oval or +round boxes about an inch and a half or two inches in diameter, +frequently made of fine Battersea enamel, or of china medallions set in +silver or gilt frames. Within the lid was always found a little mirror, +usually of polished steel, in which the fair owner might peep to freshly +set or rearrange her coquettish patches. One patch-box I have bears this +motto on the top: + + “Have Communion with few, + Be familiar with one, + Deal Justly with all, + Speak evil of None.” + +Another has a more frivolous verse: + + “Within this Beauty views her face + And with the patch gives added grace.” + +Still another: + + “Love and Beauty conquer all, + Love to Beauty.” + +Sometimes, as with the mirror-knobs, a little painting of shepherds and +shepherdesses is set in the lid, and, with the jewelled and enamelled +border, form a trifle dainty enough to rival any modern bonbonnières. +These patch-boxes and “Gum Patches,” or “Patches for ladies,” or “Face +Patches,” were advertised freely in American newspapers for many years +previous to the Revolution—as early, surely, as 1750 in the _Boston +Evening Post_; and patches were universally worn by American beauties, +as Whitefield and other pious travellers sadly deplored. “China Snuff +Boxes” were offered for sale in the _Boston Evening Post_ of April 16, +1773, were bought and filled with Kippen’s snuff, were lost on Boston +streets, were advertised for reward in Boston papers, and no doubt +proudly and ostentatiously carried by Boston beaux, as well as by +Charleston macaronis. A few snuff-boxes of Battersea enamel still remain +to show us how lovely they were, but the frail china ones have nearly +all been destroyed, and when still existing are usually sadly cracked +and disfigured. China and Battersea enamel “tooth-pick cases” were also +imported and carried by Boston beaux. + +But we must leave these dainty quaint trinkets and go back to the far +less beautiful Liverpool pitchers. Though they have no great charm of +color, shape, or design, and are, in fact, the least graceful and +beautiful of all the old English wares commonly found in America, all +the historical pitchers must certainly be of great interest to students +of American history, as records and relics of the early days of the +United States. As new pieces bearing hitherto unknown designs are +constantly being found, they will form, in fact do now form, with the +old blue Staffordshire plates, a valuable and lasting ceramic record of +the early days of our nation. Let us hope that they will be carefully +preserved by all who are fortunate enough to own them; and, if they are +not placed in the safe keeping of museums or cabinet collections, at +least be kept from the debasing uses and positions in which I have seen +them in country homes. My patriotic heart has thrilled with wounded +indignation to see mugs and pitchers bearing such honored and venerated +names and faces, battered, nicked, and handleless, despitefully used to +hold herb-teas, soft-soap, horse-liniment, or tooth-brushes. I saw one +Washington pitcher, noseless and fairly crenated with nicks, shamefully +degraded to use as a jug to carry to the hen-house the hot water with +which to prepare the chicken-food; while another contained a +villainous-looking purple-black liquid compound which the owner +explained was “Pa’s hair-restorer.” In spite of careless use, however, +many specimens still exist, for “antique” dealers find them for their +shops. In one Newport bric-a-brac shop I saw, in the summer of 1891, at +least fifteen Liverpool pitchers varying in price from five dollars for +a small Sailor pitcher to thirty-five dollars for a fine perfect +Apotheosis Pitcher. + +Fortunate is the household, and happy and proud should be its members, +that possesses one of these historic relics. I know of no better way to +impress upon a child, or to recall to a grown person, the lesson of +bravery, courage, and love of country, than by showing him the +likenesses of Perry, Decatur, and Lawrence on mug or pitcher, and +telling to him their story, and reading or reciting the old ballads and +songs written about them. Nor do I know of any more noble example of +Christian piety than that of the brave Macdonough, whose name is so +often seen on these pieces of old English ware. Before the battle of +Lake Champlain, when the deck of the Saratoga was cleared for action, he +knelt upon the deck with his officers and men around him, asked Almighty +God for aid, and committed the issue of the contest into His hands. Let +us echo the toast which was given to him at a large dinner in +Plattsburg, shortly after his victory. “The pious and brave Macdonough, +the professor of the religion of the Redeemer—preparing for action, he +called on God, who forsook him not in the hour of danger. _May he not be +forgotten by his country._” + +Let our respect and affection for our ancestors’ adored heroes save to +our descendants the Liverpool pitchers bearing such honored historical +names. + + + + + VIII. + ORIENTAL CHINA + + +In that delightful and much-quoted book, “The China Hunters’ Club,” the +final chapter is devoted to a most humorous description of the +disbandment and ignominious extinction of the club through a fierce +quarrel over a disputed piece of china—whether it were Chinese or +Lowestoft. Could I, as did Charlie Baker in that story, label both my +china of like character and this chapter “Canton-Lowestoft,” it would +fitly express my feelings when I attempt to judge and write upon the old +pieces of hard-paste porcelain, so common in America, called Oriental, +Canton, India, or Lowestoft, according to the belief or traditions of +each individual owner. I cannot give any positive rules by which to +classify this china, nor any by which to judge of independent specimens. +If I followed my own convictions and my own researches on this puzzling +subject, I should in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred firmly state the +disputed piece of porcelain to be Chinese, and I could quote in support +of my views such an authority as Franks, the great china collector, who +says that, + +“India china (that is, china made for the East India Company for +European trade—what Jacquemart calls _porcelaine des Indes_) has on one +hand been attributed to Japan, and on the other, by a still more +singular hallucination been ascribed to Lowestoft.” + +He also says, “There can be no doubt that there was a considerable +manufactory of porcelain at Lowestoft, but this was of the usual English +soft-paste. The evidence of hard-paste having been made there is of the +most slender kind.” + +Mr. Owens, in his “Two Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol,” says, with +decision: + +“There cannot be any doubt that hard porcelain, vitrified and +translucent, was never manufactured from the raw materials, native +kaolin and petunste, at any other locality in England than Plymouth and +Bristol. The tradition that such ware was made at Lowestoft in 1775 +rests upon evidence too slight to be worthy of argument. The East India +Company imported into England large quantities of porcelain for sale; +and in the provincial journals of the last century advertisements of +sales by auction of East India china occur frequently. This particular +ware, which is very plentiful, even at the present day, and which has of +late acquired the reputation of having been made at Lowestoft, was +simply, in form and ornamentation, only a reproduction by the Chinese of +English earthenware models. The Chinese do not use saucers, +butter-boats, and numbers of other articles after the European fashion, +and the agents in China were compelled to furnish a model for every +piece of ware ordered. These models the Asiatic workmen have copied only +too faithfully. The ill-drawn roses, the coarsely painted baskets of +flowers, the rude borders of lines and dots are literally copied from +the inartistic painting on the English earthenware of by-gone days.” + +He also says, “It is painful to see in public and private collections +examples of Oriental ware labelled Lowestoft, simply because, though +hard porcelain, they bear English armorial coats and initials. Many +porcelain punch-bowls are to be found in seaport towns with names and +portraits of ships and very early dates. Those bowls are often +attributed to the works at Liverpool and Lowestoft. The officers of the +East India Company’s ships were accustomed to take out English Delft +bowls and get them reproduced in common porcelain in China for their +merchant friends, and many a relic now prized as of home manufacture was +procured in this manner.” + +Mr. Prime writes more cautiously, after describing the pieces: + +“These are supposed to have been made on special patterns furnished to +the Oriental factories by the East India Company. They resemble European +work in the decoration, and many of the Lowestoft paintings seem to be +imitations of these. It is, therefore, necessary to be very cautious in +classifying wares as of Lowestoft fabric.” + +And again he says, “The presence of a single decoration like a flower or +sprig of flowers in European style on porcelain is not a sufficient +reason for classing the porcelain as European. Many such pieces were +printed in Japan and in China. And others are possibly the work of +decorators in Holland.” + +Mr. Elliott says of Lowestoft in America: + +“It seems certain that this kind of decoration was done at Lowestoft; it +is equally certain that it was also done in China, from designs sent out +there. I have myself seen pieces so decorated which were imported direct +from China to New Haven about the end of the last century.” + +On the other hand, that standard authority, Mr. Chaffers, author of +“Marks and Monograms,” says that “the question about hard-paste +porcelain having been made at Lowestoft is placed beyond dispute upon +the best authority. It was introduced about 1773,” and he offers a mass +of testimony to prove his statements. + +Mr. Owens fancies that sailing-masters took out English Delft bowls to +be reproduced in China; Mr. Marryatt and Mr. Franks, that Chinese +porcelain was imported to Holland and painted in Delft; another +collector believes that Chinese kaolin and clay were brought to +Lowestoft, and there mixed, shaped, fired and painted; and still +another, that Lowestoft porcelain was taken out to China to be +decorated. The Catalogue of the Museum of Practical Geology in London +very shrewdly and non-responsibly says of its Lowestoft specimens: “It +should be understood that several of the following pieces are exhibited +as ‘Lowestoft china’ simply in deference to the opinions of certain +collectors and not as authenticated specimens.” + +To show the doubtful eyes with which the Lowestoft aspirants are +regarded by authorities in England, I will state that in this +last-mentioned catalogue but twelve lots of Lowestoft porcelain and +pottery are named—a small proportion—and a sharp lesson to American +collectors with their reckless and sweeping Lowestoft classifications. +None of the twelve bear any distinguishing Lowestoft marks or names. The +descriptions of some of these are not at all like our American Lowestoft +wares. One reads: “Two plates ornamented with borders in brown and gold, +and with views of a Suffolk village and river painted in sepia in a +circular panel in centre of each plate.” + +From these few extracts which I have taken from various authorities, it +is plainly seen that no decision, no judgment can be given in this +Lowestoft case, that each seeker after china and truth must judge for +himself. + +The history of the production of hard-paste china at Lowestoft is +exceedingly curious as an example and proof of the suddenness with which +recent facts and circumstances may be forgotten. It seems fairly +incredible that the true particulars of the manufacture of this ware +(which it is alleged was produced in such great quantities from the year +1775 to 1803) should be entirely lost and forgotten in half a century’s +time. The descriptions and history of Lowestoft china in Mr. Llewellyn +Jewitt’s article in the July number of the _London Art Journal_ in 1863, +were the first to call attention to Lowestoft china, and I still +consider him the best and most trustworthy authority on the subject. +Previous to that time, in the catalogues of English Loan Collections and +Museums, the name even of Lowestoft does not appear, though the ware was +seen everywhere labelled vaguely “Foreign,” or “Oriental.” At a later +date Mr. Chaffers’s book appeared with a warm endorsement and +enthusiastic setting-forth of the Lowestoft factory and its wares, so +warm and embracing in its description that Mr. Jewitt in his later book, +“Ceramic Art in Great Britain,” fairly has to protest against such broad +sweeping into the Lowestoft net; and he must feel that he “builded +better than he knew” when he “wrote up” the Lowestoft factory. He says: +“Let me utter a word or two of caution to collectors against placing too +implicit a reliance upon what has been written concerning Lowestoft +china, and against taking for granted that all which is nowadays called +Lowestoft china is really the production of that manufactory. If all +that is ascribed to Lowestoft was ever made there the works must have +been the most extensive, and—if all the varieties of wares that are now +said to have been produced there were made it is asserted +simultaneously—the most extraordinary on record. The great bulk of the +specimens now unblushingly ascribed to Lowestoft I believe never were in +that town, much less ever made there.” + +When Mr. Jewitt wrote thus he knew nothing about the vast additional +stock of Lowestoft in America, enough additional weight to swamp forever +the Lowestoft pretensions. Mr. Jewitt also resented with proper +indignation some criticisms which Mr. Chaffers dared to make upon his +_Art Journal_ paper, saying, with truth, that he (Chaffers) was indebted +to him for nearly every scrap of information about the Lowestoft factory +that he has embodied in his work. He might say for every scrap of any +importance. The three accounts form a typical example of the +controversies in private life, of the minor disputes that always arise +among china collectors, not only over the claims of the Lowestoft +factory, but over even a single piece of Lowestoft hard-paste porcelain. + +The specimens of what are called Lowestoft ware that are most frequently +seen in America, are parts of tea-services, punch-bowls and pitchers, +coffee-pots and mugs. The pieces often bear crests, coats of arms, or +initials. Shields supported with birds, and escutcheons in dark blue are +also frequent. The initials are usually very gracefully interlaced. +Sometimes the tea-caddy will bear the crest or coat of arms with the +initials, while the remainder of the tea-service will have the initials +only. + +On many of the pieces the border is of clear cobalt blue (often in rich +enamel), varied with gold stars or a meander pattern in gold. Some +unreasoning collectors take their stand upon this blue and gold-starred +border as being the only positive indication and proof to their minds +that the piece thus decorated is truly Lowestoft; but I have seen many +pieces that were positively imported directly from China to America that +bore this Lowestoft border. A red trellis-border and a peculiar +russet-brown or chocolate border also abound on these disputed pieces, +and the scale pattern in purplish pink. A raised border of vine leaves, +grapes, flowers and squirrels is seen on the beakers; I have found both +this form and decoration rare in America. + +When a flower pattern appears on Lowestoft china the rose predominates. +Chaffers says that the reason for this use of the rose is twofold; the +arms of the English borough in which the china is said to have been +manufactured or painted, is the Tudor, or full-blown rose surmounted by +an open crown; and the cleverest painter of Lowestoft ware was Thomas +Rose, and he thus commemorated his name. He was a French refugee, and it +is to his French taste we owe the delicate style of whatever flower +ornamentation appears on this china. It is sad to read that he became +blind and spent the last days of his life as a water-vender, plying his +trade with two donkeys that had been given him by the town. The pieces +alleged to have been painted by him, and indeed all the Lowestoft +pieces, were seldom profuse in decoration. Roses without foliage or +stems, little bouquets, or narrow festoons of tiny roses with green +leaves, were his favorite designs. Often a piece bore only a single +rose. + +The mugs and tea and coffee-pots usually have twisted or double handles +crossed and fastened to the main body of the piece with raised leaves or +flowers. The large pieces, such as punch-bowls and pitchers and the +helmet creamers, sometimes have an irregular surface, as if, when in the +paste, they had been patted into shape by the hands. I have often seen +this appearance also on blue and white undoubted Chinese ware. The mugs +are both cylindrical and barrel-shaped; the cups are handleless, as are +usually the cups of all Oriental china manufactured at that date. + +Mr. Chaffers says that occasionally the smaller pieces of Lowestoft will +be seen embossed with the rice-pattern or basket-work. I have never seen +a piece thus embossed but was as plainly and unmistakably Oriental as a +Chinaman’s pigtail and his almond eyes. + +The oval teapot shown on page 208 is a typical Lowestoft piece, though +not a choice one; and by many ignorant collectors all teapots of that +particular shape, with twisted handles held to the body with embossed +leaves, no matter with what other decoration, are firmly assigned to the +Lowestoft factory. Many unmistakably Chinese pieces, however, are seen +in this exact shape; for instance, a beautiful rice-pattern teapot in +the Avery Collection, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This piece is +rich in gold and blue, but has the knobs, twisted handles, and embossed +leaves of the Lowestoft pattern. Perhaps, in spite of its Chinese +rice-pattern, and the quality of the paste, Chaffers would class it as +Lowestoft. + +There are found in America certain Oriental vases of typical Lowestoft +decoration which are usually in one or the other of two shapes, +cylindrical with suddenly flaring top (or rarely an ovoid cylinder with +similar top), or a vase with small base, sharply bulging out at half its +height, and as suddenly contracting to a small neck. These vases, in +sets or garnitures of three or five pieces, the two end vases always +alike, graced the mantel of many a “parlour” a century ago, and were +frequently decorated with initials or coats of arms. Such are the +beautifully-shaped vases with exquisite blue, brown, and gold +decoration, given by Lafayette to Cadwallader Jones of Petersburg, Va., +one of which is here shown. These vases exhibit the impressed +basket-work design; they are in perfect preservation, and have recently +come by gift into the possession of the Washington Association of New +Jersey. + +[Illustration: Lowestoft Vase.] + +There are in English collections a few specimens of the early soft-paste +Lowestoft manufactures, which were always decorated in blue, which bear +Lowestoft names or distinguishing dates. Indeed, these blue and white +pieces are the only ones that do have designating Lowestoft marks, or +bear dates, which seems to me a very significant fact. I have never +found any of these blue and white Lowestoft pieces in America, either +marked or unmarked, nor do I know of any marked Lowestoft pieces in any +American collection. There are none in the Trumbull-Prime Collection. I +have seen a few rather coarse blue and white Delft-ware pieces which I +suspect might be classed as Lowestoft. + +I fear that in this attempt to throw light, or rather borrow light, on +the Lowestoft question, I have not succeeded very well, and have perhaps +cast a deeper shadow. There is one other condition which has influenced +and helped me to form my condition of mind about Lowestoft china, and +that is the situation of the town. It is the absolute “Land’s end,” the +extreme eastern point of England; the sand and some of the clay +necessary to make all this porcelain would have had to be transported +from the extreme western “Land’s end” of Cornwall, and the great supply +of coal to burn in the kilns, from the extreme northern coast of +Northumberland and Durham—two most inconvenient and expensive +contingencies. It was, however, near to Holland, that great producer of +Delft-ware, and had an extensive trade with that country, and Dutch +vessels constantly entered the Lowestoft port. And the first +productions—the only marked and dated ones—are all blue and white and +resemble Delft-ware: none are of porcelain. The Dutch also were great +importers of Oriental china. Of course we must believe that some china +also came out of Lowestoft, but these are some of the very bewildering +accompanying conditions that we cannot crowd out of our minds. + +It is difficult to assign prices or values to pieces of Lowestoft china, +for, as in other wares, the quality of the decoration, of course, +influences the price. Teapots similar to the one shown on page 208 are +often offered for from four to eight dollars—one sold in the Governor +Lyon sale in 1876 for $5. At that same sale Lowestoft plates of ordinary +design, with single rose decoration, brought $1.50 each; cups and +saucers of similar design, the same price. A pretty dish of gold and +buff, with brownish bird in the centre, brought $3. A helmet creamer, +with decoration of grapes and vines in gold and brown, brought $4; this +is a decoration and shape frequently seen in America. One bearing the +Morse coat of arms is here shown. One very curious piece, a custard-cup +belonging to a “marriage set,” sold for $6.50. This cup was decorated +with festoons and bunches of roses, and on one side was a hand holding +two medallions, with initials, tied together with a lovers’ knot of +ribbon, with the motto “Unit.” On the other side were two coats of arms +held and supported in the same manner. It is said that this idea of a +marriage set was in high fashion a hundred years ago. At the S. L. M. +Barlow sale in New York, in February, 1890, the prices of Lowestoft +pieces were higher—partly because the specimens were better. A sugar-box +with blue and gold ribbon decoration sold for $5, teapots for $8 and +$10. + +[Illustration: Helmet Creamer.] + +A device found on Lowestoft pieces is very common in America—or at any +rate, in New England—and is frequently and erroneously supposed to be an +armorial bearing. It is a monogram or cipher written within an oval or +an escutcheon, backed by an ermine mantle, surmounted by a wreath on +which are perched a pair of doves. This device was doubtless sent to +China to be painted on a service as a wedding gift, and proving popular +was often repeated. I have seen it on many pieces in many families, in +gold and various colors, the monogram or initial only being different. A +letter is in existence, written by a gentleman in China in 1810, to a +fair bride in Hartford, saying that he sends to her as a wedding gift a +set of porcelain with this decoration. Portions of the set are still +owned by the bride’s descendants. This of course proves the device to +have been painted in China. Perhaps it was painted in England also, but +I doubt it. + +There is a very pretty Lowestoft design which I have seen upon dinner- +and tea-sets belonging to several families in New England, which may +have been made specially for the American market, or at any rate must +have been sent here in large quantities. It consists of the American +shield and eagle in shades of brown touched with gold, with a pretty +delicate border of the same colors, and tiny dots of vermilion. I speak +specially of this design because it is often offered for sale as “George +Washington’s China,” on the slight foundation, I suppose, of having upon +it an American shield and eagle; and not only offered but sold, and no +doubt exhibited with pride by collectors of Washingtoniana. One lucky +dog of a relic hunter recently secured in New York a “Washington” teapot +with this design for the sum of $75—a paltry amount, as he considered +it. There are a number of pieces bearing this decoration in the +Trumbull-Prime Collection, a portion of a set belonging to a member of +Mr. Prime’s family. A coffee-pot of the set is here shown. This service +was purchased in England in 1804. The gilt lettering on it, as on others +that I have seen, is much worn, while the decoration is in perfect +condition. + +[Illustration: “Washington” Coffee-pot.] + +As an indication of the vast amount of Lowestoft wares to be found in +America, let me state that in the Governor Lyon sale there were +forty-nine lots labelled Lowestoft, and many more among the historical +pieces, while there were only six of Delft, three of Bristol, five of +Chelsea, etc. As Governor Lyon collected nearly all his pieces of +English porcelain in America this might be thought to be a fair means of +judging of the proportionate prevalence of china called Lowestoft, but I +think the number is hardly high enough. In the Trumbull-Prime Collection +are at least a hundred and fifty pieces of Lowestoft, to which, however, +Mr. Prime does not definitely assign that title, but explains the doubts +and questions as to the ware. There are no rice-pattern or basket-work +pieces among them. + +In New England seaport towns, where there has been during past years a +large direct trade with China, vast quantities of Lowestoft ware are +found. It would, of course, be argued from this fact that such porcelain +is Chinese, and in truth it is Chinese in nine cases out of ten. And I +presume the reason that I am so incredulous about Lowestoft china, is +that I have really seen so little, my Lowestoft studies having probably +all been in Chinese porcelain. Then, too, the Lowestoft factory, had it +sent all its wares direct to America, could never have furnished our +vast supply, from which we still have plenty of specimens to dispute and +quarrel over. + +And is it not strange that we have no record of this vast trade in +English porcelain? Who ever knew of a vessel arriving in an American +port from Lowestoft? Who ever saw an advertisement of Lowestoft china in +an old American newspaper? On the other hand, we know well how Chinese +porcelain could have been brought—nay, was brought—in vast quantities to +New England; for though New York took the lead in sending a single ship +direct to Canton in 1784, the question of the China trade had been +agitating Salem for a year previously, and in Connecticut, state aid had +been asked to further direct commerce with the Orient. This aid had been +at once refused by the prudent home-staying farmers in the Legislature. +Providence, Newport, and Boston quickly awakened to the rich +possibilities of the new commercial opening with the Orient, but Elias +Haskett Derby, of Salem, known as the “Father of the East India Trade,” +crowded his great vessels across the ocean to Canton and brought home +rich stores of Oriental products. His fine Grand Turk sailed from Salem +in 1785, and the return cargo doubled the money invested; and in the +rooms of the East India Marine Company at Salem is a great Lowestoft +bowl bearing paintings of the Grand Turk and the date, Canton, 1786, +which proves that that piece positively was neither made at Lowestoft, +painted at Lowestoft, brought to Lowestoft, nor exported from Lowestoft. +From that year to 1799, of the hundred and seventy-five voyages made by +Derby’s stanch ships, forty-five were to India and China. He had four +ships at one time at Canton. In 1793 three Indiamen brought into New +England ports $14,600 worth of “China-ware;” one of these ships, the +Rising Sun, landed at Providence. And Billy Gray, of Salem, the largest +ship-owner in the world at that date, sold many a hogshead of chinaware +from the cargoes of his great ships, the Light Horse, the Three Friends, +the Lotus, the Black Warrior. + +Though Connecticut farmers and law-givers looked with timid and +unfavoring eyes on the possibilities and dangers of Oriental commerce, +Connecticut merchants were not to be left behind in the race for the +golden prizes of India. A great ship was fitted out in New Haven, and +the story of her first voyage in 1799 and of its rich results reads like +the wonder-tales of the East. The ship was manned by thirty-five +Connecticut men, sons of respectable and well-to-do families; many of +them were graduates of Yale. In its provisioning and furnishing +merchants of New Haven, Hartford, Weathersfield, Farmington, Stamford, +and other neighboring towns joined or “ventured.” The ship took no +cargo. She sailed to the Falkland Islands. The crew killed 80,000 seals, +packed away the skins in the ship’s hold, and then sailed to Canton. The +Neptune was the first New Haven ship that furrowed the waves of the +Pacific. The sealskins were sold to Canton merchants for $3.75 each. +With $280,000 of the profits the Connecticut boys laid in a rich store +of Oriental goods, tea, silks, and 467 boxes of fine china. These goods +were sold in New Haven at enormous profits. The ship paid to the +Government, on the results of that single voyage, import duties which +amounted to $20,000 more than the entire State tax for the year. Mr. +Townsend, the builder of the ship, cleared $100,000 as his share of the +profits; the super-cargo, that useful and obsolete officer, took +$50,000, and the thirty-five Yankee sailors and the Yankee merchants all +tasted the sweets of this phenomenal venture. Thirty-six other +Connecticut merchants joined at once in a venture in another ship, and +the Cowles Brothers, of Farmington, fitted out three vessels for Canton, +and vast amounts of Lowestoft porcelain were brought back by them to New +Haven. + +It is only recently, and even now only among china collectors and what a +Newburyport dame called “city folks and Yorkers” (that is Bostonians and +New Yorkers—or city people in general), that the pieces spoken of in the +last few pages would be called Lowestoft. In country homes all are still +Chinese or India porcelain. It is the favorite tradition told of nearly +every piece, even of undisputed English wares of the last century, that +“my grandfather brought that bowl to us from Hong Kong,” and even when +you point out the Caughley or Staffordshire marks, the owners are +unconvinced and openly indignant. Chinese porcelain evidently denoted +much higher aristocracy than English ware in early Federal days, and the +sentiment lingers still among simple folk. Crests, arms, and initials +are very common, “put on for us in China,” and the “China” or “India” +tradition, must in such cases never be openly doubted. + +Much specially decorated porcelain did come to us from China; there is +plenty of proof in old letters, bills, diaries, and shipping receipts, +that persons in both America and England ordered services of porcelain +such as we now call Lowestoft, to be made and decorated for them in +China. These orders were sometimes filled in a manner which was vastly +disappointing. Miss Leslie, the sister of the eminent painter, related +that she ordered a dinner service to be made and painted for her in +China. She directed that a coat of arms should be placed in the centre +of each plate, and made a careful drawing of the desired coat of arms +and pasted it in the centre of a specimen plate, and wrote under it, +“Put this in the middle.” What was her dismay when, on the arrival of +the china, she found on every piece not only the coat of arms, but the +words, indelibly burnt in, “Put this in the middle.” + +Another person ordering porcelain in China sent out a book-plate as a +guide for outline in decoration, and was much disgusted when the service +arrived to find it painted by the literal-minded Chinese artist in lines +of funereal black like the book-plate, instead of the gay colors the +china-buyer had desired, and which were then so fashionable. + +But I feel that in all this about the questionable Lowestoft I am +neither quite fair nor quite liberal to the claims of the far Orient. We +do not regard with doubt or with question of English co-operation all +the contributions of China to our early table furnishings. About the +pieces just described, many collectors are reckless in judging and +naming, and too often unjust to our Asiatic ceramic purveyors; but much +porcelain came to America which is known and acknowledged to be Chinese, +and which has never for a moment had the shadow of suspicion of +Occidental manipulation cast over it—I mean “blue Canton china.” A hand +whose clear and perfect touch made beautiful, yet rendered truthfully +everything she described, wrote thus of such porcelain: + +“The china here, as in all genuine Salem cupboards, was chiefly of the +honest old blue Canton ware. There were shining piles of these plates, +which while they are rather heavy to handle, always surprise one by +being so thin at the edges. There were generous teacups like small +bowls, squat pitchers with big noses, and a tureen whose cover had the +head of a boar for a handle. And in all this the blue was dull and deep +in tint, with a certain ill-defined vaporous quality at the edges of the +lines, and the white of the cool greenish tinge of a duck’s egg. You can +buy blue Canton to-day, but it is not old blue Canton.” + +The stanch ships of Elias Haskett Derby, of William Gray, of Joseph +Peabody, brought to Salem hogsheads and boxes and crates of this old +blue Canton china; it still lingers close-hidden and high-shelved in +Salem cupboards; it has been crushed grievously under foot in Salem +attics; has been sold ignominiously to Salem junkmen, and also proudly +and eagerly bought by Salem collectors. + +Many a “venture” was sent out by New England dames to “far Cathay” in +these East India trading-ships, and many a pretty blue Canton teapot and +cups and saucers, or great ringing punch-bowl came home from China in +return for the hoarded egg-money, the inherited Spanish dollars, or the +proceeds of the year’s spinning and weaving. Do you know what a +“venture” was a hundred years ago? It was a gentle commercial +speculation in which all Puritan womankind longed to join, just as all +New England ministers legally and soberly gambled and revelled in the +hopes and disappointments of lottery tickets. An adventurer in those +days was as different from an adventurer of to-day as was an undertaker +of 1792 from an undertaker of 1892. When a ship sailed out to China in +the years following the Revolutionary War, the ship’s owner did not own +all the cargo (if cargo of ginseng it bore), nor send out all the +contents of the bags of solid specie that were to be invested in the +rich and luxurious products of the far land. There were no giant +monopolies in those days. All his friends and neighbors were kindly and +sociably allowed to join with the wealthy shipmaster in his risks and +profits, to put in a little money on speculation—in short, to send out a +sum large or small on a “venture.” Sometimes orders were given that this +“venture” should be invested in special forms of merchandise; sometimes +it was only placed in the supercargo’s hands to share in its proportion +the general profit. Complicated books must Elias Haskett Derby have had +to keep through all these petty “ventures,” but good profits did that +honest man render, though he left at his death the largest fortune of +any American in that century. Women, fired by these alluring profits and +assailed by a gambling obsession, sold their strings of gold beads, +their spring lambs, their knitted stockings, and eagerly sent out the +accumulated sum by the ship’s purser, and received in return tea, +spices, rock-candy, crapes, china, anything they coveted for their own +use or fancied they could sell at a profit. Men, too, sent out a +“venture” as a gift to their new-born children, or to fill their own +pockets; fair maids bought through a “venture” their bridal finery. From +Bristol one young miss sent in to a ship-owner her gold earrings to +“venture” for “a sprigged and bordered India muslin gown of best make,” +and she got it too, thin and sheer, close-sprigged and deep bordered, +just as well selected and carefully conveyed as if she had “ventured a +hundred pound.” + +The newspapers of the times abounded in advertisements of blue Canton +china, such as this from the _Columbia Centinel_ of December 19, 1792: + +“Superfine Nankin blue enamelled landscape and fancy pattern China-ware +direct from China: among other articles are complete dinner setts, tea +coffee & breakfast do; Teacups & saucers & Teapots separately do; dinner +breakfast & dessert flat & Deep Plates; Punchbowles Mugs & Pitchers.” + +Frequently the china was sold direct from the vessel, or from the wharf +alongside. How truly Oriental that old Canton china must have been to +Boston and Providence and Salem dames when they had tiptoed down on the +rough old wharf in wooden clogs or velvet-tipped golo-shoes, their fair +faces covered with black velvet masks if the weather waxed cold or the +wind blew east; when they had seen the great weather-beaten ship, with +its stained sails and blackened ropes and cables—the ship that had +brought the fragile porcelain cargo to port—the Lively Prudence, the +Lively Peggy, the Lively Sally, the Lively Molly, or any of the dozen +great ships named by Yankee shipmasters and ship-owners for the lively +young women of their acquaintance. They had been on board the Indiaman, +perhaps, and smelt its bilge-water and its travelled stale ship-smells; +had watched the strange picturesque foreign sailors, barefooted and +earringed, as they brought the packages and spread out the boxes on +deck, or carried in their brawny arms the great crates on Scarlett’s or +Rowe’s Wharf, and with their bronzed tattooed hands took out the +precious porcelain from its rice-straw packing and rice-paper wrapping. +How that old blue Canton must have savored forever to the fair buyers of +the “bloom raisins,” the cinnamon, the ginger, palm-oil, gum-copal, and +ivory, the tea, the otto-of-roses, that had been fellow-travellers for +months in the good ship’s hold; and have spoken, too, of far-away lands +and foreign sights, and of “the magic and mystery of the sea.” Truly, we +of to-day have lost all the romance, the sentiment, that brightened and +idealized colonial shopping, when we know not the ship, nor scarcely the +country from whence come our stores. + +In Newport, in Bristol, in Providence, in Boston—wherever ships could +sail from port, and wherever favoring winds wafted them back again, vast +stores of this old blue Canton ware have been and can now be found; +“tall coffee-pots, with straight spouts, looking like lighthouses with +bowsprits; short, clumsy teapots with twisted handles and lids that +always fall off;” jugs, tureens, helmet pitchers, and sauce-boats. At +the recent disbandment of the family and selling of the home of one of +the old presidents of Brown University, a score of old Canton platters +were found behind trunks and old furniture under the eaves in the +garret. Too heavy, too cumbersome to be used on our modern tables, they +were banished to the garret rafters, and there prisoned, were forgotten. +In past years when roast-pig and giant turkeys were served on that +hospitable board, these great platters proudly held their steaming +trophies; but now we have changed all that—the turkey is cut up +surreptitiously in some unseen corner, and the blue Canton platters, +dusty and cobwebbed, lie forgotten in the garret. + +These vast stores of blue Canton were doubtless part of the cargo of the +Ann and Hope, the beautiful and stanch ship that in 1799 bore into +Providence “one hundred and thirty boxes of chinaware in tea and dinner +sets.” In 1800 she again brought into port three hundred and sixty-two +boxes and one hundred and twenty-four rolls of chinaware, together with +such other delightful Oriental importations as two bales of gauze +ribbons, seven boxes of lacquered ware, five hundred Chinese umbrellas, +sixty bundles of cassia and five boxes of sweetmeats, forty jars of +rock-candy, and twenty tubs of sugar-candy. In 1802 came on the Ann and +Hope one thousand and forty-eight boxes of chinaware, but, alas! no +sugar-candy, or sweetmeats for Providence lads and lasses, but instead +forty disappointing boxes of rhubarb. + +Hot-water plates of Canton china did every well-regulated and +substantial New England family own, deep hollow vessels, with their +strong heavy bottoms and little open ears. Not very practical nor +convenient of use were they—or, at least, so it seems to us nowadays. +And another and common form of coarse blue and white Chinese ware which +our grandmothers had by the score need not be despised by china +collectors—the old, high-shouldered ginger-jars that fifty and +seventy-five years ago were so good in color. Some are mammoth jars +holding nearly a gallon, that are decorated with a chrysanthemum pattern +in clear dark blue, and when set on the top of a corner cupboard need +not fear even the proximity of a cabinet specimen of costly old +hawthorn. A few members of the aristocracy of ginger-jars exist, not in +common plebeian blue and white, but with a greenish ground covered with +red and yellow enamelled flowers. These were never sold in China, but +were used as presentation jars, being usually given by some Chinese +grandee or trader to some Yankee sea-captain, or sent to America as a +token of respect to some American merchant or ship-owner. They sell +readily for $5 each in an out-of-the-way antique shop, for thirty in a +fashionable one. Six shockingly dirty specimens were found in a +hen-house on an inland farm on Long Island, and after being pumped upon +for a long season at the horse-pump, and swept off vigorously with a +birch-broom, they revealed their original glories of color, and after a +thorough cleansing and disinfecting now grace teak-wood cabinets in New +York homes. + +A very dainty form of Oriental china was seen in many hospitable homes +in the beginning of this century, a form now obsolete. I mean a “toddy +strainer.” It was a shallow, circular saucer or disk of fine Oriental +ware, blue Canton or Nankin, or white and gold Oriental porcelain, and +was pierced with tiny holes. It was about four or five inches in +diameter and bore two little projecting ears or handles, which were +fastened to the body of the strainer by embossed leaves. On the edge of +a flip-mug or a toddy glass the ears of the toddy strainer rested when +used, and when the toddy was poured from the great punch pitcher into +the glass, the strainer prevented the lemon- and orange-seeds from +entering the glass below. These toddy strainers are no longer imported +in our temperance-ruled and invention-filled days, and being of frail +china, have seldom outlived the years when they were in such constant, +jovial, and hospitable use. Nor have I seen them elsewhere than in the +seaport towns of Narraganset Bay. I fancy some luxury-loving, +toddy-drinking, money-spending old Newport merchant invented, explained +to the Chinese, and imported to America these pretty porcelain toddy +strainers. + +[Illustration: Chinese Ewer.] + +Sometimes a single odd or beautiful piece of Oriental china was brought +to America in the olden times by those far-roving and home-bringing old +sea-captains, and the single specimen still exists—a stranger in a +strange land. Such is the graceful little ewer here shown, a piece of +Persian shape, but of pure Chinese paste, and “with antick shapes in +China’s azure dyed.” This design, with its “little lawless azure-tinted +grotesques,” forms a piece curious enough to be worthy a place in any +cabinet. Such also is a dull green enamelled and crackled bowl which I +own, and a Chinese dish of antique earthenware, which has been mended +and riveted by some Oriental china-mender with gold wire. A great blue +and white tall jar with red lacquered cover is unique in size as it is +in its contents—long strings of sugar-coated Chinese sweetmeats, +sweetmeats so unpleasant and outlandish in flavor and so mysterious in +appearance that they were regarded with keen disfavor by simple +stay-at-home New Englanders, who invested the innocent sweets with +alarming attributes, and laid them under suspicion of concealing within +their sugary surfaces bits of all the heathenish edibles—sharks’ fins, +birds’ nests, puppies’ tails, and other unchristian foods that had been +seen and even tasted in foreign lands by bold travelled mariners. Hence +there still lie at the bottom of the great jar a few silken strings of +shrivelled, unwholesome-looking black knobs like some strange Oriental +beads; despised by generations of sweet-toothed children of the +Puritans, and now too adamantine in consistency to be tasted or nibbled +even by the boldest gourmand or curiosity-seeker of to-day. + +“Posy-holders” are found of India china with a rich decoration of red, +blue, and gold, with little flecks of green, the cover pierced with +holes to keep the stems of the flowers in place; “bowpots” also of +similar porcelain and ornamentation. + +I have not found in my china hunting any old blue hawthorn jars, nor any +fragile pieces of “grains-of-rice” porcelain, nor sets of covered +saki-cups in scarlet and gold, nor dainty translucent cups that seem +naught but glaze, though I have been shown them in other collections as +country treasure trove. I have seen a few tall green crackle vases and +jars, of age and dignity enough to chill unspoken within our lips any +inquiry regarding or suggesting purchase. + +[Illustration: Persian Vase.] + +A few stray polychrome Chinese bowls of the description known as “real +Indian” I have found, and I hear that whole dinner services of such +wares were imported. General Gage had one in Boston, and a few of its +beautiful plates escaped destruction at the “looting” of the Province +House. But the old services of Oriental china that I have seen have all +been blue Canton or Lowestoft. The graceful blue and white vase here +shown I at first sight fancied to be Chinese, but now believe to be +Persian. As the country owner of this oddly-shaped and rather +curiously-decorated vase knew nothing of how it had been acquired by the +members of her family, nor how long it had been possessed by them, nor +whence it came, nor indeed anything, save that it had stood for many +years on her grandmother’s best room mantel-shelf, it may be a +comparatively modern piece of ware. I have woven about it and haloed +around it an Arabian Nights romance of astonishing plot and fancy, in +which a gallant Yankee sailor, a hideous Arabian merchant, and a +black-eyed, gauze-robed houri fill the leading parts; and perhaps my +imaginative story of the presence of the Persian outcast in a staid New +England farm-house is just as satisfactory as many of the wondrous china +tales we hear. + +An everlasting interest rests in all Oriental china in attempting to +translate the meaning of the Oriental stamps and marks. I have never +deciphered any save a few of the hundred forms of _Show_—the Chinese +greeting, “May you live forever,” and the marks on one old Chinese bowl, +which signified _wan_, a symbol used only on articles made for talented +literary persons; _Pŏ koo chin wan_ “for the learned in antiquities and +old curiosities,” and the mark of the instruments used by authors—the +stone for grinding ink, the brushes for writing, and the roll of paper. +I was highly delighted, and indeed very proud, when I discovered the +meaning of these Chinese letters. I tried to fancy that it was a +significant coincidence—a friendly message from the old world to the +new—that pointed out that I too belonged to what is in China the ruling +class, the literati. But the more closely I examined my literary +tickets, the more depressed I became. I found, alas, that these +flattering marks were never placed on my bowl by the Orientals; they +were skilfully painted over the glaze in oil colors by the base, jesting +Occidental who gave the piece of old porcelain to me. + +The china called Lowestoft was, without doubt, the kind most desired and +most fashionable in early Federal times throughout both North and South. +Such was the dinner service of the Carrolls of Carrollton, with bands of +rich brown and gold and a pretty letter C. Such was the family china of +William Morris; of John Rutledge, with the initials J. R. and the shield +and eagle; and the tea-service of John Dickinson, with blue and gold +bands and his initials. Of Lowestoft china was one of the beautiful +services of General Knox—his “best china” that was used on state +occasions. It was banded with delicate lines of pale gray, black, and +gold, and the rich coloring of red, blue, and gold was confined to the +decoration in the centre of the plate. This was an eagle with extended +wings, bearing on his breast the seal of the Society of the Cincinnati, +a round shield with a group of appropriate figures surrounded by the +motto, “Omnia relinquit servare rempublicam,” a motto certainly very +significant of General Knox’s patriotism. The eagle was surmounted by a +wreath of palm or laurel leaves tied with a knot of blue ribbon. Beneath +the eagle were delicately formed initials about half an inch in +height—L. F. and H. K.—the H. and K. intertwined just as General Knox +always wrote them. This beautiful service was a gift to Mrs. Knox from +her rich grandfather, General Waldo; a wedding gift, it is often +asserted, though I had hardly supposed that her relatives, being so +bitterly opposed to the _mésalliance_ of the “belle of Massachusetts” +with the young clerk in a bookshop, had given her any such rich tokens +of approval. Then, too, the runaway match was made at the beginning of +the Revolutionary War, and Mrs. Knox, following her husband from +battle-field to battle-field, would hardly have needed or thought of +such fine china. The fact that it bears the decoration of the seal of +the Cincinnati, points to a date after the establishment of that +society. + +Lowestoft, too, was the china table-ware of John Hancock, the table-ware +that he ordered to be thrust one side and replaced by old-fashioned +pewter. And when he lay in his bedroom groaning with the gout and heard +the rattle of a china plate on the table in the dining-room below, he +ordered his servant to throw the precious but noise-making dish out of +the window, and the thrifty black man saved the dainty Lowestoft by +throwing it on the grass. + +But the every-day china, the common table-ware, of all these good +American citizens and patriots—Knox, Hancock, Paul Revere, the Otises, +Quincys, and a score that might be named—the plates and dishes of china +from which they ate their daily bread, were not of Lowestoft, but of +honest old blue Canton. + + + + + IX. + THE COSEY TEAPOT + + +It is small wonder that the craze for the gathering together and +hoarding of teapots has assailed many a feminine china hunter in many a +land, and that many a noble collection has been made. Teapots are so +friendly and appealing, one cannot resist them. No china-loving woman +can pass them by, they are so domestic as well as beautiful; a steam of +simple cheer and homeliness ascends forever (though invisible) from +their upturned spouts, and a gentle genie of cosiness and welcome dwells +therein. + +And then their forms are so varied! Plates, from their nature, +necessarily show a prosaic flatness and similarity of outline; cups and +saucers are limited in their capabilities of diversification; but +teapots! you may find a new shape for every day in the year. + +In America we have an extra incentive and provoker of interest in the +extraordinary great age assigned to teapots. You can hardly find one of +any pretension to antiquity in America that is asserted to be less than +two hundred years old; and two centuries and a half are as naught to +teapot-owners. Sophisticated possessors are a little shy about assigning +their old teapots to the Mayflower invoice, since we have heard so many +incredulous and bantering jibes about the size and tonnage of that +capacious ship; but country owners are troubled by no such fears of +ridicule, and boldly assert the familiar tradition; while the pages of +our catalogues of loan collections containing entry after entry of +“teapots brought over in 1620,” “teapots three hundred years old,” show +the secret faith and belief of even more travelled and studied +teapot-owners. + +1630—1640—1650! It would seem, could we trust tradition, that teapots +just swarmed in America in those years. There were none then in England +or Holland or China, and no tea even in England; but it is proudly +boasted that we had teapots and, of course, tea also in America. I +wonder we do not claim the teapot as a Yankee invention! The Chinese +knew naught of any such “conveniencys” at that time; they stupidly +steeped their tea in a cup or dish or bowl; indeed, they do so still in +the great shops, and tea-gardens, and yaamens of China, and would +doubtless have conservatively clung to the same simple and primitive +fashion in all their houses to this day, had not the opened traffic with +the western world shown them the restless craze for change common to +nearly all Europeans and awakened in them a desire for novelty and +improvement. + +The first mention of English teapots which I have chanced to see is in +the private memorandum book of John Dwight, of Fulham, potter. The date +of the entry is previous to 1695. It is a receipt for “the fine white +clay for Dishes or Teapots to endure boiling water.” Under date of +November, 1695, he says: “The little furnace where the last Red Teapots +was burnt I take to be a convenient one for this vse.” An entry dated +1691 tells of a “strong Hardy Clay fit for Teapots;” and again of a +“dark colour’d Cley for marbled Dishes and teapots to endure boiling +water.” In Houghton’s Collections of 1695 we read: “Of teapots in 1694 +there came but ten, and those from Holland, but to our credit be it +spoken, we have about Fauxhall made a great many, and I cannot gainsay +but they are as good as any came from abroad.” The first successful +experiment of Bottcher in the manufacture of porcelain took the form of +a teapot; and potters of succeeding years have spent much time and +thought in inventing new shapes and decorations for tea-drawing vessels. +Would it not be interesting to have a cabinet with a chronological and +also a cubical succession of teapots, from the tiny ones of Elers-ware +used in the time of Queen Anne, when tea was sold in ounce packages at +the apothecaries, down to the great three-quart teapot used by Dr. +Johnson and sold at the sale of Mrs. Piozzi’s effects? There would I +stop and never admit as a teapot the ugly great spouted earthen casks +made in Japan, to satisfy abnormal-minded and craving collectors. Into +one of these hideous monstrosities in the possession of a well-known +collector, two men were able to crawl, seat themselves, and have the +cover placed over them—a sight to make the judicious china-lover grieve. + +In still another china-succession might we write the history of the +teapot in America, from the simple plebeian undecorated earthenware pot +in which was sparingly placed the precious pinch, through the +gayly-colored and larger teapot, earthen still, through Wedgwood’s +varied wares in which our patriotic grandmothers drank their wretched +“Liberty Tea,” to the fine porcelain treasures of Worcester, Minton, +Derby, Sèvres, and Dresden of to-day—a story of the growth of our nation +in luxury and elegance. + +The earliest known mention of the use of tea by Englishmen is in a +letter written in 1615 by one wanderer in China to another +fellow-soldier, asking for a “pot of the best sort of chaw” and also for +“three silver porringers to drink chaw in.” By 1664 it appears to have +been sold in England in some considerable quantity, in spite of Pepys’s +oft-quoted entry in his diary in the year 1665 about tasting “thea a +China drink” that he never had drunk before. Pepys was far from rich at +that time, and tea may have been in frequent use for some years among +persons of wealth and quality without his ever having tasted it. It +quickly grew in favor in the court, the first importations all coming +from the Continent, from Holland, and soon was plentiful and +comparatively cheap. Among the common people and conservative country +folk, however, beer still held its own at breakfast and supper until +Swift’s time. + +New England dames followed the fashions, fancies, and tastes of their +sisters in Old England as soon as their growing prosperity allowed. When +in 1666 the fragrant herb cost sixty shillings a pound in England, I +hardly think our frugal Pilgrim Fathers imported much tea. The first +mention of tea which I have found shows that in 1690 Benjamin Harris and +Daniel Vernon were licensed to sell “in publique,” in Boston, “Coffee +Tee & Chucaletto.” The following year two other tea-houses were +licensed. Dr. Benjamin Orman had a “Tinn Teapott” in Boston previous to +his death in 1695, an article of novelty and luxury that probably few of +his neighbors possessed. Though Felt, in his “New England Customs,” and +Weeden, in his “Social and Economic History of New England,” both say +that green tea was first advertised for sale in Boston in 1714, I find +in the _Boston News Letter_ of March, 1712, “green and ordinary teas,” +advertised for sale at “Zabdiel Boyltons (or Boylstons) Apothecary +Shop,” and in the same year teapots and tea-tables were sold at the +Swing Bridge by “Publick Outcry.” In 1713 Zabdiel Boylston had Bohea +tea; in 1714 “very fine green tea, the best for color and taste,” was +advertised; and in 1715 tea was sold at the Coffee House, thus showing +that it was being imported in larger quantities. The taste quickly +spread, and wherever there was tea there was also a teapot. Weeden says +that it is strange that Judge Sewall, with all his fussing about wine, +and “chokolet,” and “cyder,” and “pyes,” and cakes, and “almonds and +reasons,” and oranges and figs, says naught of tea. He does speak of it; +he drank at a “great and Thursday” lecture, at Madam Winthrop’s house in +the year 1709, “Ale Tea & Beer,” and he does not especially note it as a +rarity. I do not believe, however, though he lived until 1730, when it +was sold in every Boston dry-goods, grocers’, hardware, millinery, and +apothecary shop, and advertised in every Boston newspaper, that he often +drank the “cup that cheers but not inebriates.” He may have regarded it +as did Henry Saville, who wrote deploringly of tea-drinking in 1678 as a +“base and unworthy Indian practice,” saying sadly, “the truth is, all +nations are growing so wicked.” + +In 1719 Bohea tea was worth twenty-four shillings a pound in +Philadelphia. In 1721 it had risen six shillings higher in price, while +by 1757 it cost only seven shillings a pound. In 1725 they had both +green and Bohea tea in Virginia and the Carolinas, as is shown by the +writings of the times; while, though I have not found it advertised till +1728 in New York, the “tea-water pump” showed its large use in that +town. When tea was first introduced into Salem it was boiled in an iron +kettle, and after the liquor was strained off, it was then drank without +milk or sugar, while the leaves of the herb were placed in a dish, +buttered and salted and eaten. + +A letter printed in “Holmes’s Annals,” and written in 1740, thus +complains: “Almost every little tradesman’s wife must sit sipping tea +for an hour or more in the morning, and maybe again in the afternoon, if +they can get it, and nothing will please them to sip it out of but +chinaware. They talk of bestowing of thirty or forty shillings on a tea +equipage, as they call it. There is the silver spoons, the silver tongs, +and many other trinkets that I cannot name.” Bennett, in his Travels, +told the same tale of Boston women. Each woman then carried her own tiny +teapot when she made one of those much-deprecated tea-drinking visits, +and often her own teacup also, else she might have to drink from a +pewter cup. And she frequently brought her own precious thimbleful of +tea, especially if she chanced to have a decided fancy in the variety of +the herb that she used. + +In the latter half of the eighteenth century tea and teapots were common +enough in America, and the “China herb” played a part in our national +history that would have immortalized it had it no other claims to our +love and consideration. In December, 1773, Boston Harbor was made one +great “tea-drawing,” and after that memorable event many American dames +gave up from a sense of duty their favorite beverage, but they did not +destroy their tea-sets. Here is the lament of one matron over her empty +urn: + + “Farewell the tea-board with its gaudy equipage + Of cups and saucers, Cream-bucket, Sugar-tongs, + The pretty tea-chest, also lately stored + With Hyson, Congo and best Double Fine. + Full many a joyous moment have I sat by ye + Hearing the girls tattle, the old maids talk scandal + Though now detestable. + Because I am taught and I believe it true + Its use will fasten Slavish chains upon my Country + To reign triumphant in America.” + +There is in New Bedford one very interesting old teapot which lays a +very definite, decided, and special claim to having been brought over in +the Mayflower. It is said to have been the property of Elder Brewster, +and is known as the “Elder Brewster Teapot.” It is a pretty little +cylindrical vessel with fluted bands, and is decorated with gilt lines +and dark red flowers and border. Scoffers, of course, will bring up to +you all the oft-enumerated points—that the Pilgrims had no china, that +tea was not known in England, and probably not known in Holland in 1620; +that teapots are a comparatively modern invention—but still we feel an +interest in this “Elder Brewster Teapot.” It brought at the sale of +Governor Lyon’s effects only $45, which low price was, I fear, an +indication that the belief of the scoffers prevailed among the buyers +there assembled. The firm of Richard Briggs & Co., of Boston, caused to +be manufactured in 1874 a number of reproductions of this teapot. Before +taking the original to Messrs. Wedgwood, at Etruria, they were careful +to obtain the opinion of a china expert, Mr. Townsend, of the South +Kensington Museum, who pronounced the “Elder Brewster Teapot” old Delft, +and showed to Mr. Briggs several specimens similarly decorated. Whatever +it may be—old Delft, old Meissen, old Staffordshire, or even +comparatively modern ware—the reproduction is certainly a pretty little +teapot, even if the Mayflower episode in the career of the original be +said to be fabulous. The story of the acquisition of this teapot by +Governor Lyon is very interesting. He bought it from an old lady in +Vermont, but only after repeated visits, much cajolery, many rebuffs, +and a very stiff purchase sum. + +There is in Morristown, in the beautiful old colonial mansion known as +Washington’s Headquarters, a tall teapot which is dissimilar in shape to +the Elder Brewster teapot, but which is exactly like it in paste, in +decoration of dull vermilion and maroon, and as a further resemblance, +it has the same rather curiously modelled flower as a knob on the cover. +This teapot is labelled “Old English ware,” and old English Delft it +apparently is. It certainly looks like a sister of the Elder Brewster +teapot. + +At this home of the Washington Association may be seen many other +curious and interesting teapots—old Spode, Staffordshire, and Wedgwood. +Black basalts and cream-ware specimens of good design are found in the +well-kept and well-arranged cases. All have a story or a history of past +owners to make them interesting, aside from the longing we feel for them +as “specimens.” I would we could pour out from their spouts in old-time +words the stream of Continental tattle that has been poured into them; +we could write therefrom a social and economic history of our country +that would excel in point of detail Boswell’s Johnson, Pepys’s Diary, +and Horace Walpole’s Letters all rolled into one. + +A famous and curious teapot was the shape known as the Cadogan. They +were also used for coffee, and were formed from a model of Indian +green-ware brought from abroad by the Marchioness of Rockingham, or the +Hon. Mrs. Cadogan, and from her received the name. They were made at the +Rockingham works; and George IV., then Prince Regent, a connoisseur in +tea, chancing to see one and to praise the tea that came from it, the +Cadogan teapots sprang at once into high fashion. Mortlock, the dealer, +ordered for one season’s supply, £900 worth. This teapot was all in one +piece; it had no cover. It was filled through a hole in the bottom. A +slightly spiral tube ran up from this hole nearly to the top of the +teapot. It can plainly be seen that when it was filled with an infusion +of tea and inverted, that the liquid could only escape through the +spout. The teapots were decorated on the outside with raised leaves and +flowers. Some of these Cadogan teapots of course came to America, and +are now found in collections. I have also seen Japanese “puzzle teapots” +fashioned in the same manner, to be filled at the bottom. Another +Japanese “puzzle-teapot” looks like a gray earthen doughnut with a +handle and spout, the tea being poured into it through the hollow +handle. + +George IV. was a connoisseur in teapots not only from a gastronomic +point of view, but he was a collector of them as well, and had at the +Pavilion at Brighton great pyramids formed of a vast variety of teapots. +Many collections of them have been made in England. Mrs. Hawes left to +her daughter three hundred choice teapots which were arranged in a room +built specially for them. A number that had belonged to Queen Charlotte +were in this gathering. Such a collection is interesting and +instructive, the pieces being from various factories and lands. Even +more instructive still, because gathered with a definite purpose and +forming a serial guide to the perfect knowledge of the ceramic +productions of a single country, is such a collection of teapots as that +in the unrivalled Morse Collection in the Boston Museum of Art. But +collections of modern Japanese teapots, gathered simply for the sake of +seeing how many different kinds and what grotesque shapes one can get, +do not appeal to me. Such is said to be the modern “assorted lot” of +Madame de Struve, the wife of the minister to Japan, who gathered +together nine hundred and seventy-five Japanese teapots. Such a +collection can be formed in a week by any person having money enough to +pay for them and interest enough to order the cratefuls sent home; while +a collection of good old teapots of Oriental, English, French, and +German wares is a matter of a lifetime, especially if historical +interest is a desideratum, and good taste as well. + +I have not seen in America, as may be found in boudoirs and dining-rooms +in France and England, any friezes “three row deep” of teapots round the +top of the room; but one fair New York china-maniac, who says with the +vehement exaggeration so typical of American women, “I love my teapots +and my tea as I love my life,” has a narrow shelf quite round the +wall-top, about a foot below the ceiling, filled closely with a gay +procession of vari-colored, vari-formed teapots. It is a unique and +striking decoration—in good taste, since the frieze teapots are none of +them gems, but simply gay and effective bits of Oriental color and +grotesque shape. In a cabinet, glass-covered and screened, are all the +old teapots which she owns, a rare and dainty company of ancients and +honorables. + +At Stockbridge, in the possession of Mrs. Plumb, may be seen, arranged +on shallow shelves, a large and good collection of teapots, gathered +chiefly from farm-houses in the country around. Over one hundred old +English pieces are among the number, some of them being very beautiful +and rare. + +Mottoes, names, and inscriptions are often found on ancient teapots +found in America. One of Leeds-ware bears on one side the words: + + “May all loving friends + Be happy and free + In drinking a Cup + Of Harmless Tea.” + +Another bears these verses: + + “My Lad is far upon the Sea + His absence makes me mourn + The bark that bears him off from me + I hope will safe return + And from his earnings I’ll save up + If lucky he should be + And then when old with me he’ll stop + And go no more to sea” + +Another friendly teapot has the lines: + + “Kindly take this gift of mine + Full of love for thee & thine. 1769.” + +A fourth this good advice: + + “Drink only tea + & Sober keep.” + +Many of the sailor mottoes found on Liverpool pitchers are also seen on +teapots of Liverpool ware, as if made to some sailor’s order for a gift. + +[Illustration: Lowestoft Teapot.] + +Perhaps the teapots most commonly used by our grandmothers are the types +here shown; one a cylindrical Canton china teapot known now as +Lowestoft, and one a gayly painted Bristol pottery teapot. Specimens of +the latter and Staffordshire pottery teapots differed much in shape, an +hexagonal form being frequent, and the swan or dolphin knob being seen +on many of the varied shapes. The black Jackfield teapots with raised +designs, looking like black glass, are sometimes found, silver mounted +and quaint. + +[Illustration: Bristol Pottery Teapot.] + +For the perfection, the idealization of the teapot we must turn to the +productions of Josiah Wedgwood. Appropriate and convenient in shape, +elegant in decoration, perfect in manufacture, they have handles +adjusted in precisely the best possible balancing place, spouts shaped +to empty the contents in the most perfect and thorough manner, covers +that slide or fit with ease and yet with exactitude, bases that are +perfectly proportioned and levelled—in a Wedgwood teapot we find +elegance and fitness equally combined, it obeys and satisfies every +artistic, economic, and mathematical rule; “built by that only law—that +use be suggestive of beauty.” Our modern tastes do not run now to the +black basalts, the blue jasper, the cream-ware of Wedgwood; we fancy a +glazed, painted porcelain for every-day use, but the fact remains the +same—the Wedgwood teapots are the best, the most perfect ever made; even +in China and Japan, the acknowledged home of teapots, where the little +vessels are not only used to hold tea, but as an omniparient cistern of +every other liquid, even in those countries can be found no more perfect +teapots than those of Wedgwood. They deserve the appellation of De +Quincey, “an eternal teapot.” + + + + + X. + PUNCH-BOWLS AND PUNCHES + + +There is no individual piece of china around which shines such a glowing +halo of warm hospitality, of good-fellowship, of good cheer, as around +the jolly punch-bowl. A plate, a mug, a pitcher, is absolutely devoid of +any interest or sentiment save what may come from knowledge of past +ownership, or from beauty or quaintness of decoration; a teapot conveys +a sense of cosiness and homeliness; but a punch-bowl, even a common, +ugly, cracked crockery punch-bowl—visions of good company and good +companions rise at the very sight, even at the very name. + +What tales of colonial and continental times an old American punch-bowl +could tell if it only could and would repeat half that it has heard; +what gay drinking-songs, what stirring patriotic speeches, what sharp +legal wit, what sober and circumspect clerical jokes, what kindly +eleemosynary plans would echo cheerfully out of its great sounding bell +could it, like the phonograph, give forth what has rung into it in the +past! What scenes of rollicking mirth, of dancing feet and dicing-games +have been photographed on its insensitive and unchanging glaze! In what +scene of cheerfulness and of seriousness alike did not the colonial +punch-bowl take its part? It encouraged the soldier on eve of battle, it +bade the sailor God-speed. The heavy Delft bowl stood filled and +refilled to the brim at the husking-party, the apple-bee, the +wood-spell, the timber-rolling, the muster, the house-raising, the +lottery-drawing, the election; while the big India china bowl stood even +on the church steps at an ordination or a church dedication. It held the +water to christen the baby; it made cheerful the wedding-feast; and even +in times of sadness it was not banished, but side by side with the +funeral baked meats the omnipresent punch-bowl stood to greet and cheer +every sad comer. + +Indeed, at a funeral the punch-bowl specially shone. Great pains were +taken and no expense spared to properly concoct and serve the sombre +funeral-punches. “Rum, lemons, a loaf of sugar, and spices,” sometimes +also “Malligo raisins and rose-water,” were items on every reputable and +_à la mode_, as they called it, undertakers’ bills. A sober, +responsible, and above all, an _experienced_ committee was appointed to +carefully mix and flavor the last libation that could ever be offered to +the dead friend. Small wonder with such good cheer that even sober Judge +Sewall openly called a funeral a “treat.” And we can understand why a +very worthy old gentleman, a lover of the olden times, complained with +much bitterness in the early part of this century that “temperance had +done for funerals.” The gayly-flowered and gilded punch-bowl was not +sadly draped in trappings of woe, nor set one side in seclusion, but +standing cheerfully in a prominent position with its spicy welcome, made +even sad mourners feel that life was still worth living. + +The punch-bowl certainly flourished proudly in America through the +eighteenth century, just as it reigned in honor in England at the same +time. Previous to that date the English prototype of the punch-bowl had +been the posset-pot, and that primitive form still exists, and indeed is +made and used in Derbyshire and the neighboring English counties to the +present day. A few posset-pots have made their way to America with +Derbyshire emigrants and have been gathered in by rapacious collectors. +On Christmas eve in olden times the great vessel, which sometimes held +two gallons, was filled with the “good drink,” and a silver coin and a +wedding-ring were dropped in when the guests assembled; each partaker in +turn dipped out a great spoonful or ladleful of the drink, and whoever +was lucky enough to fish up the coin was certain of good luck during the +ensuing year, while the ring-finder would be happily and speedily +married. Posset was a very good mixture—a “very pretty drink”—not so +good as punch, of course, but to us invested with a reflected glory. +Hath not Shakespeare oft spoke to us of posset? In my little “Queen’s +Closet Opened,” a book of culinary, medical, and potatory recipes +collected by and for Queen Henrietta Maria, I find half a dozen rules +for the brewing of “sack-posset.” “To make a Sack-Posset without Milk or +Cream: Take eighteen Egs, whites and all, taking out the Treads, let +them be beaten very well, take a pint of Sack, and a quart of Ale +boyl’d, and scum it, then put in three-quarters of a pound of suger and +a little Nutmeg, let it boyl a few wames together, then take it off the +fire stirring the Egs still, put into them two or three Ladlefuls of +drink, then mingle all together, and set it on the fire, and keep it +stirring til you find it thick then serve it up”—and not drink it, but +cut it up and eat it, one might fancy. There is no recipe for punch in +my “Queen’s Closet.” I fear Queen Henrietta did not know about that new +drink, punch, in 1676, when this quaint old book was published. Had she +done so, she had not needed so many nostrums for insomnia. Englishmen in +India knew of it; “spiced punch in bowls the Indians quaff,” wrote one +in 1665, and in 1697 Tryer spoke of it and basely libelled it as “an +enervating liquor.” The punchless Queen knew, however, how to make +hypocras, metheglin, mead, caudle, cordial-water, aqua-cœlestis, +aqua-mirabilis, clary-water, gillyflower-wine, usquebarb, and, best and +delectablest of all, she knew how to make a Damnable Hum, and I doubt +not she served it in a punch-bowl as was befitting so noble a drink. + +The posset-pot had some cousins in England—the goddard, the +wassail-bowl, the gossip-bowl, the caudle-cup—poor relations, however, +and feeble ancestors of the glorious punch-bowl. To the Orientals, not +to the English, we owe our punch-bowls and our punches. Punch or “pauch” +was an Indian drink, and the word meant five, and was named from the +five ingredients used in its composition—arrack, tea, sugar, water, and +lemon-juice. A “pauch” was also a conclave of five men, a “pauch-pillav” +a medicine of five ingredients, and so on. + +The English people took very readily to the new Oriental drink and the +new vessel to hold it, as it did to everything else in India. We read in +the old ballad of “Jock-o’-the-Side,” “They hae gard fill up a +punch-bowl,” and when a ballad adopts a word, then it is the people’s. +As the potter’s art advanced in England, great bowls were made to hold +punch at taverns and halls, often for the special use of the potters +themselves. Cheerful mottoes did these potters’ punch-bowls sometimes +bear. For simplicity and terseness this excels, “One Bowie more, and +then”—does it not speak a never-ending welcome? A blue and white +potter’s bowl ten inches in diameter has this descriptive motto: + + “John Udy of Luxillion + his tin was so fine + it glidered this punch-bowl + and made it to shine, + pray fill it with punch + let the tinners sitt round + they never will budge + till the bottom they sound.” + +Glider meant to glaze, not to gild, and the verses refer to the +stanniferous opaque white glaze formed by the use of Cornish tin. + +Another bowl has these sententious lines: + + “What art can with the potter’s art compare? + For of what we are ourselves of such we make our wares.” + +More serious rhymes still are found. At North Hylton, in England, were +made many punch-bowls of lustre ware, and the proprietor, Mr. Phillips, +must have been a very serious-minded and inconsequential man, or he +never would have put these lines on so worldly a vessel: + + “The loss of gold is great, + The loss of health is more, + But losing Christ is such a loss + As no man can restore.” + +This bowl may, however, have been for a parson. On another specimen of +the Hylton pottery gayly decorated with a print of a ship, a public +house, and a hat-and-feathered young woman with an umbrella and small +dog, are these sober and comically incongruous verses: + + “There is a land of peaceful rest + To mourning wanderers given, + There’s a tear for souls distrest, + A balm for every wounded breast, + ’Tis found above in Heaven!” + +Were it not for the public house, and the hat and feathers, we should +know that this punch-bowl was surely made purposely to use at funerals. + +One of the finest punch-bowls ever figulated is twenty inches and a half +in diameter. It is of Liverpool Delft, painted in blue with ships and a +landscape, and the inscription, “Success to the Africa Trade, George +Dickinson.” When we remember of what the “Africa Trade” consisted—the +slave-traffic—we wonder the punch did not poison the drinkers. I have +often seen this bowl referred to by authors as of extraordinary and +unique size. It is not as large as the grand blue and white punch-bowl +used by the first Continental Congress, a bowl which is now at +Morristown, at Washington’s Headquarters. I do not know whether this +mammoth Congressional bowl is Canton china or English delft, for, since +it stands in a cupboard, one cannot examine it closely. The color and +design are good, and the size impressive, and altogether it is a noble +relic, for this courage-giver of those troubled and anxious Federal days +may have played no unimportant part in the affairs and history of our +nation; I regard it with grateful awe and veneration, and also with a +rather unworthy pride and satisfaction in its great size. + +There were hosts of punch-bowls at that date in America. Watson wrote in +1830, of old colonial Philadelphia: “A corner was occupied by a beaufet, +which was a corner closet with a glass door, in which all the china and +plate were intended to be displayed for ornament as well as for use. A +conspicuous article was always a great china punch-bowl.” And they +needed a punch-bowl, and a large one too, if we can trust the local +annals of the time. William Black recorded in his diary in 1744, that he +was given in Philadelphia cider and punch for lunch, rum and brandy +before dinner, punch, Madeira, port, and sherry at dinner, bounce and +liqueurs with the ladies, and wine and spirits and punch until bedtime. +Well might he say that in Philadelphia “they were as liberal with wine +as an apple-tree with its fruit on a windy day.” + +A clergyman named Acrelius gives us the most abundant proof why +Philadelphians and their neighbors always should need a punch-bowl. In +1759 there was printed in Stockholm a detailed account of Pennsylvania +or New Sweden, written by this Parson Acrelius. He fairly revels in his +descriptions of the appetizing drinks to be had in the new land, and he +unctuously explains how to concoct the “mixed drinks” in the most +approved fashion. Here is the list of American drinks that he sent back +to Sweden to encourage emigration. French Wine, Frontenac, Pontac, +Port-a-port, Lisbon Wine, Phial Wine, Sherry, Madeira Wine, Sangaree, +Mulled Wine, Currant Wine, Cherry Wine, Raspberry Wine, Apple Wine or +Cider, Cider Royal, Mulled Cider, Rum “which is like French Brandy, only +with no unpleasant odor,” Raw-dram, Egg-dram, Egg-nogg, Cherry-dram, +Cherry Bounce, Billberry Bounce, Punch, Mamm, Manathann (made of small +beer, rum and sugar), Hotchpot (also of beer, curd and rum), Sampson (of +warm cider and rum). More familiar and modern names appear also: Tiff, +Flip, Hot Rum, Mulled Rum, Grog, Sling; then come Long-sup, Mint-water, +Egg-punch, Milk-punch, Sillabub, Still Liquor (which was peach brandy), +Anise Cordial, Cinnamon Cordial—in all a list of fifty drinks with an +added finish of liqueurs, “drops almost without end,” meads, metheglins, +and beers. Now, do you wonder that they had great and many punch-bowls +in Philadelphia? What a list to make a toper wish that he had lived in +Pennsylvania in colonial days. + +Sober Boston was not one whit behind its Quaker neighbor. As early as +1686 John Dunton had more than one “noble bowl of punch” in that Puritan +town. Bennett, a visitor in Boston, in 1740, wrote, “As to drink they +have no good beer. Madeira wines and rum-punch are the liquors they +drink in common.” Boston people of fashion served a great punch-bowl of +flip or punch before dinner. If the bowl were not too large it was +passed from hand to hand, and all drank from it without the ceremony of +intervening glasses. I doubt not it was a test of high fashion to handle +well and gracefully the punch-bowl. + +Various and strange were the names of the contents of these +punch-bowls—names not on Parson Acrelius’s list. Madam Knights wrote in +1704, that “the Bare-legged Punch had so awfull or rather awkerd a name +that we would not drink.” Berkeley wrote that the strong drink of +Virginia in 1710 was “Mobby Punch, made either of rum from the Caribbee +Islands, or Brandy distill’d from their Apples and Peaches.” Another +Virginian traveller wrote in 1744, “Our liquor was sorry rum mixed with +water and sugar, which bore the heathenish name of Gumbo punch.” +“Pupello punch” was made from cider brandy. “Sangry punch” was probably +an accented sangaree. “Rack punch” was made from arrack; while “Jincy +punch” I leave to the philologists, antiquaries, or expert bartenders to +define or analyze. + +Where are all those great punch-bowls now that we read of in history? I +wish I could see the punch-bowl used by the Newburyport ministers in +their frequent social meetings, the punch-bowl in the picture painted +over Parson Lowell’s mantel, the picture with its great bowl, the +parsons all smoking, and the cheerful motto, “In Essentials, Unity; in +Non-essentials, Liberty; in All Things, Charity.” + +I should like to see the bowl which played such an important part in the +transfer of the four hundred acres of land which formed the birthplace +of Thomas Jefferson. Old Peter Jefferson made a very canny trade when he +acquired the deed of that large tract in exchange for “Henry +Weatherbourne’s biggest punch-bowl full of arrack punch.” Golden should +have been that bowl, and vast its size, to justify its purchase-power. + +I would I could see the great punch-bowls used by the rollicking, +hunting, drunken clergy of Virginia in ante-Revolutionary times, at +their “Monthly Meetings,” the tale of whose disgraceful revelry has been +told us by Mr. Parton in his “Life of Jefferson.” Where is the +punch-bowl used at the Wolfes Head Tavern in Newburyport, on September +26, 1765, “at the greate uneasyness and Tumult on acasion of the Stamp +Act;” the bowl from which the alarmed citizens of Newburytown drank +fifty-seven pounds worth of “double and thribble bowles” of punch, and +in company with which they had two pounds worth of supper and coffee. +Well might we say, “O monstrous! But one penny worth of bread to this +intolerable deal of Sack!” “Greate uneasyness,” no doubt, they felt. + +One of the oldest punch-bowls—indeed, one of the oldest pieces of china +in the country—is the beautiful India or Chinese bowl now owned by +Edmund Randolph Robinson, Esq., of New York. It is eighteen inches in +diameter, of rich red and gold decoration, and is mounted upon a black +wood stand upon which is a silver plate bearing the noble historical +names of its past owners, so far back as known. It is supposed to have +been brought to America by William Randolph, as his son, Sir John +Randolph, is known to have long possessed it. This gentleman was one of +the early Governors of Virginia, and Attorney-General in the first part +of the eighteenth century. His son Peyton was president of the first +Continental Congress in 1774, and Attorney-General of Virginia. From him +it passed to Edmund Randolph—also Governor and Attorney-General of +Virginia—aide-de-camp to Washington, and first Attorney-General and +second Secretary of State of the United States. He was the +great-grandfather of the present owner. This beautiful relic has passed +through good service as a christening-bowl for many generations of +Governors and Attorney-Generals, as well as enduring a vast amount of +use on less solemn occasions. + +How many punch-bowls did George Washington own? The great India china +bowl with a picture of a frigate; the “rose china” bowl now at Mount +Vernon; the fine great bowl now in the National Museum; the china bowl +given by him to William Fitzhugh. He gave a beautiful punch-bowl to his +friend and aide-de-camp, Colonel Benjamin Eyre; another to Tobias Lear, +and another to Mrs. Allen Jones, of Newberne, N. C. And still less can +we number the punch-bowls out of which he once drank. We all have one in +the possession of some member of our family—I wonder, with all his +punch-drinking, that the father of his country was ever sober. + +[Illustration: Bowl Given to Mrs. Allen Jones.] + +This beautiful great bowl, eighteen inches in diameter, was given by +Washington to Mrs. Allen Jones, and has had sad usage. It was buried in +the ground to hide it from Tarleton’s men, and is grievously cracked and +broken. It is of richest decoration of red, blue, and gold on an India +china ground. It is now owned by the Washington Association of New +Jersey. + +Washington’s India china punch-bowl, which was at Arlington House in +1840, is thus described by Mr. Lossing. “The great porcelain punch-bowl +has a deep blue border on the rim spangled with gilt dots. It was made +expressly for Washington, but when, where, and by whom is not known. In +the bottom is the picture of a frigate and on the side are the initials +‘G. W.’ in gold upon a shield, with ornamental surroundings. It is +supposed to have been presented to Washington by the French naval +officers.” + +And the “rose china” bowl at Mount Vernon! That was purchased by the +Mount Vernon Association in 1891 from the Lewis estate, for $250—and it +is broken too. It is sixteen inches across and five and a half in depth. +On the rim, both inside and outside the bowl, is an odd pink and yellow +band. Scattered over it are flowers of various colors, in which pink +predominates. + +The beautiful Chinese bowl given to Colonel Benjamin Eyre, the +Revolutionary patriot, by Washington, is now in the possession of +Colonel Eyre’s great-grandson, Benjamin Eyre Valentine, Esq., of +Brooklyn. It is about fifteen inches in diameter and five and a half +inches high, of fine Canton china, and bears around the outside of the +bowl a scene in a Chinese town, and at regular intervals flaunting flags +of all the known nations which were then engaged in maritime pursuits, +our new flag—the stars and stripes—being conspicuous among them. This +bowl thus possesses an additional historical interest, in that it is the +oldest known piece of Chinese porcelain bearing the decoration of the +American flag. It is a counterpart in size and shape to the Washington +bowl now in the Smithsonian Institution, but the latter is decorated +with Chinese landscapes and figures. It came into the possession of the +Government through the sale of Washington relics by the Lewis family. + +[Illustration: Cincinnati Bowl.] + +The most curious Continental punch-bowl that I have ever seen is the +great bowl which is here shown. It is now owned by the Washington +Association of New Jersey, and once belonged to Colonel Richard Varick, +aide to Washington. It is a beautifully-proportioned vessel of Lowestoft +or Canton china, about eighteen inches in diameter. It has a dark blue +border with festoons of gilt, and bears on the side, in well-chosen +colors, all the words and design of the full certificate of membership +of the Society of the Cincinnati. The winged figure of Fame, and the +other symbolical figures are carefully painted, and all the lettering, +including the fine text of the Latin mottoes on seal and crest, is clear +and exact. Doubtless a certificate of membership was sent to be copied +when the bowl was ordered by Colonel Varick. It is in perfect condition, +and is one of the finest historical relics of early Federal times that I +have ever seen. It plainly shows the pride and delight of Revolutionary +heroes in their new country and new associations. There are in the same +building—Washington’s Headquarters—half a dozen other punch-bowls, all +of historical interest, and all large enough to show the vastly +hospitable intent of the new-made citizens of the new Republic. + +How pleased good, plain American Republicans were with that Society of +the Cincinnati, and how it tickled their pride to wear the Order! Adams +and Franklin were seriously alarmed at the powerful hold and influence +the decoration seemed to have, and used argument and ridicule against +it. One patriotic and vain citizen had his portrait painted in the +bottom of his punch-bowl, with the Order proudly displayed around his +neck. Around him encircled that favorite emblem, the thirteen-linked +chain; great black links these were, with the name of a State in each. +On the side of the bowl the Order was again displayed in larger size. + +There is a gallant ten-gallon bowl in Upper Faneuil Hall, which belongs +to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Boston. Captain Ephraim +Prescott, when in China in 1795, procured this great bowl as a suitable +present for his companions at arms. The generous captain died during the +voyage home, and on its arrival in port the punch-bowl fell into strange +hands. Thirty years later Hon. Jonathan Hunnewell heard of its +existence, bought it for $15, and gave it to the military company for +whom it was originally purchased. Curious old orders and entries exist +about the purchase of wine, rum, sugar, and “sourings” for the +manufacture of the ancient and honorable punches. “But if sowrings be +scarce & dear, wine & rum only.” You might make a punch without lemons, +on a squeeze, but not without wine and rum. + +“Sourings” ought to have been cheap enough. Even as early as 1741 lemons +were plentiful and not at all dear. In the _Salem Gazette_ in 1741, is +this notice: “Extraordinary good and very fresh Orange Juice, which some +of the very best Punch Tasters prefer to Lemmons, at one dollar per +gallon. Also very good Lime Juice and Shrub to put into Punch, at the +Basket of Lemmons. J. Crosby.” So there was with all the punch-bowls, a +regular profession of punch-tasting; just fancy it. + +Occasionally there is some definite means of tracing the age of one of +these pieces. Thus the fine, perfect punch-bowl owned by William C. +Townsend, of Newport, is said to have been brought out by Captain Jacob +Smith, of the Semiramis, a ship that, returning home in 1804 after an +absence of three years, was lost on Nantucket Shoals. Of her cargo, +valued at three hundred thousand dollars, but little was saved; but, +strange to say, this great punch-bowl, twenty-two inches in diameter, +holding eight gallons, was brought off in safety. It has the typical +Lowestoft border of blue enamel with gold stars, and on the sides are +large medallions so European in appearance that at first they seem to +stamp the bowl as English. Examination, however, shows that the figures +have the almond eyes of the Chinese, as well as other Oriental +characteristics, and were undoubtedly copied from French or English +prints sent to Canton. + +A modern writer thus sadly deplores the “good old times:” + +“Fifty years ago the punch-bowl was no mere ornament for the side-board +and the china-cabinet; it was a thing to be brought forth and filled +with a fragrant mixture of rum, brandy and curacoa, lemon, hot water, +sugar, grated nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. The preparation of the bowl +was as much a labor of love as that of a claret-cup, its degenerate +successor. The ladles were beautiful works of art in silver—where are +those ladles now, and what purpose do they serve?” Yes, it is true, the +days of universal use for the punch-bowl are over—ornamental and curious +they now are, and nothing more. Lucky it is for us china collectors, +that dinners and everything else _à la russe_ did not obtain with our +hospitable ancestors. No great tureens, no generous pitchers, no vast +platters, and no noble punch-bowls should we now have to admire and +gloat over, and place in our cabinets as monuments of ceramic art. Had +they lived as we do, not a single punch-bowl should we have to glory in +and grow sentimental over. An ignorant butler would have carelessly and +prosaically mixed the drink in his pantry in any kind of a pot or a pan, +and then ignominiously bottled it, and brought it in when required in +driblets, in stingy little glasses that say plainly: “Drink this, and no +more.” + +Indeed, I doubt we ever would have had punch, for in the gustatory and +potatory laws of cause and effect, I know the punch-bowl evoked or +generated punch instead of being made to hold punch. I would not go back +to the rollicking, roaring, drunken ways of the olden time, but on the +whole I am glad our grandfathers had those ways and bequeathed to us the +glorious, great, ringing punch-bowls, in which they brewed and mixed and +concocted, and from which they drank that “most insinuating drink” with +which so often they got sadly, hopelessly “lusky, bosky, buffy, boozy, +cocky, fuddled, balmy, pickled, screwed, funny, foggy, hazy, groggy, +slewed, ruddled, dagged, jagged, comed, elevated, muddled, tight, +primed, mainbrace well spliced, gilded”—or whatever elegant, chaste, +colonial appellation our synonym-lacking language afforded to express +being drunk. + +One worthy tribute to an old punch-bowl has been written by one of our +best-loved poets. I would his bowl had been like my theme, china instead +of silver—ah, no! I do not, for had it been of “tenderest porcelane” it +might have been broken a century ago, and we should have known neither +his punch-bowl nor his perfect poem. How true the opening verses! + + “This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times, + Of joyous days, and jolly nights, and merry Christmas chimes; + They were a free and jovial race, but honest, brave, and true, + That dipped their ladle in the punch when this old bowl was new.” + +And can I end better than with the concluding verses? + + “I tell you there was generous warmth in good old English cheer, + I tell you ’twas a pleasant thought to bring its symbol here; + + ’Tis but the fool that loves excess—hast thou a drunken soul? + Thy bane is in thy shallow skull, not in my silver bowl! + + “I love the memory of the past, its pressed yet fragrant flowers, + The moss that clothes its broken walls, the ivy on its towers— + Nay, this poor bauble it bequeathed—my eyes grow moist and dim, + To think of all the vanished joys that danced around its brim. + + “Then fill a fair and honest cup and bear it straight to me, + The goblet hallows all it holds whate’er the liquid be, + And may the cherubs on its face protect me from the sin, + That dooms one to those dreadful words, ‘My dear, where have you been?’” + + + + + XI. + GEORGE AND MARTHA WASHINGTON’S CHINA + + +In the long and apparently extravagant orders which George Washington +sent to England previous to the Revolutionary War, for the purchase and +exportation to him of dress goods and house and table furnishings of +various descriptions, I find no mention of table china. In 1759 he wrote +for “four Fashionable China Branches or Stands for Candles,” and for +“Busts of Alexander the Great, Charles XII. of Sweden, Julius Cæsar, and +King of Prussia, fifteen inches high and ten wide. Others smaller of +Prince Eugene & Duke of Marlborough. Two wild Beasts twelve inches high +and eighteen inches long, and Sundry Small Ornaments for the chimney +piece.” As these were to be “finished neat and bronzed with copper,” or +to be gilt, they were doubtless all of plaster or some similar +composition. A portion of the items in the order were sent to him, the +wild beasts being “Two Lyons.” These two plaster “lyons,” shorn of their +golden lustre and painted ignominiously black, stood for years over a +doorway at Mount Vernon, were inherited by Lawrence Washington, and sold +in Philadelphia on April 22, 1891, for thirty dollars. + +I can find no hint of any china possessions of Washington until the War +of the Revolution was gloriously ended. He had plenty of pewter—dinner +dishes of that humble metal with his initials and crest are still +preserved. His camp-service of forty pieces was entirely of pewter, and +I doubt not the greater part also of his home table furnishings in his +early married life. + +In his directions for remodelling and refurnishing his house at Mount +Vernon, after the expiration of his terms as President, he ordered that +a small room be appropriated for “the Sèvres china and other things of +that sort which are not in common use.” Mr. Lossing says: + +“He undoubtedly referred to the sets of china which had been presented, +one to himself, and the other to Mrs. Washington, by the officers of the +French Army. The former was dull white in color, with heavy and confused +scroll and leaf ornaments in bandeaux of deep blue, and having upon the +sides of the cups and tureens, and in the bottoms of the plates, +saucers, and meat dishes, the Order of the Cincinnati held by Fame +personated by a winged woman with a trumpet. These designs were +skilfully painted in delicate colors.” + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: Cincinnati China.] + +While this description of Mr. Lossing’s is accurate as to the decoration +of the china, if not as to the quality of the decoration, a china +collector would at once discover that the “Cincinnati set” was not +Sèvres, but was plainly Chinese. It is the well-known dull white, hard +paste of Canton manufacture, with a border of commonplace Oriental +design in deep blue under the glaze. Some of the pieces have (all, +perhaps, had originally) a narrow rim of gilt on the outer edge, and a +narrow line of gilt within the border. The rather insignificant and +undersized figure of Fame has bright brown wings and trumpet, a robe of +light green, a scarf of bright pink, while the bow-knot sustaining the +colored Order of the Cincinnati is light blue. This design is not +painted at all skilfully but quite crudely over the glaze. Some of the +covered dishes bear upon the cover the order without the figure of Fame. +In a note made by Governor Lyon he states that this service was “made in +Canton in 1784, the design being furnished by General Miranda.” Though +the design be insignificant and the execution crude, much interest is +added to the Cincinnati china to know that the “most gentlemanlike of +filibusters” made the drawing for the decoration. That plausible and +brilliant man who “talked so like an angel” that Americans, Russians, +and Englishmen vied in endeavors to assist him in his visionary schemes; +who helped to establish independence in America, to give freedom to +France, to liberate his native land, Venezuela; who aided in freeing +thousands of others, died himself in a Spanish dungeon a slave, a most +miserable captive, in chains, with an iron collar around his neck. + +No one was apparently better fitted to give information on the subject +of the Cincinnati china than Governor Lyon, for he was a frequent +visitor at Mount Vernon and Arlington House in the middle of this +century; he was also collecting facts and details with a view to writing +a “History of the Ceramic Relics of the Revolution.” Unfortunately he +relied much on his memory, and hence left few notes. + +Much ignorance about this Cincinnati china is displayed, even by writers +upon pottery and porcelain. The author of “The Ceramic Art” calls it +Sèvres, and places the most Chinese-looking illustration of it alongside +the print of equally Frenchy Sèvres vases. That careful observer and +exact recorder, the author of “The China Hunters’ Club,” falls into no +such error, and though unable to examine specimens closely, says “they +looked like so-called Lowestoft, and may have been Chinese, English, or +of some French factory.” Another well-known writer says that this set +was given to Washington in 1780. As neither the Society of the +Cincinnati, nor its badge, existed until 1783, this statement is +palpably false. + +The authorities at the National Museum, and all the owners of pieces of +the set, consider that it was presented to General Washington by the +entire Society of the Cincinnati, and not by the French officers alone, +as Mr. Lossing states. It would seem probable that had the French +officers made the gift, it would have been of French china of some +elegance, instead of such commonplace Chinese porcelain. Hon. Hamilton +Fish, the President of the Society of the Cincinnati, tells me that the +general society, and, as far as known, the individual State societies, +have no records of the gift of this china to Washington; nor have I seen +any letters, any entries, any notes of the time, to prove, or even hint, +that this china was the gift of the Society of the Cincinnati. Though +Martha Washington mentions the set in her will, she does not specify it +as a gift, as she does the “set given me by Mr. Van Braam.” + +While I have never seen any statements to prove that this set of china +was the gift of the Society of the Cincinnati, there is in the +possession of Ferdinand J. Dreer, Esq., of Philadelphia, a letter which +would seem to indicate that Washington may have bought the china +himself, or, at any rate, it proves that china with the decoration of +the badge of the Cincinnati was ordered for the general American market. +The letter, which is very characteristic of Washington’s thrift and +prudence, is addressed to Colonel Tench Tilghman and runs thus: + + MT VERNON 17th Augst 1785. + + DEAR SIR: The _Baltimore Advertiser_ of the 12th inst announces the + arrival of the ship at that Port immediately from China, and by an + advertisement in the same paper I perceive that the Cargo is to be + sold by public Vendue on the first of Octo. next. + + At what prices the enumerated articles will sell on the terms proposed + can only be known from the experiment, but if the quantity at market + is great, and they should sell as goods have sold at vendue bargains + may be expected.—I therefore take the liberty of requesting the favor + of you, in that case, to purchase the several things contained in the + enclosed list. + + You will readily perceive my dear sir, my purchasing or not depends + entirely upon the prices—If _great bargains_ are to be had, I would + supply myself agreeably to the list. If the prices do not fall _below_ + a cheap _retail_ sale, I would decline them altogether or take such + articles only (if cheaper than common) as are marked in the margin of + the Invoice. + + Before October, if none of these goods are previously sold, and if + they are, the matter will be ascertained thereby, you will be able to + form a judgment of the prices they will command by Vendue—upon + information of which, I will deposit the money in your hands to comply + with the terms of the Sale. + + Since I began this letter I have been informed that good India + Nankeens are selling at Dumfries (not far from me) at 7/6 a pc this + Curr F——. But if my memory has not failed me, I used to import them + before the war for about 5S sterl. If so, though 50 per cent is a + small advance upon India Goods through a British channel (and the + duties and accumulated charges thereon) yet quaere? would not 7/6 be a + high price for Nankeens brought immediately from India, exempted from + _such_ duties and charges? If this is a conjecture founded in + fairness, it will give my ideas of the prices of the articles from + that country and be a government for your conduct therein, at or + before the day appointed for the public Vendue. + + With the highest esteem and regard + I am Dr Sir, + Yr affect friend and Obedt Serv’t + G. WASHINGTON. + + Invoice of Goods to be purchased by Tench Tilghman Esqr on account of + Geo Washington agreeable to the letter accompanying this of equal + date. + + A sett of the best Nankin Table China + Ditto—best Evening Cups & Saucers + [1] A sett of _large_ blue & white China + Dishes say half a dozen more or less + [1] 1 Doz. _small_ bowls blue & white + [1] 6 Wash hand Guglets & Basons + 6 Large Mugs or 3 mugs & 3 jugs + A Quart^r Chest best Hyson Tea + A Leagure of Battavia Arrack if a Leagure is not large. + About 13 yards of good blu: Paduasoy + A ps of fine muslin plain + [1] 1 ps of Silk Handkerchiefs + 12 ps of the Best Nankeens + 18 ps of the second quality or coursest kind for servants. + + G. WASHINGTON. + + 17th Augst 1785. + +Footnote 1: + + With the badge of the society of the Cincinnati if to be had. + +The sentimental and high-flown announcement in the _Baltimore +Advertiser_ of the arrival of the vessel referred to by Washington reads +thus: + +“On Tuesday evening last arrived here, directly from China, the ship +Pallas commanded by its owner Capt. O’Donnell. She has on board a most +valuable Cargo consisting of an extensive Variety of Teas, China, Silks, +Satins, Nankeens, &c., &c. We are extremely happy to find the Commercial +Reputation of this Town so far increased as to attract the attention of +Gentlemen who are engaged in carrying on this distant but beneficial +Trade. It is no unpleasing Sight to see the Crew of this Ship, Chinese, +Malays, Japanese and Moors with a few Europeans, all habited according +to the different Countries to which they belong, and employed together +as Brethren; it is thus Commerce binds and unites all the Nations of the +Globe with a golden Chain.” + +The advertisement of the auction sale is also given: + +“To be sold at Public Vendue at Baltimore on the 1st of October next in +Lots The Following Goods Just Imported in the Ship Pallas, direct from +China: Hyson Teas, of the first Quality in Quarter-Chests and Canisters +of about 2¼ lb each; Hyson Tea of the second sort in Chests; Singlo, +Confee, Hyson-Skin, and Gunpowder Teas of the first Quality in Chests; +and a large Quantity of excellent Bohea Tea; Table-Sets of the best +Nankin blue and white Stone China; white stone and painted China of the +second Quality in Sets; Dishes of blue and white Stone China 5 and 3 in +a Set; Stone China flat and Soup-Plates; Breakfast Cups and Saucers of +the best blue and white Stone China in Sets; Evening blue and white +Stone China Cups and Saucers; Ditto painted; _Ditto with the Arms of the +Order of Cincinnati_; Bowls—best blue and white Stone China in Sets; +blue and white Stone China Pint Sneakers; Mugs—best Stone China in Sets; +small Tureens with Covers; Wash Hand Guglets and Basons; brown Nankeen +of the first and second Quality; plain, flowered and spotted Lustrings +of all Colours; Satins, the Greatest Part Black; Peelongs of different +Colours, in whole and half Pieces; Sarsnet of different Colours; +embroidered Waistcoat Pieces of Silks and Satins; Silk Handkerchiefs, +very fine, and 20 in a piece; spotted and flowered Velvets; painted +Gauzes; Bengal Piece-Goods and Muslins, plain flowered and corded; Silk +Umbrellas of all Sizes; elegant Paper-Hangings; japanned Tea-Chests; +Ditto Fish and Counter Boxes; Sago; Cinnamon and Cinnamon Flowers; +Rhubarb; Opium; Gamboge; Borax; very old Battavia Arrack in Leagures; +with Sundry other Articles; the enumeration of which would take up too +much Room in a Public Paper.” + +Then follow the terms and methods of the sale. + +Though this inventory is of special interest to us on account of the +specification of the china with the Arms of the Order of Cincinnati, the +other items also merit attention as showing the goods and merchandise +imported at that date to America. And the strange, obsolete names of the +china articles excite our curiosity. A “guglet” is a juglet or little +jug; and the word “sneaker” is not a low Baltimorean Americanism, but +good old Addisonian English; for we read in _The Freeholder_, No. 22, +these lines: “After supper he asked me if I was an admirer of punch, and +immediately called for a sneaker.” A sneaker was originally a smaller +drinking mug or beaker than was ordinarily used, and was drunk from by a +“sneak-cup,” that contemptible creature who wished to shrink from his +convivial duties by “balking his drink,” or, to speak plainly, who +wished to drink less than his companions fancied he ought to. It came +gradually to be used as the name of a small mug, and as such frequently +appears in the inventories of china made and sold at Worcester. +Washington was no “sneak-cup,” he boldly and liberally ordered large +mugs instead of pint sneakers. + +We can well imagine the pride of Washington as he read this announcement +of the arrival of the ship direct from China with its load of rich +goods, his pride in the prosperity and increasing commerce of the new +Federal nation. The Pallas was the second ship only to arrive in the +United States direct from Canton—for Canton was at that date the only +Chinese port open to European and American vessels. + +Watson, the author of the “Annals of Philadelphia,” states that the +first ship to bring porcelain direct to America from China was commanded +by Captain John Green, and sailed patriotically from New York on +February 22d, Washington’s birthday, 1784, and landed in return on May +11, 1785. He says: “I have now a plate of the china brought by him—the +last remaining of a whole set.” This ship was the Empress of China, and +one of her officers was Captain Samuel Shaw, a brave Revolutionary +officer who had been one of the original and active founders of the +Society of the Cincinnati; in fact, one of the framers of the +constitution of the society. Thus it is easy to see the means and manner +by which the pattern of the figure Fame bearing the Cincinnati badge, +which had been drawn by General Miranda, was conveyed to China. It is +possible, of course, that Captain Shaw brought home with him in the +Empress of China the “Cincinnati set,” as a gift for General Washington; +but General Knox had a similar set. It remained in his great +china-closet at his beautiful home in Thomaston, Me., until the year +1840. A two-handled cup of this set, bearing General Knox’s initials as +well as the Order of the Cincinnati, sold for twenty-one dollars at the +Governor Lyon sale in 1876. Two of the plates that had belonged to +General Washington’s set sold at the same time for one hundred dollars +each. Though I have had two of these Cincinnati plates offered to me by +dealers, within a year, for a smaller sum, one with an authentic history +cannot now be purchased for less than three hundred dollars. A plate and +bowl were sold by Sypher in 1890 for six hundred dollars. At the Loan +Collection held at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in 1889, on +the occasion of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of George +Washington as President of the United States, there were shown several +pieces of the Cincinnati china that had belonged to Washington, one +plate belonging to Luther Kountze, Esq., of New York; a plate and saucer +belonging to Edmund Law Rogers, Esq., of Baltimore, who is a grandson of +Eliza Parke Custis, the granddaughter of Martha Washington. Mrs. Caleb +Lyon also exhibited two plates, a tray, and teapot. These pieces, with a +pickle leaf and “small terreen,” are now in the possession of Miss Lyon, +of Staten Island, and from them the illustrations on page 231 were +taken. There are no fewer than forty pieces of this set in the National +Museum in Washington; most of these were purchased by the Government +from the Lewis family in 1878. + +There are also in the National Museum several pieces of the china known +as the Martha Washington set. The smaller of the plates shown on page 9 +is one of this set. Of this china Lossing writes: + +“The set of china presented at the same time by the French officers to +Mrs. Washington was of similar material, but more delicate in color than +the General’s. The ornamentation was also far more delicate, excepting +the delineation of the figure and Cincinnati Order on the former. Around +the outside of each tureen and the inside of each plate and saucer is +painted in delicate colors a chain of thirteen large and thirteen small +elliptical links. Within each large link is the name of one of the +original thirteen States. On the sides of the cups and tureens, and in +the bottom of each plate and saucer, is the interlaced monogram of +Martha Washington—M. W.—enclosed in a beautiful green wreath composed of +the leaves of the laurel and olive. Beneath this is a ribbon upon which +is inscribed, in delicately-traced letters, ‘_Decus et tutam enabillo._’ +From the wreath are rays of gold which give a brilliant appearance to +the pieces. There is also a delicately colored stripe around the edges +of the cups and saucers and plates.” + +This description conveys an excellent idea of the set to a careless +observer, but is not wholly correct. The “delicately colored stripe” is +a blue and gold snake with his tail in his mouth—a significant emblem. +There are fifteen long and fifteen short links instead of thirteen, +Kentucky and Vermont having at that time been added to the thirteen +original States. And the motto upon the pink ribbon scroll to me appears +to be, “_Decus et tutamen ab illo._” Mr. Lossing also says: “At that +time the china like that presented by the French officers was only made +at the Sèvres manufactory, the art of decorating porcelain or china ware +with enamel colors and gold being then not generally known.” This, of +course, is an incorrect statement, since it was at the time of the +greatest splendor in the English factories. The decoration of china with +gold was forbidden for some time in France except in the Sèvres factory, +but this Martha Washington set is not Sèvres. It is apparently Chinese. +Mr. Lossing wrote me a long letter on this subject. In it he says that +the French officers would not have sent as a gift to Washington china +from any factory save Sèvres; but it seems now to be very doubtful +whether this set was the gift of the French officers. In the National +Museum at the Smithsonian Institution are pieces labelled, “Presented to +Martha Washington by LaFayette.” There is no authority for the +ascription to Lafayette of the gift of this china. The only reason given +at the National Museum for thus labelling it is a good one—that the +ticket was on the china when it was in the Patent Office in 1871, and so +it will still be kept on it until some good evidence is brought that +such a label is incorrect. The pieces exhibited at the Loan Collection +in 1889, by individual owners—Edmund Law Rogers being one—were marked as +the gift of Mr. Van Braam. Mrs. Beverly Kennon, of Washington, D. C., is +the niece of George Washington Parke Custis, and owns a cup and saucer +of this set. She tells me that the “Martha Washington china was +presented (so said my mother and uncle—both grandchildren of Mrs. +Washington—who certainly ought to have known) by General Washington’s +early friend, a Hollander named Van Braam. It was made in China and +painted in England.” Mr. Custis thought that Mr. Van Braam was a +merchant in China; the Dutch at that time had the closest business +connections with that country. Miss Lyon also says that Mr. Custis told +her that the set in question was the gift of Mr. Van Braam. In addition +to all this testimony in favor of Mr. Van Braam, may be given the clause +from Martha Washington’s will, referring to the “sett of china given me +by Mr. Van Braam.” Captain Van Braam was a friend of Washington’s youth +and taught the future President the art of fencing. The gay +fencing-master cut but a sorry figure at a later date, being more than +suspected of treason and unsoldierly behavior. + +Though neither of these sets were of Sèvres porcelain, Washington is +said to have owned two sets of Sèvres. In the National Museum are twenty +pieces of a service called Sèvres that belonged to him, and which he +used both while he was President and at Mount Vernon. At the Governor +Lyon sale a white Sèvres plate, catalogued as having belonged to +Washington, brought twelve dollars. Miss Lyon still owns a custard-cup +of the set. It has a pretty gold “dontil” rim and a gilt cherry as a +knob on the cover. It bears the Sèvres mark. + +Another white and gold breakfast service, marked “Nast”—a well-known +French china-maker—also belonged to Washington. Miss Mary E. M. Powel, +of Newport, has a coffee-cup and saucer of the set. It was presented to +Colonel John Hare Powel, of Powelton, by Mrs. Custis, in 1812. The +butter-dish of this service is illustrated in “Mount Vernon and its +Associations.” + +Another white and gold set of Canton china still has existing pieces to +show its character. This was probably a dessert-service. A berry-dish +and two dessert-plates were sold in Philadelphia, in 1890, for H. L. D. +Lewis (one of the Washington heirs), for fifty dollars. They were +purchased by the Washington Association of New Jersey (and can be seen +at their building in Morristown), with a cup of white porcelain with +maroon ribbon and wreath decoration, which also came from Mount Vernon. +Still other pieces of Washington china were sold in Philadelphia in +1891, among them portions of a set of Crown Derby with tiny sprigs and +flowered border. Pieces of this set were owned by the late William Henry +Harrison, Esq., of New York. + +A very interesting plate is in the possession of Doctor Allan McLane +Hamilton, of New York. It was given as a keepsake to Mrs. Alexander +Hamilton by Mrs. George Washington. It descended from Mrs. Hamilton to +Philip Hamilton, the father of the present owner. It is of French +porcelain, twelve and a half inches in diameter, with slightly crenated +edges. On the left rim it is decorated with a festoon of oak leaves with +gold acorns; on the right with a border of laurel or myrtle. Above is a +lyre with a garland—both in gold. In the centre of the plate is an +eagle, perched upon a bundle of thunderbolts, while on his head are the +thirteen stars, all in gold; beneath, in script, are the letters G. & M. +W., surrounded by a wreath of roses and forget-me-nots. This plate is +unique, the remainder of the service being either lost or destroyed. + +In the diary of Baron Von Closen, under the date of July 19, 1792, this +entry is found: “On my arrival Mrs. Washington requested me to invite +Count de Custine—who was then at Colchester—with all the officers of his +regiment, to dinner for the next day. The Count accepted the invitation +with ten officers of the regiment, and sent Mr. Bellegarde before him +with a very valuable present, a set of china coming from his own +manufactory at Niederweiler, near Pfalzburg, in Lorraine. It was +ornamented with a coat of arms and initials of General Washington, +surmounted by a laurel wreath, and was received by Mrs. Washington with +most hearty thanks.” I can well believe the latter statement, for this +Niederweiler china was by far the most beautiful in quality, decoration, +and shape that Washington ever possessed. The pieces were all slightly +different, the only universal decoration being a beautiful cipher of +Washington’s initials surrounded by a golden brown cloud background, and +surmounted by a tiny rose-wreath. The other decorations were of festoons +or interlaced wreaths. A saucer of this set, owned by J. Chester Lyman, +Esq., is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was given to Timothy +Dwight, Mr. Lyman’s ancestor, by Mrs. Custis. The design on this piece +consists of festoons of very delicate leaves in various shades of gold. +Another piece has wreaths of tiny roses around the edge. A sugar-box and +bowl, owned by Mrs. Beverley Kennon, of Washington, bear still different +designs. A covered jug of the set is here shown. The mark on this china +was the interlaced Cs, the stamp used by Count Custine, and it also is +numbered “No. 29.” Martha Washington divided this set among her three +granddaughters during her lifetime, which is the reason it is not +mentioned in her will. + +[Illustration: Washington’s Niederweiler China.] + +At Mount Vernon are two beautiful dishes which were presented to the +Association by Mr. Corcoran, and are said to have been George +Washington’s. One is a salad or berry-dish, seven and a half inches +square and an inch and a half deep; the edges are irregularly and +gracefully scalloped. There is a narrow rim of gold around the edge; +within, a wide band of blue broken by a chain of circular rings in gold, +each enclosing a gold dot; within this a narrow band of gold; and a +delicate gold beading forms the inside edge of the border. Little +bunches and sprigs of flowers are scattered over the centre, having gold +stems and leaves and blue blossoms. The plate has the same decoration. +Both have the small blue S of the Salopian or Caughley works on the +base. Mrs. Russel, of Cambridge, Mass., has a plate of this set, which +was given to her by Mr. Corcoran. These three pieces are evidently part +of a dessert-service—but where are the other pieces? + +The “blue and white china in common use,” referred to in Martha +Washington’s will, was of a kind familiar to us all, “old blue Canton.” +Several pieces of it are now in the National Museum. Miss Lyon has two +dishes of rather better quality that came from Mount Vernon, Nankin +china apparently. Others have recently been sold at auction in +Philadelphia in 1891. Washington used this cheerful, substantial Canton +china “for common use” on his every-day table, just as did every other +good and wealthy American citizen of his day and time. Besides the +pieces of blue and white Canton china which he ordered of Colonel +Tilghman in 1785, Washington also wrote to General Robert Ridgway, on +September 12, 1783, a long and carefully expressed letter ordering wine +and beer glasses, and decanters and china. “If a neat and complete set +of Blue & white Table China could be had upon easy terms, be pleased to +inform me of it, and the price—not less than six or eight doz., however, +and proportionable number of deep and other Plates, Butter-Boats, Dishes +& Tureens will suffice. These things sometimes come in complete Setts +ready packed; should this be the case and the number of Pieces greater +than what is here mentioned, I should have no objection to a case on +that acc’t.” + +Washington had very decided opinions and tastes about table furnishings, +as he had about dress. When wine was served to him and his visitors in +some very ugly cups at Princeton, and he was told that the cups were +made by a man who had since turned Quaker, he replied, with his +cumbersome and rare humor, that it was a pity the man had not turned +Quaker before he made the cups. + +The china of Mary Washington did not go to her illustrious son. By her +will, made in 1788, she left to her grandson, Fielding Lewis, “half my +crockery ware, half my pewter, and my blue and white tea china,” and to +her granddaughter, Betty Carter, the other half of the crockery and +pewter, and “my red and white china.” Perhaps she fancied the General +had enough china, as he apparently did. + +Washington progressed in mantel decoration somewhat beyond the plaster +“Lyons” and busts that decorated the home of his early married life. The +mantel vases described by Mr. Lossing, and shown in an illustration in +his book, were sold in Philadelphia, in February, 1891, for four hundred +and fifty dollars each. They stood about eighteen inches high, were +decorated with butterflies and flowers on a dark blue ground, and had +covers surmounted by the Dog Fo. Other vases which once graced the +chimney-pieces of Mount Vernon are still owned by members of the Custis +family. The profuse mantel decoration of to-day was, however, undreamt +of by him. + +There are many other pieces of table china now in existence, and proudly +shown, that are said to have belonged to Washington. Doubtless their +owners consider that they have sufficient proof of the authenticity of +their relics, but as I know not the value of their proofs I will not +mention their china. I think, with the great number of punch-bowls that +once belonged to Washington, and that are mentioned in another chapter, +with the vast assortment of rich glass-ware that once was owned by +Washington, and that is now in the National Museum, in other public and +in many private collections, that the amount of china already named will +quite swell up a value far beyond the item in the sworn inventory of the +executors of George Washington’s will—“Glass & China in the China +Closet, & that up-stairs, & that in the cellar, $800.” What would be a +relic-lover’s estimate of the value of that glass and china to-day? + + + + + XII. + PRESIDENTIAL CHINA + + +The sets of china used by other Presidents than Washington, while their +various owners were living in the Executive Mansion, deserve to be +mentioned and described on account of historic interest, though not +always for their value as ceramics, and because specimens of them are +within the possibility of possession by a china collector. I think the +true china-lover will, however, care little to own any piece of +porcelain simply because it is said to have belonged to or was eaten +from by some great man—if that be its only virtue; and I am sure will +care little for much of the china that has graced the table at the White +House. + +Jefferson was, without doubt, as profusely hospitable a President as +ever dwelt in the Executive Mansion of the United States. For this +lavish hospitality he may have had a double reason—not only to gratify +his well-known liberal disposition and his love of good company as well, +but to prove his shrewd suspicion, or rather his firm conviction, that a +well-cooked dinner was often a potent factor in accomplishing his +desired end when his smooth and persuasive argument or his apparent +candor would have failed. A good illustration of his crafty, worldly +wisdom is shown in the result of the historically renowned dinner given +by him, when Secretary of State, in 1789, at Philadelphia, to President +Washington and the prominent leaders of both parties of the House and +Senate. A fierce dispute between the Northern and Southern members of +Congress had risen over the location of the national capital. The +Southerners insisted that the banks of either the Delaware or Potomac +should be chosen as a site; the Northerners were equally determined upon +the borders of the Susquehanna. An amicable and peaceful settlement +followed this famous dinner, and shrewd Jefferson had his own way—the +seat of government was placed at Washington, on the Potomac. This lavish +hospitality, both in the Executive Mansion and in private life, +doubtless had much to do with Jefferson’s subsequent financial +embarrassments. Very few of the pieces of table-ware used and owned by +Jefferson, either in public or private life, are now to be found. His +married life was short, and his housekeeping, both when Secretary of +State and President, was entirely in the hands of servants, a condition +never favorable to the preservation of china. The dispersion of his +household effects caused the disappearance from sight and knowledge of +what few pieces remained. Though his silver is carefully preserved by +his descendants, they own no china. + +An octagonal plate of Rockingham ware, used by Jefferson when President, +is now in Washington. It bears the stamp “BRAMELD.” It is of the dark +blue shade frequently used in the Chinese designs on that ware, a blue +so rich and deep that it gives a character and tone rarely found on +pottery, and makes the plate as glorious in tint as a block of choicest +lapis lazuli. The glaze is “crazed” on the entire surface of this +particular plate, both glaze and color being splintered in places from +the brownish pottery body. The plate has evidently been frequently and +severely heated in an oven. I have seen other pieces of the same shape, +bearing the same design, which had not, however, the honorable +distinction of having been owned by Jefferson. + +An exceedingly beautiful plate was sold at auction in New York, about +fifteen years ago, that was catalogued as having been the property of +Jefferson and used on his dinner-table. It was apparently of Chinese +manufacture of the type known as Lowestoft. The rim and inner border +were diapered in dark blue, relieved by dainty lines of gold. In the +centre was the letter “J,” in gold, enclosed in a shield outlined in +blue enamel adorned with thirteen stars. Above the shield was a blue and +gold helmet with closed visor. This plate brought $40, being of ceramic +value as well as of historic interest. There was sold at the same time, +for $2.50, a custard-cup of French porcelain painted with detached +bachelor’s buttons, which was also said to have been Jefferson’s. + +Of the china used by either President Adams I have no definite +knowledge, though I have seen several pieces of Oriental china that bore +the reputation of having been used by these Presidents during their +terms of office. + +The china used by Madison was a set of finely painted Lowestoft. +Portions of it are owned by descendants in Virginia. He also owned a set +of fine French china with his initials. + +The next White House china-service of which I have seen authentic pieces +is the one known as the Monroe set—Madison’s official china having been +destroyed at the burning of the Executive Mansion by the British in +1814. This Monroe set is of French china of good quality. It has around +the edge a half-inch band of pale coffee color or brownish buff, edged +with a burnished gilt line on either side. It has a small and pretty +coffee-cup with extraordinarily flat saucer. + +The Andrew Jackson set was of heavy and rather coarse bluish porcelain, +apparently of Chinese manufacture, with bands of ugly dull blue and +coarsely applied gold, and a conventional and clumsy shield in the +centre. It was not very tasteful nor beautiful, any more than was its +Presidential owner, and very fitly furnished forth his dining-table. + +In Franklin Pierce’s time what is now known as “the red-edged set” was +bought, the border being of dark red and gilt, with an inner circle of +gilt. It was of French china of fair quality. The cups of this set were +very large, while the saucers were exceedingly diminutive; though people +of fashion, even at that date, had not wholly given up drinking tea from +their saucers. A lady at whose home Judge Story and Daniel Webster were +frequent visitors, tells me that those two representative men of their +day always drank their cooled tea from their saucers. + +The Buchanan set was of very commonplace ware, with a stiff, meagre, and +ill-painted spray of flowers in the centre of each plate and on the side +of each dish. Ugly as they are, the plates are now valued at forty +dollars each. The saucers of this set were disproportionately large, +holding much more than the cups. A few pieces of this Buchanan set still +remain in Washington, though none are preserved at the White House. + +[Illustration: Lincoln China.] + +A very full set of Presidential china was bought in Abraham Lincoln’s +time. It is of finest French porcelain, with a border of crimson purple +or plum color, with delicate lines and dots of gold, and the plates, +platters, and saucers have slightly scalloped edges. In the centre of +the plates and on the sides of the dishes and small pieces is a very +spirited version of the coat of arms of the United States, with the +motto “E Pluribus Unum” upon a clouded background of gold. A plate and +cup of this set, now in the possession of Miss Henrietta D. Lyon, of +Staten Island, is here shown. This design is very dignified and +appropriate, and, with the substitution of a blue border with gilt ears +of Indian corn, has been reproduced for the present mistress of the +White House. Plates of this Abraham Lincoln set sold at the Governor +Lyon sale for $4.25 each, and little covered custard- or egg-cups for +$1.50 each. I have recently had some of these plates offered to me for +$25 apiece. Portions of this set still remain and are used at the White +House. + +[Illustration: Grant China.] + +The General Grant set is well known, and is very handsome. The border is +of buff and gold, broken once by a small United States shield in high +colors. In the centre is a well-painted spray or bunch of flowers, many +being the wild flowers of the United States. The coffee-cups of this set +were ordered to use at the wedding of the President’s daughter, and were +known as the “Nellie Grant cups.” A plate said to have been ordered for +the White House in General Grant’s time is here shown. + +Of the beautiful and costly set ordered by Mrs. Hayes too much is known, +and too many cheaper copies have been sold, and may be seen in any large +china-shop, to make it worth while to give any detailed description +here. It was made at Limoges by the Havilands, as was also the “Grant +set.” It makes a fine room decoration when the various pieces are +arranged in the beautiful buffet that President Arthur had made for it, +and is more satisfactory in that position than when in use on the table. + +It may be asked how all these pieces of Presidential china come to be +found in private collections, and offered for sale, and so generally +distributed over the country. A very reprehensible custom existed until +recent years (and indeed may still be possible) of selling at auction at +the end of each Presidential term, or in the middle if thought +necessary, whatever household effects the house steward and house +occupants chose to consider of no further use. These Presidential sales +were, of course, eagerly attended by relic-hunters. At such a sale in +President Grant’s day a lot of “old truck,” as it was irreverently +called, valued at $500, brought $2,760. As there must be, of course, +much breakage of china in the pantry and dining-room of the White House, +and as it was considered for many years necessary to have full “sets” of +china table-ware, enough to serve an entire dinner, the odd plates, cups +and saucers, and dishes were ruthlessly “cleared out” whenever an +appropriation was made by the Government, or the President desired to +buy a new set. It seems a pity that a few pieces of each of these “state +sets” should not have been preserved in a cabinet at the White House to +show us the kind of china from which our early rulers ate their daily +meals and served their state dinners, as well as to show our varying and +halting progress in luxury, refinement, and taste. + + + + + XIII. + DESIGNS RELATING TO WASHINGTON + + +One scarcely knows where to begin or end this list when one considers +the vast number of pieces of pottery and porcelain that bear the name +and ostensibly bear the portrait of Washington—more and more varied even +than the Lord Nelson prints in England. Often Washington’s portrait is +found with that of Franklin or Lafayette; in such cases I have given the +subject of the most prominent or the named design the honor of +determining the place on the list. The largest number of these +Washington designs occur upon Liverpool mugs and pitchers in black +prints. Some few are in blue upon Staffordshire earthenware. In the +Huntington Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, +may be seen a vast number of ceramic likenesses of the great American. +Many of these are single specimens painted by hand—both by artists and +amateurs, apparently. One set of four plaques has copies of the Savage, +Trumbull, Peale, and Stuart portraits of Washington. Such I have not +attempted to describe or classify. One specially comical portrait +plaque, painted in China, shows an almond-eyed Washington with his hair +_à la chinoise_, with feminine hair ornaments, while on his republican +shoulders rests the dark blue sack garment familiar to us as the +festival garb of our Chinese washermen. There are in the Trumbull-Prime +Collection a large number of Washington pitchers, from which some of the +entries on this list are described. + +One Liverpool print deserves special mention, for a very interesting +story is attached to it, and is told in detail by Benson J. Lossing in +his “Mount Vernon and Its Associations.” A dealer in Philadelphia +imported a number of pitchers of various sizes, each bearing a portrait +of Washington, the design for which had been taken from Gilbert Stuart’s +picture painted for the Marquis of Lansdowne. Nutter had engraved this +portrait for Hunter’s edition of Lavater, and a copy of the engraving +was printed upon the pitchers. Mr. Dorsey, a sugar-dealer of +Philadelphia, purchased several of these pitchers, and after a number of +unsuccessful attempts to separate the part bearing the portrait from the +rest of the pitcher, managed at last, by using the broad-faced hammer of +a shoemaker, to break out the picture unharmed with a single sharp blow. +The pottery fragment bearing the portrait was handsomely framed by Mr. +James R. Smith, of Philadelphia, and sent to Judge Washington at Mount +Vernon, where it was hung and was known as the pitcher portrait. A copy +of it is here shown. + +[Illustration: Pitcher Portrait.] + +Mr. Smith owned a crayon portrait of Washington, a copy made by +Sharpless himself of his original picture of Washington. On the back of +this Sharpless portrait was a long eulogy of Washington, written by an +English gentleman. Mr. Smith copied a portion of this eulogy on the back +of the pitcher portrait—as much of the inscription, in fact, as there +was room to write. It ran thus, as given in “Alden’s Collections of +American Epitaphs and Inscriptions:” “Washington the Defender of his +Country, the Founder of Liberty and the Friend of Man. History and +Tradition are explored in vain for a parallel to his character. In the +annals of modern greatness he stands alone, and the noblest names of +antiquity lose their lustre in his presence. Born the Benefactor of +Mankind he united all the qualities necessary to an illustrious career. +Nature made him great, he made himself virtuous. Called by his country +to the defense of her liberties, he triumphantly vindicated the rights +of humanity and, on the pillars of National Independence, laid the +foundations of a Great Republick. Twice invested with supreme +magistracy, by the unanimous vote of a free people, he surpassed in the +cabinet the glories of the field; and voluntarily resigning the sword +and the sceptre, retired to the shades of private life. A spectacle so +new and so sublime was contemplated with the profoundest admiration, and +the name of Washington, adding new lustre to humanity, resounded to the +remotest regions of the earth. Magnanimous in youth, glorious through +life, great in death, his highest ambition the happiness of mankind, his +noblest victory the conquest of himself. Bequeathing to posterity the +inheritance of his fame, and building his monument in the hearts of his +countrymen he lived—the ornament of the eighteenth century, he +died—regretted by the mourning world.” + +The centre portion of this inscription has been within a few years cut +out of the back of the frame by some vandal hands. The entire eulogy, as +written on the back of the Sharpless portrait, can be seen in Lossing’s +“Mount Vernon and Its Associations,” and in Sparks’s “Writings of +Washington,” and as a masterpiece of flattery—and honest flattery, +too—it knows no equal. + +This pitcher portrait descended to Lawrence Washington, Esq. It was +exhibited at the Philadelphia State-House in 1876, and was sold at +auction April 22, 1891, at Philadelphia, for $75. + +Liverpool pitchers bearing the design like that of the pitcher portrait +are rare in America, but are found in a few private collections; and +oval plaques are also found bearing the same portrait. These latter have +a swelling surface, as if cut from the side of a pitcher. There are +specimens with this print in the Trumbull-Prime Collection. Some years +ago a framed pitcher portrait was found in the attic of an old house in +Washington Street, Newport, and is now in the possession of Benjamin +Smith, Esq., of Philadelphia. + +Some very interesting ceramic portraits of Washington were made in +China, early in this century, on four porcelain toddy-jugs, by order of +Mr. B. C. Willcocks, of Philadelphia. It is said that the portraits were +copied from one of these pitcher portraits, but the head on the +toddy-jugs is longer and narrower, and the neck is much longer. This +elongating may have been done by the Chinese artist, but it looks more +like the other Stuart portrait, the one with lawn ruffles; the pitcher +portrait has a lace ruffle. One of this quartette of covered toddy-jugs +was kept by Mr. Willcocks, and the other three he presented to three +life-long friends who met frequently and regularly to play whist with +him. One of these Washington toddy-jugs is now in a Washington +collection in Newport. It is a foot in height and seven inches in +diameter, of white Chinese hard porcelain. It has foliated handles, +heavy rim, and “chimera” knob on the cover, all of gilt. On one side is +the portrait of Washington, but by reason of the bluish shade of the +hard porcelain it lacks the softness of the print on the Liverpool ware. +The portrait is banded with a heavy gold edge, and in a similar gilt +oval on the opposite side of the pitcher is a pretty cipher, B. C. W. + +[Illustration: Washington Monument Pitcher.] + +To this pitcher-portrait design, since so much honor has been paid to +it, I will assign the first place on my Washington list. + +1. Washington. Head from Stuart’s Portrait. Liverpool. + +On oval plaques and pitchers. Described on pages 258 _et seq._, and +shown on page 259. + +2. Washington. Head from Stuart’s portrait. Canton. + +On Chinese toddy-jug. Described on preceding page. + +3. Washington. Medallion head on monument. Liverpool. + +This oval design is printed on pitchers of three sizes. In the centre is +a monument bearing a poor medallion portrait of Washington, surmounted +by a laurel wreath and urn, and bearing the words “George Washington +Born Feb 22, 1732 Died Decr. 17, 1799.” Below the coat of arms of the +Washington family, a shield bearing five bars in chief three mullets. A +weeping female figure leans against the monument, and a very sad eagle +droops in the foreground, with two equally drooping willows on either +side. Above the design are the words, “Washington in Glory,” below, +“America in Tears.” A pitcher bearing this design is here shown. + +4. Washington. Medallion head. Liverpool. + +Similar design to No. 3, but more coarsely engraved, while the +inscriptions are within the oval line of the print. + +5. Washington. Medallion. Liverpool. + +This is printed in black on mugs and pitchers of various sizes. One is +shown on page 139. The portrait is mean and poor to the last degree. On +the right stands America with the words, “Deafness to the ear that will +patiently hear, and dumbness to the tongue that will utter a calumny +against the immortal Washington.” On the left Liberty says, “My favorite +Son.” Below, the inscription, “Long Live the President of the United +States.” This, of course, was made previous to 1799, the date of +Washington’s death. + +6. Washington. Portrait. Staffordshire. + +Printed in black. Marked F. Morris, Shelton. Liberty holds a wreath over +the head of Washington. The inscription reads, “Washington Crowned with +Laurels by Liberty.” This is surrounded by a chain with fifteen large +links inclosing the names of fifteen States. + +7. Washington. Monument. + +A plate of cream-colored ware printed in dull reddish brown. Within a +ring dotted with fifteen stars is the figure of the Goddess of Liberty, +with a shield and olive branch. Behind her stands a pyramidal monument +bearing a portrait of Washington and inscribed, “Sacred to the Memory of +Washington.” On one side is seen the ocean with a ship, and at the foot +of Liberty is an eagle and a scroll with the words, “E Pluribus Unum.” +Around the edge of the plate are long oval medallions of stripes and +stars. + +8. Washington. Portrait. Liverpool. + +Printed in black or red. A poor portrait of Washington, over which a +cherub holds a wreath inclosing the word “Washington.” Justice and +Liberty on either side of portrait, and Victory at base. A ribbon scroll +has the names of fifteen States and incloses fifteen stars. + +9. Washington. Apotheosis. Liverpool. + +Oval print, with a label at the base, the word Apotheosis. A tomb with +seated figures of Liberty and an Indian in the foreground. Time is +lifting Washington, clothed in a shroud, from the tomb, while an angel +holds the patriot’s hand and points up to rays of glory. On the tomb the +words, “Sacred to the memory of Washington ob 17 Dec. A.D. 1799. Ae 68.” +Outside the oval are winged cherub heads. Often under the nose of the +pitcher is seen the motto, “A Man without Example, A Patriot without +Reproach.” Pitchers bearing this specially hideous print seem to be +eagerly sought after by all china collectors. It is a reduced copy of a +large engraving three feet long and two wide, which was issued by Simon +Chandron and John J. Barradet, in Philadelphia, in January, 1802. This +engraving is still frequently seen in old Philadelphia homes, and was +common enough in the middle of the century. In the large engraving many +funny details can be seen which are lost or blurred in the pitcher +print. For instance, the various decorations owned by Washington, +including the Order of the Cincinnati, are proudly displayed, hanging +over the stone of the open tomb. Sometimes the print is seen without the +word Apotheosis. One of these pitchers is here shown. + +[Illustration: Apotheosis Pitcher.] + +10. Washington. Monument. Liverpool. + +This design is printed in a scalloped oval. In a landscape with water, +ships, and a church, is a monument with a medallion portrait of +Washington and the words: “First in War, First in Peace, First in Fame, +First in Victory.” Fame stands on the right, and a naval officer on the +left. In front is an American flag, cannon, swords, etc. Around the edge +of the oval are the names of thirteen States. I have several times had a +pitcher with this design offered to me for purchase for $8, $10, or $15, +according to the size and condition; but I saw one in a jeweller’s shop +in New York during the Centennial celebration in 1889, marked $150, and +it was asserted that it was sold at that price. The revival of interest +at that time in anything and everything that related to Washington, of +course afforded the explanation of this enormous and absurd price. + +11. Washington. Medallion Portrait. Staffordshire. + +A poor full-face portrait, not resembling Washington, with same legend +as No. 5. It is marked F. Morris, Shelton. + +12. Washington. Profile Portrait. Liverpool. + +This is printed in black on small pitchers. Over the portrait the +legend, “He is in Glory, America in Tears.” + +13. Washington. On Horseback. Liverpool. + +This design appears upon a gallon bowl in the collection of the +Connecticut Historical Society, and also upon one in a collection in +Newport. Pitchers also have been seen with it. Washington appears +mounted, on a battle-field, with the accompanying inscription: “His +Excellency General George Washington, Marshal of France, and Commander +in Chief of the North American Continental Forces.” + +Though this inscription dubs Washington a marshal of France, it seems +uncertain whether the title was correctly applied. It is said that when +Colonel Laurens was special ambassador to France, a discussion arose as +to the command of the united armies in America. Of course Laurens +insisted firmly that Washington must have absolute control; but Count de +Rochambeau, an old lieutenant-general, could be commanded only by the +king or a maréchal de France. Laurens with ready wit solved the +difficulty by suggesting that Washington be made a maréchal. This +suggestion was carried out, and the French at Yorktown addressed +Washington as Monsieur le Maréchal. On the other hand, when Lamont, in +his volume of poems, addressed Washington by his French title of +maréchal, Washington wrote to him in 1785, saying: “I am not a marshal +of France, nor do I hold any commission or fill any office whatever +under that government.” This letter would appear to be conclusive +evidence. + +The bowl also bears a fur-cap portrait of Franklin, the print of the +soldier and the British lion described in No. 106, with the legend, “By +virtue and valor we have freed our country,” and also the “spatch-cock” +American eagle and shield. + +14. Washington. On Horseback. Liverpool. + +This print is similar to No. 13, but is apparently of earlier +manufacture. + +The mounted figure has the right arm raised. One is upon an octagonal +Liverpool plate in the Huntington Collection, and has the inscription, +“His Excellency George Washington.” + +15. Washington. Portrait. Liverpool. + +Small portrait of Washington in black print on Liverpool pitcher, with a +design of Liberty cap and flags, and the verses: + + “As he tills your rich glebe your old peasant shall tell, + While his bosom with Liberty glows, + How your Warren expired, how Montgomery fell, + And how Washington humbled your foes.” + +16. Washington. Medallion. Liverpool. + +A background of weeping willows. In the foreground a monument surmounted +by an urn and bearing a medallion portrait of Washington. Beneath this +the arms of the Washington family, and crossed swords with palm or +laurel branches. Above the entire design the words, “Washington in +Glory.” This design resembles No. 3, but is smaller. On the reverse of +the pitcher, a design of Ceres and Pomona at either side of a cannon, +and a spread eagle with the words, “Peace, Plenty, and Independence.” + +17. Washington. Map of United States. Staffordshire. + +Printed in black on bowls, plates, and pitchers. It is thus wittily +described by George Champlin Mason in his book on old Newport: +“Washington and Franklin are inspecting a map of the United States, +which shows thirteen States. Liberty and History look smilingly upon the +pair, while Fame blows a trumpet and flourishes her heels in dangerous +proximity to Washington’s head, who is the more prominent of the two, +Franklin being screened in part by the pine-tree flag.” On this map +Louisiana is called the Country of Mines, and stretches up to Lake +Superior. The pitcher is marked F. Morris, Shelton. There are three +slightly varying prints of this design, one having reference numbers and +a key with the names of the figures. A bowl twelve inches in diameter +bearing this print can be seen in the Huntington Collection at the +Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is also one in the Trumbull-Prime +Collection. One in Newport bears the date 1796. A pitcher from the +Trumbull-Prime Collection with this print is here shown. + +[Illustration: “Map” Pitcher.] + +18. Washington. Portrait. Liverpool. + +A full-face portrait of Washington, with inscription “His Excellency +Gen^l Washington,” and the fur-cap portrait of Franklin, on the outside +of a bowl which has on the inside a design of a full-rigged frigate, the +Insurgente, and the same legend as No. 101. It also has the motto: + + “My love is fixed, + I cannot range; + I like my choice + Too well to change.” + +19. Washington. Cameo. Wedgwood. + +Made in white on colored grounds and in pure white. Mentioned in +Wedgwood’s Catalogue of 1787. + +20. Washington. Intaglio. Wedgwood. + +In highly polished black ware for use as a seal. Though so small a head, +the likeness is good. In Wedgwood’s Catalogue of 1787. A specimen may be +seen in Huntington Collection. + +21. Washington. Medallion. Wedgwood. + +Made both in black basalt and blue and white jasper. This head is very +fine, and an excellent copy may be seen in the Huntington Collection. + +22. Washington. Bust. Wedgwood. + +This bust is in black basalt. The height is thirteen inches. A fine +engraving of it may be seen in Miss Meteyard’s “Wedgwood and his Works,” +numbered Plate XVIII. One is owned by a collector in Chicago. + +23. Washington. Medallion. Neale & Co. + +An oval medallion in pottery with the head of Washington in high relief. + +24. Washington. Statuette. Enoch Wood. + +This statuette is fifteen inches high, and is identical in dress and +figure with the statuette of Franklin, No. 46, save that the head of +Washington is covered with white powdered hair or a white wig, instead +of the dark natural locks that grace the Franklin statuette. The head +and face only are colored, though the buttons, buckles, and coat +ornaments or frogs are gilded. It seems rather unjust in Enoch Wood to +put the head of Washington on Franklin’s extremely rotund body. In the +right hand of the figure is a scroll with vague lettering, and under the +left arm a cocked hat. I know of but one of these statuettes with the +Washington head; it is in the Huntington Collection. + +25. Washington. Statuette. Badin Frères. + +This French statuette is about ten inches in height. Washington is +dressed in a yellow coat and blue waistcoat, and carries a scroll marked +“Patria.” By his side is an American eagle crowing over a broken tablet +painted with a picture of the British lion. On the pedestal in gilt +letters, “Badin Frères, D’leurs, à Paris.” Specimen in the Huntington +Collection. + +26. Washington. Statuette. Badin Frères. + +Statuette of glazed pottery. Washington has his foot on a thoroughly +subdued British lion and the British flag. He carries in his hand a +scroll with word “Independence.” Specimen in the Huntington Collection. +The face of this statuette (as well as that of the preceding one, No. +25) bears more of a likeness to the Rembrandt Peale portrait of +Washington than to any other. + +27. Washington. Parian Pitcher. + +An embossed full figure of Washington on a Parian pitcher in the +Huntington Collection. Also designs of flags and spread eagles. + +28. Washington. Bust. Ralph Wood. + +Number G. 367, in the Catalogue of the Museum of Practical Geology in +London. It is thus described: + +“Bust of Washington, 10 inches high, in plain cream-colored ware, with +impressed mark Ra. Wood, Burslem.” Ralph Wood, whose name is stamped on +this piece, was the father of Aaron Wood and grandfather of Enoch Wood. + +29. Washington. Relief Portrait. Dresden. + +Profile portrait of Washington in relief, gilded, on _bleu de roi_ +ground. On other side similar relief portrait of Franklin. In front an +American eagle. Dresden mark. One may be seen in the Trumbull-Prime +Collection. + +30. Washington. Medallion. Dresden. + +Dresden china cup and saucer, gilded without and within. On the cup a +blue oval medallion with exquisite head in white relief of profile +portrait of George Washington. This beautiful piece is owned by Mrs. +Nealy, of Washington, D. C. + +31. Washington. Bust. + +A bust of Washington in cream-colored oily pottery. It is about four +inches in height and is one of a set comprising busts of Clay, Webster, +Calhoun, Lafayette, Franklin, etc. I think the date of manufacture was +about 1850. They are common in America. Specimens may be seen in the +Huntington Collection. + +32. Washington. Mirror Knob. + +A portrait of head of Washington, in a cocked hat, on a porcelain +mirror-knob. A transfer print in black; sometimes being printed in +outline and filled in with pale colors. For description of mirror-knobs +see page 159 _et seq._ + +33. Washington. Tomb. Wood. + +This dark blue design represents a bewigged man with knee-breeches at +the tomb of Washington. In his hand he carries a scroll. This print is +usually known as “Lafayette at the tomb of Washington.” The face does +not resemble Lafayette, and when Lafayette visited Washington’s tomb he +wore trousers, knee-breeches being out of date. It has been suggested +that the solitary figure is intended for Jefferson. In the background is +a view of a town and water, with shipping. The print is usually +indistinct and poor, though the color is good. It is seen on all the +pieces of tea and toilet services. Impressed mark, Wood. + +34. Washington. Funeral Urn. Canton. + +The pieces bearing this design are extremely beautiful in shape, +quality, and decoration, every detail being perfect. The owner called it +Lowestoft, but it is plainly Oriental in manufacture, being of very +hard-paste, and the character of the design (showing that it was +executed after the death of Washington) would hardly point to the +Lowestoft manufactory as its place of birth. The platters and plates +have an open-work basket-design border lined with delicate threads of +golden brown and gold. At each intersection of the interlaced border is +a tiny embossed rosette colored in gilt or bronze, with a darker centre. +The delicacy and beauty of this dainty border can hardly be described. +In the centre of each piece, in various shades of gold—both dull and +polished gold being combined—is a design of a funeral mound and an urn +bearing the word “Washington,” overhung by a weeping-willow. The leaves +and branches of this tree are models of the gilder’s art. On each piece +are in gold the gracefully intertwined initials J. R. L., probably the +initials of the person for whom the set was made. For beauty of design +and workmanship these pieces excel any others I have ever seen bearing +any so-called Washington design. + +35. Washington Memorial. + +This plate, with irregularly scalloped edge, is green in the centre, +with red border. The decoration is a scene with a seated classical +figure writing upon a tablet, and with a Greek temple in the background. +The border contains four medallions of funeral urns and weeping willows. +On the back is stamped in red a funeral urn with the word “Washington,” +and the initials E. H. Y. S. The printing of this design is very clear +and the lines very delicate, and the drawing is good. + +36. Washington. Medallion. + +A bowl of clear white china with plain band of gilt on the edge. On one +side, in blue, a medallion of Washington between two flags, surmounted +by a spread eagle. Unmarked. + +37. Washington. Funeral Urn. + +Plate with pink flower border, centre in green. A statue of Washington +and a cinerary urn with the word “Washington.” + +38. Washington. Portrait. + +A portrait of Washington printed in black on a white stone-ware +pitcher—apparently modern. Crossed flags painted in colors. This pitcher +may have been made to use in a hotel or on a steamboat. + +Washington. Portrait. + +On “Emblem of America” Pitcher. See No. 98. + +Washington. Views of Mount Vernon. + +See No. 195 _et seq._ + +Washington. Portrait. Erie Canal. + +See No. 166. + +Washington. Portrait. Erie Canal. + +See No. 170. + +Washington. Inscription. Proscribed Patriots. + +See No. 86. + +Washington. Medallion. Staffordshire. + +See No. 251. + + + + + XIV. + DESIGNS RELATING TO FRANKLIN + + +The great popularity and long residence of Benjamin Franklin abroad +would account for the many and varied ceramic relics relating to him +that were manufactured in England and France during his lifetime, and +that are still in existence, more varied in quality and shape even than +those relating to Washington. Nor after his death did the production +cease. I will place at the head of the list the most beautiful of them +all. + +39. Group of Louis XVI. and Benjamin Franklin. Niderviller. + +[Illustration: Neiderweiler Statuette.] + +This lovely statuette is of purest white porcelain bisque, and is about +twelve inches in height, and ten inches in length. The face of the +figure of Franklin is exceedingly fine, and is, in a degree, unlike any +other portrait of him that I have seen. It has all the benignancy and +sweetness of expression with which we are familiar, and an added +nobility and intelligence which is more marked and more impressive than +in any other likeness. It is an ideal portrait of Franklin, which must +be regarded with pleasure and interest by every historical student. The +figure of the King is also extremely fine and imposing. The face is +beautiful, the carriage manly, and the half suit of armor, with the long +royal cloak of ermine, form an impressive contrast with the simple +fur-trimmed garment of Franklin, whose figure is slightly bent, but +still impressive. The King holds in his hand a parchment book or scroll +bearing on one leaf in golden letters the words, “Indépendance de +l’Amérique,” and on another leaf, “Liberté des Mers.” This group was +made to commemorate our treaty with France in 1788. It is beautifully +modelled and of highest artistic merit, and must take rank as the most +important relic of our country that has yet been figulated. It bears the +stamp “Niderviller,” and was made at that factory while it was owned by +Count Custine. He had fought with Lafayette in the war for American +Independence, and doubtless knew Franklin. The statue was evidently +modelled from life. Count Custine also gave to Washington the beautiful +tea-service described on page 244 _et seq._ Three only of these portrait +groups of Franklin and Louis XVI. are known to exist; the only perfect +one is owned by William C. Prime, Esq., of New York, and will form part +of the Trumbull-Prime Collection at Princeton; from it the illustration +here given was taken. Another imperfect one is in the possession of +William A. Hoppin, Esq., of Providence; and a third and mutilated +specimen is in the Huntington Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of +Art. + +40. Franklin. Medallions. Nini. + +Some very good medallions of Benjamin Franklin were manufactured by Jean +Baptiste Nini, who in 1760 entered the employ of M. Leray, or M. de +Chaumont, at Chaumont. Nini was a glass engraver of rare merit, and his +work on these medallions was very beautiful. The fine copper moulds for +his medallions that he employed were melted down into ingots in 1820. +His work may be known by the mark engraved in the soft-paste of “Nini,” +or “J. B. Nini F.”—sometimes with the date. He made at least six +different sizes of medallions of Franklin, some of which bear the date +in relief. + +Franklin, writing from Passy in 1779 to his daughter, Mrs. Sarah Bache, +speaks thus of these Nini medallions: “The clay medallion of me you say +you gave Mr. Hopkinson was the first of the kind made in France. A +variety of others have been made since of various sizes; some to be set +in the lids of snuff-boxes, and some so small as to be worn in rings; +and the numbers sold are incredible. These, with the pictures and prints +(of which copies upon copies are spread everywhere), have made your +father’s face as well known as that of the moon, so that he durst not do +anything that would oblige him to run away, as his phiz would discover +him whereever he should venture to show it. It is said by learned +etymologists that the name of doll for the image children play with is +derived from the word idol. From the number of dolls now made of him he +may be truly said, in that sense, to be idolized in this country.” + +In several other published letters Franklin speaks of making gifts of +these medallions to his friends, and states that they were made at +Chaumont. Madame de Campan says that they were sold at the palace of +Versailles, and bore this motto, “_Eripuit cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque +tyrannis._” + +There are in the Huntington Collection several specimens of these Nini +medallions, that collection containing in all eleven medallions of +Franklin, many of which being unmarked it is futile to attempt to +classify. A Nini medallion having a fine fur-cap portrait sold in the +Governor Lyon sale for ten dollars. Mr. Huntington wrote thus to Hon. +John Bigelow, of Nini and his medallions: “He must have had a certain +vogue in his time, medallions of folks of the superior classes from his +hand still turning up at sales and in curiosity shops. He did two +Franklins—both at the Metropolitan Museum—dated and signed. The smaller +one, with the cap, ‘1777 B. Franklin, Américain,’ was among the earliest +of the Franklin idols made here, and has been numerously reproduced by +French, English, and other engravers. The larger, which is of the more +usual size of Nini’s work, is much rarer, has never been engraved from, +as far as I know, and is to my notion one of the most finely +characterized of all the Franklin portraits—1799 (and in some copies +MDCCLXXIX.; you will find specimens of both in the museum), with +Turgot’s lines for the legend. In his letter to his daughter, Passy, 3d +of June, B. F. writes: ‘The clay medallion of me you say you gave Mr. +Hopkinson was the first of the kind made in France.’ This must be the +one with the cap. If the Ven. F. is correct in his statement, it would +curiously seem that his friend Chaumont set Nini at him as soon as he +caught the artist, to start (we should now say inaugurate) his furnace +at Chaumont with the likeness of his friend.” + +41. Franklin. Medallion. Wedgwood. + +This appears in Wedgwood’s Catalogue of 1787 under the head of +“Illustrious Moderns.” It was made in black basalt and blue and white +jasper. There appear to have been two of these portraits; for at the +sale of the collection of Dr. Gibson, in London, March, 1877, a blue +jasper medallion of Dr. Franklin, by Wedgwood & Bentley, was sold for +£12 12s., while one with the fur-cap by Wedgwood sold for £11. Specimens +can be seen in the Huntington Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of +Art, and in the Trumbull-Prime Collection at Princeton. + +42. Franklin. Cameo. Wedgwood. + +In Wedgwood’s Catalogue of 1787. Made in white on colored grounds, and +in pure white. + +43. Franklin. Intaglio. Wedgwood. + +This is named in Wedgwood’s Catalogue of 1787. It was smaller, to be +used as a seal, and was of black ware highly polished. One may be seen +in the Trumbull-Prime Collection. + +44. Franklin. Oval Plaque. Bristol. + +This medallion of Franklin is upon one of Richard Champion’s exquisite +flower-plaques. This plaque is considered by Owen to be “the most +important” of Champion’s work. Champion was an ardent admirer of America +and Americans, and his special veneration for Franklin evidently +impelled him to produce this elaborate work. It is eight and a half +inches in length, and seven and a half in width, the portrait bust being +surrounded immediately by a laurel wreath tied with a bow-knot, and +outside the laurel wreath by a rich wreath of roses and lilies in highly +raised and most delicate work. Another specimen of the same medallion is +known to exist upon a plain ground plaque, and has often been attributed +to the Sèvres manufactory. One of these flower-plaques with the bust of +Franklin was exhibited at the Loan Collection in New York, in 1889, by +Dr. Caspar Wister Hodge, of Princeton, N. J. Rev. Dr. Hodge was the +grandson of William Bache, the grandson of Franklin. Dr. Hodge’s mother +was born in Franklin’s house in Philadelphia, and her account of the +flower-plaque was that it was made at the Sèvres manufactory and was the +gift of Louis XVI. to Benjamin Franklin; that it had been sent to +America by private hands, in connection with a similar one of George +Washington, which was surmounted by a gilt crown; and that the +messenger, in officious democratic zeal, picked off the crown with his +penknife before delivering the medallion. + +Dr. Hodge said it was a complete surprise to him, and it could not have +been a very pleasant one, when he offered the plaque for exhibition in +New York, to be told that it was Bristol china, and was not unique. Of +course these latter facts might be so without destroying the other part +of the family tradition—that it was a royal gift; but it is far more +probable that Richard Champion presented this choice specimen of his +work to Franklin, for in a letter to Champion, written from Paris, +January 2, 1778, the unknown writer speaks of a visit to Franklin, and +says: “He begs his compliments and is much obliged for your present, +which arrived in perfect safety. He says that there is a good likeness +with Wedgwood & Bentley’s, only with this difference, that he wears his +hair, which is rather straight and long, instead of a wig, and is very +high in his forehead.” + +In the Lewis sale of Washington relics, held in Philadelphia, in +December, 1890, there was sold an “oval porcelain plaque with a bust of +Benjamin Franklin in a wreath of china roses and lilies, 8½ inches by 7½ +inches.” This I believe to have been the one which tradition in the +Hodge family says came over to Washington. Some of the Bristol +flower-plaques had a crown above the medallion; one in Mr. Edkin’s +Collection is illustrated in Owen’s “Two Centuries of Ceramic Art in +Bristol.” The Franklin plaque sold in Philadelphia for ninety dollars—a +price to make an English collector groan with envy—while the one in Mr. +Edkin’s Collection (from which is taken the engraving in Mr. Owen’s +book) sold in England in 1874 for £150. Dr. Hodge had an insurance of +one thousand dollars offered to him on his Franklin plaque when it was +in New York. + +45. Franklin. Medallion. Neale & Co. + +The head of Dr. Franklin in pottery, by Neale & Co., Hanley. It is an +oval medallion. + +Franklin. Relief Portrait. Dresden. + +See No. 29. + +46. Franklin. Statuette. Wood. + +This pottery statue is fifteen inches in height, and is neither very +impressive nor well modelled. One in the Huntington Collection is +colored, Poor Richard being gayly attired in gray coat, yellow +waistcoat, and pink breeches. He carries his hat under his left arm, and +a scroll in his left hand. Another in the same collection is precisely +like it, save that the head only is colored. It is labelled, in gold +letters, “General Washington.” This mistake easily arose, for the +statuette of Washington, described in No. 24, is exactly like this +Franklin statuette except the head, which in the latter has flowing +natural hair. A number of these Franklin statuettes bear the name of +Washington, and it does not matter much, for they do not closely +resemble either of the great Americans. This statuette is attributed to +Ralph Wood or Enoch Wood, of Burslem. There are three of these figures +in the Trumbull-Prime Collection, dressed in vari-colored garments, one +being much smaller, about thirteen inches in height. But for the right +arm being more extended, it would appear that the original mould had +become worn and a new one cast, which in shrinking made this reduction +in the size of this figure. One of these statuettes of Franklin in the +S. L. M. Barlow Collection was sold in 1890 for forty-two dollars. + +47. Franklin. Statuette. + +In the Catalogue of the Museum of Practical Geology, Number G. 374, is +described thus: “Statuette of Dr. Franklin painted in colors. Height, +13¼ inches. Mounted on square marbled pedestal with oval yellow +medallions in relief; unmarked. This may be a Salopian figure.” One of +these statuettes is in the Huntington Collection; the medallions being +in blue and white. Dr. Franklin wears in this case white breeches, blue +waistcoat, scarlet coat, a blue ribbon with an order, and a long ermine +cloak. This statuette is rather funny, though at first glance it is +quite impressive. The Doctor, comparatively devoid of pendulous chin, +stands erect and beautiful, with his head thrown back with a most +imperious and even imperial air, to which the ermine cloak gives added +weight and zest. He is so erect and so slender that we hardly know him. +But when we glance at his feet, the impression of youthfulness and +beauty vanishes. With feet several sizes too large for his figure, and +gaudy light green slippers several sizes too large even for those feet, +we turn away to our familiar good old dewlapped man with the fur-cap, +and like him better than this splay-footed, ermine-cloaked plantigrade. + +48. Franklin. Statuette. + +Parian figure about seven inches in height. The likeness is good, though +the feet are abnormally narrow and pointed; unmarked. A copy may be seen +in the Huntington Collection. + +49. Franklin. Statuette. + +Pottery figure about seven inches in height, leaning on a pink pedestal +decorated with raised white eagles. The coat is black, breeches yellow, +and waistcoat pink. This gayly garbed slim young fellow does not at all +resemble our own Franklin. The statuette is unmarked. A specimen may be +seen in the Huntington Collection. + +50. Franklin. Statuette. + +This pottery figure is fifteen inches in height, and is in feature and +figure and dress like No. 46, and was evidently modelled by the same +hand. It is a poor thing, and bears but little resemblance to Franklin. +A dilapidated specimen is in the Huntington Collection. + +51. Franklin. Mirror Knob. + +Print of Franklin in black on oval porcelain plaque in a mirror knob. +For description of these knobs see page 159 _et seq._ + +52. Franklin. Fur-cap Portrait. + +Round plate with fluted border, with splashes of purple and yellow like +No. 81. In the centre a good rendering of the fur-cap portrait of +Franklin. In the Huntington Collection. + +53. Franklin. Fur-cap Portrait. + +Plate with pierced border like No. 82. Well-painted portrait in centre. +In the Huntington Collection. + +54. Franklin. Portrait. Dresden. + +A Dresden plate with flower border and good portrait of Franklin. In +Huntington Collection. + +55. Franklin. Bust. + +Small bust of Franklin in bisque, mounted on a yellow and gold pedestal. +Marked “Francklin.” In Huntington Collection. + +56. Franklin. Bust. + +A bust of Franklin in what appears to be modern majolica. In Huntington +Collection. + +57. Franklin. Bust. + +White pottery bust glazed, about ten inches in height. Around the base a +wreath of laurel. In Huntington Collection. + +58. Franklin. Bust. + +White porcelain bisque bust, five inches in height, mounted on dark blue +and gold stand. In Huntington Collection. + +59. Franklin. Portrait. Dresden. + +A portrait of Franklin on a great cylindrical covered jar, twenty inches +in height and eight inches in diameter. The portrait is good, though the +mouth is exaggeratedly small and the chin exaggeratedly remultiplied. It +is surrounded by a well-painted wreath of flowers. + +Franklin. Figure on Pitcher. + +See No. 17. + +Franklin. Fur-cap Portrait. + +See No. 13. + +Franklin. Emblem of America Pitcher. + +See No. 98. + +60. Franklin. Tomb. + +This design was printed in dark blue on dinner, breakfast, tea, and +toilet services in vast numbers. In such large numbers, in fact, that +the pieces with this design are cheaper than any others bearing the +names of any historical personages. I have bought a large teapot for a +dollar, cups and saucers for a dollar, etc. This might be classed among +the Lafayette prints, but as we are not sure that the seated figure is +intended for Lafayette, and Franklin cannot escape the formal witness of +his inscribed tomb, we place it in this place in the list. A teapot +bearing this print is here shown. + +[Illustration: Tomb of Franklin Teapot.] + +61. Franklin. Print. Fur-cap Portrait. + +This print is in black on pitchers and bowls. It is the fur-cap portrait +with the glasses. The legend reads: “Benj^n Franklin Esq. LL.D. and +F.R.S., the brave defender of the country against the oppression of +taxation without representation—author of the greatest discovery in +Natural Philosophy since those of Sir Isaac Newton, viz.: that lightning +is the same with the electric fire.” See No. 18. + +62. Franklin. Portrait. + +A full-length print of Franklin on mug, with various maxims of Poor +Richard’s. + +63. Franklin. Portrait. + +A light blue print of Franklin found on toilet services. The philosopher +is seen flying his famous kite. + +64. Dr. Franklin’s Maxims. + +Plate of cream ware with relief border of scrolls and scallops +intertwined, with words in ornamental capitals, “Fear God: Honour your +Parents.” In the centre is a green print of a view of the inside and +outside of a shop, with figures. Those within are working, those without +are idle. Above, the words, “Dr. Franklin’s Maxims.” Below, the maxims, +“Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee,” “If you would have your +business done, go; if not, send.” This plate is in the possession of +Mrs. Nealy, of Washington, D. C. + +65. Franklin’s Morals. Staffordshire. + +Dark blue plate with waving edge, and dainty border of fruit, shells, +and flowers. In the centre a man carrying a large key. Houses and a +bridge in the background. On the back of the plate the words, +“Franklin’s Morals, ‘The used key is always bright.’” + +66. Franklin. House at Passy. + +Upon a beautiful Sèvres vase at the Executive Mansion in Washington is +seen a view of Franklin’s house at Passy. + +67. Franklin. Portrait Plaque. + +Oval plaque of Italian majolica marked with inscription, “Cortoni Fab +Alari. Beniamino Franklin, C. Brunacci Depinse.” In the Huntington +Collection. There are also three other majolica plates and plaques in +this collection bearing portraits of Franklin. + +I may say, in conclusion, what I have already shown in detail, that +there can be no better opportunity of studying the face of Franklin, as +shown in pottery and porcelain, than in the Huntington Collection. There +are eleven relief medallions, eleven enamels, nine busts, six statues, +and a large number of plates and plaques. You can also compare these +ceramic portraits with innumerable bronzes, engravings, art gems, +cameos, gold and silver and pewter work bearing the same serene, +benignant face, and with some very funny though unintentional +caricatures of Franklin by Japanese and Chinese artists, in some of +which the well-known fur-cap has been transformed into a close crop of +short woolly curls. + + + + + XV. + DESIGNS RELATING TO LAFAYETTE + + +I have never seen in America any pieces of English pottery or porcelain +bearing the name, portrait of Lafayette, or any reference to him that +could be assigned to an earlier date of manufacture than 1824, the time +of Lafayette’s last visit to America. It is worthy of note, however, +that the Lafayette pieces of crockery that were printed to commemorate +and illustrate that memorable visit and that triumphal journey are, as a +rule, in a much better state of preservation, freer from marks of fierce +assaulting knives, barer of nicks and cracks, than other American +historical pieces of the same date. The great veneration and affection +felt by all Americans for the noble character of Lafayette, and their +gratitude for his assistance in times of war, were doubtless the cause +of the careful preservation of the pieces relating to him and printed in +his honor. The fine platter shown on page 294, which is the clearest, +darkest, “Landing” print I have ever seen, was always kept carefully +wrapped in an ancient hand-woven “flannel sheet,” and laid away in an +upper drawer of a high chest, a “high-boy,” in a New England farm-house, +until it was ruthlessly removed from its honored seclusion of half a +century, and hung on the wall of my dining-room. + +During the triumphal journey of Lafayette through this country in 1824, +ladies, in honor of him, wore sashes and belt-ribbons printed with his +name and likeness, gloves with his portrait stamped upon the back, and +medallions with laudatory inscriptions relating to him fastened upon +their neck-ribbons and necklaces; while men and boys wore Lafayette +medals, medallions, and buttons. Of all these tokens few now remain; but +the various Lafayette plates and pitchers form lasting mementos of the +visit of the “Nation’s Guest.” Few families in New England appear to +have had more than two or three of the Lafayette pieces, but in the +vicinity of New York persons purchased whole dinner services, especially +of the “Landing” pattern. Mrs. Roebling owns the remains of an entire +set purchased by her father, General Warren. Mr. William C. Prime also +owns an entire service. + +La Grange, the home of Lafayette, was a familiar scene to Americans, for +many transparencies and paintings of the château were exhibited during +Lafayette’s tour in 1824, and two views of it appear on plates and +platters. With these I continue the list of historical designs and +subjects. + +68. Lafayette. La Grange. Enoch Wood & Sons. + +This is a dingy and poorly printed view of the gloomy entrance to the +château, with its great fir-trees, an engraving of which is seen in +Cloquet’s “Recollections of Lafayette.” The blue is good in tint, though +the print is indistinct. It has a poor, confused shell border. On the +back the stamp of Enoch Wood & Sons, and the mark “La Grange, the Home +of Lafayette.” A plate with this design is here shown. + +[Illustration: La Grange Plate.] + +69. Lafayette. La Grange 2. Wood. + +The superb platters with this print bear on the back, in a wreath of +laurel, the stamp “Southwest view of Lagrange, the residence of Marquis +La Fayette,” also the impressed stamp of Wood. The color is of the +richest dark blue tint, a true “lapis to delight the world.” Across the +top of the platter the border is formed in a graceful design of grapes +and vine leaves. On the left the border is composed of finely drawn +stalks of hollyhocks. On the right a tree and foliage form the border. +On the lower rim is a design of fleur-de-lis and roses. The view of the +château is different from No. 68, the whole front of the house being +shown. A broad expanse of lawn fills the foreground, across which two +dogs are running. Up a path on the left walk a man, woman, and child. I +have never seen but two pieces bearing this design, both large platters +twenty-three inches long. I purchased one for $12, which large price was +unwillingly paid; but as I had never seen nor heard of any pieces +bearing such a design, I could not bear to lose it when I believed it to +be unique. Within a week after this purchase I saw the second and better +platter and bought it for $1.50, and now I expect to find many another +piece with this “Southwest view of Lagrange.” I give these prices to +show the impossibility of assigning a definite value to those “old blue” +Staffordshire pieces. One of these platters was obtained through the +sale of the old dining-room furnishings of Barnum’s Hotel, in Baltimore. + +70. Lafayette. Medallion. + +This design is the head of Lafayette in blue on a white porcelain plate, +with the surrounding words, “Welcome, Lafayette, the Nation’s Guest and +our Country’s Glory.” The plate has an embossed border similar in design +to that upon some New Hall plates in my possession. It is unmarked. The +portrait is exceedingly ugly and mean. + +71. Lafayette. Portrait. + +A pitcher of stone-ware printed in blue, with a portrait of Lafayette on +one side, with this legend, “In commemoration of the visit of Lafayette +to the United States of America in 1824,” and a wreath entwined with +these words, “Lafayette, the Nation’s Guest.” On the other side a head +of Washington. Beneath the nose of the pitcher a spread eagle, and the +terse sentence, “Republicans are not always ungrateful.” One may be seen +in the Trumbull-Prime Collection. I have also seen several for sale in +city “antique shops.” + +72. Lafayette. Medallion. + +Medallion portrait of Lafayette and similar one of Washington on common +white stone-ware mug. Some of these mugs also have the date 1824, not +the year of manufacture apparently, but the date simply of Lafayette’s +visit to America. + +73. Lafayette. Medallion. + +A pitcher ten inches in height, bearing on both sides a good portrait of +Lafayette, with this legend, “General Lafayette was born at Auvergne, in +France. At 19 he arrived in America in a war-ship furnished at his own +cost in 1777, & volunteered in our army as Major General. At Brandywine +he was wounded but refused to quit the field; he assisted the army with +£10,000 from his own purse, and kept in service until our independence +was sealed and country free; in 1784 he returned to France loaded with +honors and the gratitude of the American people; in 1824 the Congress +unanimously offered a ship for his return, he declined the honor, but +landed from the Cadmus at New York, August 24th, 1824, amid the +acclamations of 60,000 freemen.” In front of the pitcher is another +portrait of Lafayette in vignette, with this legend above it, “General +Lafayette, welcome to the land of Liberty,” and below, “He was born at +Auvergne in France, 1757, joined the American struggle in 1777, and in +1824 returned to repose in the bosom of the land whose liberty he in +part gave birth to.” This pitcher is globose in shape, is in a good +shade of blue, and is unmarked. + +[Illustration: Cadmus Plate.] + +74. Lafayette. Cadmus. Enoch Wood & Sons. + +This was the name of the ship which brought Lafayette to America in +1824. The stamp “Cadmus” appears on a few only of the plates, and the +others must be classified by the knowledge of, and comparison with, the +marked ones, or with the illustration here shown. This is an exceedingly +beautiful plate; the graceful shell border is so rich and dark a blue, +and the centre expanse of water and full-sailed ship and sloop are so +distinct and bright, that it gives one the impression of looking out +from a dark cave upon the sunny ocean. Every plate that I have seen +bearing this design has been of the finest color, clearest print, most +brilliant glaze, and in good preservation. They have the stamp “Enoch +Wood & Sons.” The Cadmus was built for Mr. William Whitlock, and +belonged to the Havre line of packet-ships organized and managed by +William Whitlock, Jr., & Co., of 46 South Street. When this eminent +shipping-house learned that Lafayette had declined the offer of a +national vessel, the members at once put the Cadmus at his service, +declining to receive any remuneration therefor. No other passengers were +allowed on board save the General and his suite, and the ship took no +cargo. Captain Allyn was the commander. Lafayette fully appreciated this +initial act of American friendship and hospitality, and the first +private house at which he dined after arriving was at Mr. Whitlock’s. +The ship became in later years a whaling vessel. The Long Island +Historical Society have a portion of the wood-work of the berths from +the state-room occupied by Lafayette. + +75. Landing of Lafayette. Clews. + +Pieces bearing this print are perhaps more eagerly sought after by +collectors, patriots, and historical students than are those bearing any +other design. The prints are all in dark blue of good tint (except a few +rare polychrome prints of which I shall speak), but vary in clearness +and distinctness. It is said that whole dinner services and tea-services +were printed with it, but I have never seen either teapots or creamers. +I have found four sizes of plates, including the tiny cup-plates; large +soup-plates, pitchers, platters, bowls, and vegetable-dishes, and lovely +little pepper-pots and salt-cellars. And I have also seen an imposing +toilet service proudly bearing in richest blue the “Landing of +Lafayette.” The border is a handsome design of what I think is intended +for laurel leaves (but which more resemble ash), clusters of flowers +which are perhaps laurel blossoms, and larger flowers which may be wild +roses, but look like jonquils. In the centre of the plates and on the +sides of the larger dishes is a spirited design bearing at the base, in +dark blue letters, the words, “Landing of Lafayette. At Castle Garden, +New York, August 24th, 1824.” In the foreground of this view are +marshals or sentinels on horseback, then comes a row of six smoking +cannon, then the bay covered with beflagged shipping and small +sail-boats, and two clumsy, strangely shaped steamers, the Robert Fulton +and Chancellor Livingston, with their side-wheels quite up out of the +water. At the right, a small bridge over the water leads to an inclosed +fort, over which floats the flag of the United States. Over all is a sky +of strongly defined clouds. On the back is the impressed stamp, +“Warranted Clews Staffordshire.” A platter with this design is here +shown. Plates of this pattern sell for from four to ten dollars, +according to clearness, condition, and size. This design has been seen +in polychrome. A few years ago there stood in a barroom in New York an +enormous punch-bowl capable of holding many gallons. It bore printed or +painted in high and varied colors the “Landing of Lafayette.” Plates and +platters also have been offered for sale in New York with the design in +many colors. Sometimes this design is found upon pitchers with a poor +portrait of Lafayette. + +[Illustration: Lafayette Landing Platter.] + +Lafayette arrived in the Cadmus at Staten Island on Sunday, but +postponed by request his entrance into New York until the following day. +The landing at the Battery must have been a magnificent sight. The +steamship Robert Fulton, manned by two hundred sailors from the +Constitution, and her companion ship the Chancellor Livingston, “led in +triumph rather than towed the Cadmus to the place of landing.” Two +hundred thousand persons welcomed the General with shouts, cannon +thundered from the shore, the forts, the vessels. Flags, triumphal +arches, decorations of various kinds adorned the streets and buildings. +For those who, when they glance at their “Landing” plates, wish to find +the image of the General there present, I will add that he was then +sixty-eight years of age, was conceded by all to be far from a beautiful +or heroic figure, with his small head, staring eyes, retreating +forehead, and bad complexion, and he wore on that occasion “nankeen +pantaloons, buff vest, and plain blue coat with covered buttons.” + +76. Lafayette. Faïence Patriotique. Nevers. + +A plate of coarse pottery, with border of blue and yellow leaves. At the +top two blue and yellow flags, and in the centre of the plate this +legend in hand-painted, irregular letters of blue: + + (“Cadet Rousette a des plats bleus + Qui sont beaux, qui n’vont pas au feu; + Si vous voulez en faire emplette, + Adressez-vous à La Fayette. + Ah! Ah! Ah! mais vraiment, + Cadet Rousette est bon enfant.” + 1792.) + +This is a good specimen of the “Faïences Patriotiques.” These +revolutionary emblems were made at the Nevers Pottery, in France, in +large numbers, at the time of the French Revolution. They were coarsely +painted with patriotic, though frequently ill-spelled, designs and +mottoes, and were designed to appeal to and influence the French +peasantry. The great heat used in the firing prevented the potters from +using red paint (since that color was destroyed by the high +temperature), so in direct violation of all “rules of revolutionary +iconology,” the liberty cap was rendered in blue or yellow. It was in +honor of the “Fayence of Nevers” that the poem of Defraney was written +that begins, + + (“Chantons, Fille du Ciel, l’honneur de la Fayence! + Quel Art! dans l’Italie il reçut la naissance + Et vint, passant les monts, s’établir dans Nevers. + Ses ouvrages charmans vont au delà des mers.”) + +This Nevers plate is in the Huntington Collection at the Metropolitan +Museum of Art. + +77. Lafayette. Faïence Patriotique. Nevers. + +Plate of coarse Nevers pottery with hideous profile portrait of +Lafayette in yellow and blue, and date 1794. Border of blue leaves. Also +in the Huntington Collection. + +78. Lafayette. Faïence Patriotique. Nevers. + +Plate of coarse Nevers pottery with scroll border of green, yellow, and +blue. A full-face portrait of Lafayette in bright yellow, with purple +hair. In the Huntington Collection. + +79. Lafayette. Faïence Patriotique. Nevers. + +Large plate of Nevers pottery, fourteen inches in diameter, with +slightly scalloped edge. In the centre a design of a long-legged bird +with man’s head, saying, “La Fayette, Je tends mes filets.” The bird +tramples under foot, or under claw, a head marked “le Roi Soliveau,” and +is addressing his remarks to a head on a pole with a flag marked “Loi +Martiale.” There is also a network or fence inclosing frogs. Above all, +the inscription, “Les grenouilles qui demandent un Roi, ou le Roi +Soliveau.” + +80. Lafayette. Portrait. Sèvres. + +A Sèvres plate with an exquisitely painted portrait of Lafayette in full +uniform. A rich border of red, blue, and gold. In the Huntington +Collection. + +81. Lafayette. Portrait. + +Square plate with fluted border, with splashes of purple and yellow, +like No. 52. A spray of flowers in each corner. In the centre a fine +profile portrait of Lafayette in full uniform. In the Huntington +Collection. + +82. Lafayette. Portrait. + +Plate with pierced border like No. 53. In the centre the same portrait +as in No. 81. In the Huntington Collection. + +83. Lafayette. Bust. + +Bust four inches in height. One of same set described in No. 31. One can +be seen in Huntington Collection. + +84. Lafayette. Medallion. + +White porcelain profile medallion about two inches and a half in +diameter. No mark. + +Lafayette. At the Tomb of Franklin. + +Were we sure that the figure in this design is Lafayette, it would +properly be placed here, but it is very uncertain whether the seated +mourner is Lafayette, or merely some sombre-minded, non-historical, +though patriotic citizen; so a description and illustration of this +design will be found among the Franklin Prints, No. 60. + +Lafayette. At the Tomb of Washington. + +See No. 33. The figure in this design may not be that of Lafayette. + +Lafayette. Portrait. Erie Canal. + +See No. 166. The presence of Lafayette at the formal opening of the Erie +Canal was naturally felt to be a great honor, hence the appearance of +his name on many of the plates; but as the other design is more +prominent it is classed under that name. + +There are many modern Parian busts of poor likeness and indifferent +artistic merit, and occasional hand-painted plaques of Lafayette, but +they hardly come within the intentions and purpose of this list. + + + + + XVI. + PATRIOTIC AND POLITICAL DESIGNS + + +The heroes and the naval battles of the War of 1812 furnished manifold +subjects for the designs printed on a vast number of mugs and pitchers. +They were made and printed at the Liverpool and Staffordshire pot-works +to supply the American trade, and were imported in great numbers to this +country. English potters appeared to have none of that form of patriotic +pride and independence that would prevent them from celebrating and +perpetuating the virtues and victories of their late enemies, or hinder +them from printing inscriptions and verses insulting to their native +land and their fellow-countrymen; they were plainly and unsentimentally +mercenary. These portraits, mottoes, and battle-scenes appear in various +combinations of subjects, sometimes in juxtaposition with Washington +designs. Occasionally a mammoth pitcher is found—a dozen pitchers rolled +into one—decorated with a dozen different but generic prints. Such is +the great heroic vessel known as the “Historical Pitcher of the War of +1812.” It was made by Enoch Wood & Sons of Burslem, Staffordshire, +England, about 1824, by the order of Horace Jones, Esq., of Troy, N. Y. +It is now owned by his grandson, Horace Jones Richards, Esq., of the +same city. It stands twenty inches in height, and measures twenty inches +from the end of the spout to the extreme point of the handle. The body +is eighteen inches in diameter—a foot and a half, and it holds eleven +and a half gallons. It has an embossed border around the top, and is +decorated with a coarse design in copper-lustre and green. On the front +of the pitcher is the name of the purchaser, Horace Jones, and around +the body are various prints that are often seen singly on other and +smaller pitchers. In front, about five inches above the base of the +pitcher, is a small projection or knob. This served as a second handle +by which to carry the pitcher (for it is a great weight when filled—if +it ever is filled), and it formed also a support to rest on the edge of +a smaller vessel when pouring from the pitcher. On either side of this +small handle are portraits of Washington and Adams. There are on one +side of the great pitcher-body portraits of Captain Jones, of the +Macedonian, Major-General Brown, of the Niagara campaign, Commodore +Bainbridge, of the Constitution. Below these portraits a circle of +prints representing the Constitution escaping from the British fleet; +Commodore Macdonough’s victory on Lake Champlain, and a large American +eagle with the motto, “E Pluribus Unum.” On the other side of the +pitcher are the portraits of Commodore Decatur, Commodore Perry, and +Captain Hull, of the Constitution; below are the engagements between the +Chesapeake and Shannon off Boston Harbor, June 1, 1813, and Commodore +Perry’s victory on Lake Erie. Below the large handle on the right are +two views of the manufactory and the names of the makers, and on the +left a naval monument with flags and motto, “We have met the enemy and +they are ours.” + +This pitcher arrived in Troy a short time before Lafayette made his +visit to that city in 1824, and was first publicly used at the reception +given to him September 18, 1824. Since then it has been used on many +notable occasions. A bill was introduced to the State Legislature in +Albany, in the spring of 1891, for the purchase of this pitcher and its +preservation in the State Library. The purchase sum required was three +hundred and fifty dollars. The bill did not pass. It is a pity it cannot +be in the possession of the National Museum at Washington, since the +State of New York did not care to preserve it as a relic. + +There are some designs of the American eagle and flag, and a few +relating to men of Revolutionary times, which may be assigned, though +without any positiveness, to the period between the War of the +Revolution and the War of 1812. With these prints I resume the list of +American subjects. + +85. John Adams. Portrait. + +A pitcher, eight inches in height, printed in black, with a very good, +though coarse, portrait of Adams, and the inscription, “John Adams, +President of the United States.” Underneath is a design of two fat +cherubs tying up a parcel and bundles—possibly an idealization of +emigration. The print is signed “F. Morris, Shelton, Staffordshire.” +Strange to say, this pitcher was purchased in Chester, England. + +86. Proscribed Patriots. Liverpool. + +A design printed in black on pitchers, and here shown. On the side a +medallion with a willow-tree and monument. On the monument the +inscription, “G. W. Sacred to the memory of G. Washington, who +emancipated America from slavery and founded a republic upon such just +and equitable principles that it will” (remainder illegible). Around +this medallion the legend, “The Memory of Washington and the Proscribed +Patriots of America. Liberty, Virtue, Peace, Justice, and Equity to all +Mankind.” Under this, “Columbia’s Sons inspired by Freedom’s Flame Live +in the Annals of Immortal Fame.” Under the monument are portraits of +Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and the letters S. A. and J. H.; and +under these a beehive and cornucopia. On the front of the pitcher is the +American eagle and shield, with inscription, “Peace, Commerce, and +Honest Friendship with all Nations, Entangling Alliances with none. +Jefferson. Anno Domini 1804.” Under the handle, “Fame,” in clouds. + +[Illustration: Proscribed Patriots Pitcher.] + +87. William Franklin. Medallion. Wedgwood. + +Two blue and white jasper medallions of the son of Benjamin Franklin. +These medallions appear in Wedgwood’s “List of Illustrious Moderns.” +William Temple Franklin was the last Royalist governor of New Jersey, +but his claim to fame rests only on his being the son of his father. Two +of these medallions are in the Huntington Collection. + +Samuel Adams. Portrait. Liverpool. + +On Proscribed Patriots Pitcher. See No. 86. + +88. Jefferson. Name in Inscription. + +On a pitcher bearing a portrait of the American eagle, with motto, “E +Pluribus Unum,” are these stanzas: + + “Sound, Sound the trump of Fame, + Let Jefferson’s great name + Ring through the world with loud applause + As the firm friend of Freedom’s cause. + + “Let every clime to freedom dear + Now listen with a joyfull ear. + With honest pride and manly grace + He fills the Presidential place. + + “The Constitution for his guide, + And Truth and Justice by his side, + When hope was sinking in dismay, + When gloom obscured Columbia’s day, + He mourn’d his country’s threaten’d fate + And sav’d it ere it was too late.” + +Jefferson. Quotation. Liverpool. + +See No. 127. + +Jefferson. At Tomb. Staffordshire. + +See No. 33. + +Jefferson. Portrait. Staffordshire. + +See No. 166. + +89. John Hancock. Portrait. Liverpool. + +A black print on a mug. On a ribbon scroll the inscription, “The +Honorable John Hancock.” + +John Hancock. Portrait. Liverpool. + +On Proscribed Patriots Pitcher. See No. 86. + +John Hancock. House. + +See No. 157. + +90. Montgomery. Battle-Scene. Liverpool. + +Black print on a pitcher of a battle-scene entitled “The Death of +Montgomery.” One may be seen in the Trumbull-Prime Collection. + +91. Warren. Battle-Scene. Liverpool. + +Black print on a Liverpool pitcher of a battle-scene, with name “The +Death of Warren.” One may be seen in the Trumbull-Prime Collection. + +92. American Eagle. Sailor Pitcher. Liverpool. + +A Liverpool pitcher with an American spread eagle over the words +“Herculaneum Pottery, Liverpool.” On one side waves and a full-rigged +ship bearing American flag; sometimes printed in black, and often +coarsely colored by hand. This print is often seen on sailor pitchers +with other prints of different designs. On the other side, a sailor’s +ballad surrounded by wreath of flowers, with engraver’s signature, “Jo^h +Johnson, Liverpool.” + +93. American Eagle. Masonic Pitcher. Liverpool. + +A Liverpool pitcher with American eagle and shield. On the other side, +Masonic emblems. There were a vast number of these Masonic designs, one +is shown on page 147, and as they were not specially American, though +doubtless made largely for Americans, it is useless to specify them. + +94. Ship Alligator. + +A pitcher with view of the ship Alligator on one side. On the reverse a +spread eagle, with a scroll border in gilt containing the names of +fifteen States. + +95. Mug. Union to the People. + +A mug of Liverpool ware printed with a group of three men clasping +hands. They are supposed to be Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, but may be +any other American statesmen. Above the group, a liberty cap with the +words “Union to the People.” Below are branches with leaves and the +legend, “Civil and Religious Liberty to all Mankind.” + +96. Salem Ship-building. Liverpool. + +Two prints representing scenes of timber-rolling and ship-building, +intended to commemorate the era of great prosperity in Salem ship-yards. +They are accompanied with these verses: + + “Our mountains are covered with Imperial Oak + Whose Roots like our Liberties Ages have Nourish’d; + But long e’er our Nation submits to the Yoke + Not a Tree shall be left on the Field where it flourish’d. + + “Should invasion impend, Every Tree would Descend + From the Hilltops they shaded Our Shores to defend; + For ne’er shall the Sons of Columbia be slaves + While the Earth bears a Plant, or the Sea rolls its waves.” + +The finest specimen of Liverpool ware bearing these prints and verses is +a great punch-bowl, eighteen inches in diameter, in the rooms of the +East India Marine Society in Salem. It also bears on the inside of the +bowl, in large letters, the name of the Society and other inscriptions, +and the date 1800. Pitchers also are found with these prints, and also +with the spread eagle with the mark “Herculaneum Pottery, Liverpool.” +One may be seen in the rooms of the Bostonian Society in the old +State-House, Boston. These prints are perhaps the most pretentious of +any made for commercial interests in this country, and are usually very +clear and good. + +97. Plan of City of Washington. Liverpool. + +A Liverpool pitcher with black print of a map between two female +figures. Inscription, “Plan of the City of Washington.” On reverse is +Washington design No. 13. + +98. Emblem of America. Liverpool. + +A Liverpool pitcher with a coarse black print of a female figure holding +the American flag, and facing two clumsily-drawn, stumpy Indians. In the +background a group of oval portraits labelled Raleigh, Columbus, +Franklin, Washington, etc. The legend “An Emblem of America.” On the +reverse a Washington design. + +99. Crooked Town of Boston. Liverpool. + +A Liverpool pitcher printed in black, red, or green, with inscription, +“Success to the Crooked but Interesting Town of Boston.” On the other +side a long ballad, varying on different pitchers. + +100. Liberty. Liverpool. + +A Liverpool pitcher with black print. Design, a seated figure of Liberty +with the legend, “May Columbia Flourish.” + +101. Infant Navy. Naval Pitcher. + +This design is found on Liverpool pitchers of at least four sizes. Under +the nose of the pitcher is in large letters the inscription, “Success to +the Infant Navy of the United States.” On the side of the pitcher +sometimes was seen a black transfer print of a full-rigged ship, +sometimes the American flag and eagle, sometimes a large print of a +naval battle with this printed motto, “L’Insurgente French Frigate of 44 +guns and 411 Men striking her Colours to the American Frigate +Constitution, Commodore Truxton, of 40 guns, after an action of an hour +and a half in which the former had 75 Men killed & wounded & the latter +one killed & three wounded, Feb. 20th, 1799.” A very good pitcher with +the latter design may be seen at Washington’s Headquarters, at +Morristown. See also No. 18, and pages 141 _et seq._ + +102. American Flag. + +This print is found on pitchers and mugs, sometimes colored over the +print. It is found on pieces with various other Washington and Sailor +prints. + +103. For America. Liverpool. + +A Liverpool pitcher with the Farmers Arms, described on pages 153 _et +seq._ Legend, “For America.” + +104. Peace and Prosperity to America. No. 1. + +Liverpool pitcher printed in red, with scrolls of pink lustre. The +design is a shield supported by two female figures; the word “New York” +on the top of the shield in large letters, and the names of twelve other +States, including Boston, on a ribbon scroll. Legend, “Peace, Plenty and +Independence.” On the other side a shield supported by an eagle and an +Indian. Legend, “Success to the United States of America, E Pluribus +Unum.” In front of pitcher the motto, “Peace and Prosperity to America.” + +105. Peace and Prosperity to America. No. 2. + +A Liverpool pitcher with a wreath of ribbons and stars bearing names of +eleven States, two of them being “Boston” and “Tenassee.” In centre of +wreath the words, “Peace, Plenty, and Independence.” This wreath forms a +medallion or shield supported by two female figures, each with a +cornucopia. Above the medallion an eagle and flag. On the front of the +pitcher, the motto, “Peace and Prosperity to America.” This much +resembles No. 104. + +106. United States Soldier. + +Liverpool pitchers and bowls with black or red print of United States +soldier standing with his foot on the head of a British Lion. Legend, +“By Virtue and Valor we have freed our Country, extended our Commerce, +and laid the foundation of a Great Empire.” In the background stand four +Continental soldiers. + +107. Liberty. Naval Pitcher. + +A black print of ribbon scroll with names of sixteen States, enclosing +verses beginning, + + “Oh Liberty! thou goddess + Heavenly bright, + Profuse of bliss, + And pregnant with delight.” + +On the reverse, a print of a ship with American flag. + +108. People of America. + +A Liverpool pitcher with a print of three men holding hands and +elevating a liberty cap on a pole. Underneath, “People of America” on a +scroll, and the words, “Civil and Religious Liberty to All Mankind.” On +the reverse, Liberty seated, and a soldier standing with a harp between +the two figures. Beneath, the words “Tun’d to Freedom for our Country.” + +109. Historical Pitcher of War of 1812. + +Described on page 299 _et seq._ + +110. American Heroes. + +Pitcher printed in copper-lustre. On one side a full-rigged ship +surrounded by a chain of elliptical links containing the names, Hull, +Jones, Lawrence, Macdonough, Porter, Blakey, Beatry, Stuart, Washington, +Perry, Rogers, Bainbridge, Decatur. Above are two clasped hands holding +the chain. On the other side is the American eagle with “E Pluribus +Unum,” and a similar enclosing chain with clasped hands and the names +Brown, McComb, Ripley, Pike, Porter, Miller, Bainbridge, Izard, Van +Rensallaer, Adair, Lewis, Gaines, Scott, Jardson. This pitcher is +globose in shape, and of fine quality of ware. + +111. Naval Pitcher. Liverpool. + +This print of two men-of-war in a close engagement, appears with various +names. A pitcher is here shown with the words Macedonian and the United +States. + +[Illustration: Naval Pitcher.] + +112. Perry. Portrait. + +A white pottery plate with a black print of the portrait of Commodore +Perry, surrounded by a design of flags, cannon, and a frigate; above the +name “Perry.” The edge is scalloped, with a black border. Impressed +mark, “Davenport.” This design appears on pitcher described in No. 115. + +113. Perry. Portrait. + +A white pottery plate with a black print. In the centre, a full-length +portrait of Commodore Perry surrounded by a design of flags, +powder-kegs, cannon, and a full-rigged frigate. Above the name “Perry.” +The plate has a scalloped edge with a black border. + +114. Perry. Portrait. + +A portrait of Commodore Perry with the name O. H. Perry, Esq. On a +ribbon scroll, the legend, “We have met the enemy and they are ours,” +the words of Perry’s famous despatch. Under this, the words, “Hero of +the Lake.” See page 142 for description of Perry at this battle. + +115. Jackson. Portrait. + +A large globose pitcher with a portrait of Jackson, and the words “Major +General Andrew Jackson.” On the other side same portrait of Perry as No. +112. This print is also seen upon plates. + +116. Decatur. Portrait. + +A portrait of Decatur on a mug. Above, the words “Commodore Decatur;” +below, on a ribbon, the famous war-motto, “Free Trade Sailors Rights.” +The old ballad says, + + “Then quickly met our nation’s eyes + The noblest sight in Nature, + A first-class frigate as a prize + Brought back by brave Decatur.” + +117. Lawrence. Portrait. Newcastle. + +A portrait of Lawrence in copper-lustre on cream-ware pitcher, with +motto, “Don’t surrender the ship.” His dying words, “Don’t give up the +ship,” have become a national watchword. On the other side of pitcher, a +portrait of Decatur, with his name. + +118. Bainbridge. Portrait. + +A mug with a portrait of Bainbridge, with words, “Commodore Bainbridge,” +and his characteristic words, “Avast, boys, she’s struck!” Commodore +Bainbridge commanded the Constitution—Old Ironsides. + + “On Brazil’s coast She ruled the roost + When Bainbridge was her Captain.” + +119. Hull. Portrait. + +A pitcher bearing portrait of Captain Hull, and the words, “Captain +Hull, of the Constitution.” On the other side, a portrait with the +words, “Captain Jones, of the Macedonian.” + +120. Pike. Portrait. + +A pitcher with the portrait of General Z. M. Pike; above it the word +“Pike;” below, his noble words, “Be always ready to die for your +country.” On the other side, a portrait and name, “Captain Jones, of the +Macedonian.” A specimen can be seen in the collection of the Bostonian +Society in the old State-House in Boston. + +121. Pike. Portrait. + +Same portrait of Pike and same legend as No. 120. On the other side, +portrait of Hull and legend, “Captain Hull, of the Constitution.” + +122. Jones. Portrait. + +Plate with a portrait of Captain Jones printed in blue in the centre, +with a ship on the left and flags on the right. Black shell border. +Impressed mark, “Davenport.” This description was given me by Mr. Prime. + +Jones. Portrait. + +See No. 120. + +123. Preble. Portrait. + +A pitcher with a good portrait of Preble, signed “D,” with a figure of +Fame on one side and the American flag on the other, and the name +“Commodore Preble.” On the other side of the pitcher, a well-drawn oval +print of ships attacking fortifications. Above, the inscription +“Commodore Preble’s Squadron Attacking the City of Tripoli Aug 3. 1804. +The American Squadron under Commodore Preble consisting of the +Constitution 44 guns 2 Brigs & 3 Schooners 2 bombs & 4 Gunboats +Attacking the City and Harbour of Tripoli Aug 3, 1804. the city was +defended by Batteries Mounting 115 Pieces of heavy Cannon & the Harbour +was defended by 19 Gunboats 2 Brigs 2 Schooners 2 Gallies and a Zebeck. +the city Received Great Damage Several of the Tripolitan Vessels were +sunk 3 of their Gunboats taken & a Great Number of Men Killed.” On the +front of the pitcher is the American spread eagle and the words, +“Herculaneum Pottery, Liverpool.” + +124. Trophy. + +Pitchers printed in lustre and purple with a trophy of arms and the +verses, + + “United & Steady in Liberties Cause, + We’ll ever defend our Countries Laws.” + +Under the nose the legend, + + “May the tree of Liberty ever flourish.” + +125. Macdonough. Bombardment of Stonington. + +A pitcher of cream ware with a black print entitled “The Gallant Defense +of Stonington Aug 9th 1814.” It represents that famous defence when the +inhabitants of the town, with one gun successfully resisted the attack +of the British force of several vessels, sinking one ship and driving +off the others. Underneath, the legend, “Stonington is free whilst her +heroes have one gun left.” On the other side is the print of a ship with +the words, “United States Frigate Guerriere, Com. MacDonough bound to +Russia July 1818.” Mr. Prime says that a citizen of Stonington who went +to Russia on public service in the Guerriere ordered these pitchers in +Liverpool. He may have made the drawing of the battle for the engraver. + +Macdonough. Victory on Lake Champlain. + +Dark blue print on Staffordshire ware. See No. 188. + +126. Naval Battle. + +A globose pitcher printed in vermillion with a design of a naval battle. +Underneath, the words “The Wasp and The Reindeer.” + +127. Militia. Liverpool. + +A Liverpool pitcher, twelve inches in height, bearing an oval medallion +with design of cannon, flags, etc., with a man in full militia uniform. +Above, this legend, “America! whose Militia is better than Standing +Armies.” At base, within the medallion, “May its Citizens emulate +Soldiers, its Soldiers Heroes.” Below all, the lines: + + “While Justice is the throne to which we are bound to bend + Our Countries Rights and Laws we ever will defend.” + +Under the nose of the pitcher is the spread eagle, with this legend, +“Peace Commerce and honest Friendship with All Nations Entangling +Alliances with None; Jefferson.” This pitcher is printed in black and is +painted in colors. It was made in 1808, in Liverpool, for a Narragansett +sea-captain. + +DeWitt Clinton. Portrait. Erie Canal. + +See No. 166. + +DeWitt Clinton. Monogram. + +See No. 172. + +DeWitt Clinton. Eulogy. + +See No. 168. + +128. Steamship. + +Printed in red on a cream-ware tea-service. On the large pieces are two +views, one a steamship at sea, with land and a fort in distance. The +ship floats American flag, and has the smoke-stack nearly as tall as the +mast. The other view, a ship flying American flag over the British, +approaching a shore upon which lies an anchor. An American eagle on the +shore holds a laurel branch among the stars. The scroll border is in +purple lustre. This is apparently Newcastle ware. Specimens can be seen +at the rooms of the Essex Institute, in Salem. + +129. Liberty Medallion. Head. + +Embossed head of Liberty on Castleford teapots. The same head used on +gold coins of United States of 1795. + +130. Liberty Medallion. Figure. + +Embossed figure of Liberty seated. Found on Castleford wares. + +131. American Eagle. Medallion. + +Embossed eagle and shield on Castleford wares. Same as die on United +States gold coin of 1797. + +132. Harrison. Pitcher. American Pottery Co. + +This pitcher is the most interesting piece of American pottery bearing +an historical design that I have ever seen. The dealer who offered it to +me asserted that only six were ever manufactured. He also said that he +could easily procure dozens of Washington pitchers that were _two +hundred years old_, but that I would find it hard to get a _colonial_ +pitcher with a picture of Harrison on it. To this latter assertion I +warmly agreed. It was six-sided, bulging in the middle to a diameter of +about nine inches, about eleven inches in height, and with a foliated +handle and scalloped lip. It was of coarse-grained brownish pottery, +darker in shade than Liverpool ware. On four of its sides the pitcher +bore a view of a small log-cabin above a good portrait of Harrison, with +the words, “The Ohio Farmer W. H. Harrison.” Below all, a spread eagle. +On the bottom of the pitcher was printed in black, “Am. Pottery Manf^y +Co., Jersey City.” It is the only piece of American ware with printed +decorations similar to Liverpool ware that I have ever seen. + +133. Columbian Star. Jno. Ridgway. + +This plate, which is printed in light blue, is popularly known as the +“Log-cabin” plate. In the centre is a domestic scene of a log-cabin with +open door, and a woman and child are seated outside watching a man who +is ploughing a field in the foreground. A “lean-to” joins the house, +beneath which stands the cider barrel of “hard cider.” A man in the +background is chopping stumps. A small river bears a canoe with a single +figure. Across the stream is a flagstaff with an American flag. +Pine-trees are grouped near the cabin, and abundant smoke rises from the +chimney. The border is composed of large stars set in a firmament of +small ones. The inscription is, “Columbian Star. Oct. 20, 1840. Jno. +Ridgway.” It will be remembered that William Henry Harrison was elected +President in the fall of 1840. This plate is owned by Mrs. Nealy, of +Washington, D. C. + + + + + XVII. + STAFFORDSHIRE WARES + + +No ceramic specimens are of more interest to the American china +collector than the pieces of dark blue Staffordshire crockery that were +manufactured in such vast variety of design, and were imported in such +great numbers to America in the early years of this century. Their +beauty of color—the color called by the Chinese “the light of heaven,” a +blue like the lapis the Bishop wished for his tomb at St. Praxed’s, a +tint unexcelled and hardly equalled in modern wares—makes them a +never-ceasing delight to the eye; and the historical character of the +decoration frequently adds to their interest and value. Mr. Prime wrote +in 1876 of these pieces of crockery, “they have ceased to be common, are +indeed becoming rare, and collectors will do well to secure good +specimens.” Since that year specimens have become rarer and more +valuable still. The Staffordshire pieces that date from the year 1830 to +1850, though still printed with American views, are lighter and duller +in tint of blue, and are more frequently stamped in green, pink, sepia, +chocolate, black, or plum color. The designs, as well as the colors, are +weaker, as if fading gradually and dying into the vast expanse of +dead-white crockery and china which spread its uninteresting level over +the tables of country folk for the quarter of a century that elapsed +before the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, that turning-point in +household art decoration in America. + +[Illustration: Pickle Leaf.] + +The shapes of the pieces of table-ware also became degraded, and were +not so graceful as the Staffordshire tea and dinner sets of the first +quarter of this century. One specially pretty piece that came with many +dark blue dinner sets of the latter-named date was the low fruit-dish +with its tray, both with pierced basket-work borders. The pickle leaves +also were gracefully shaped. The pitchers, both of the table and toilet +sets, were graceful, and “poured” well, that most important, and +ofttimes lacking, attribute of pitchers. Both basins and pitchers of +toilet sets were, however, inconveniently small. There was also not the +monotony of design which we find nowadays on sets of china. I mean that +all the pieces of a set were not stamped with the same design. I am +convinced that the tea-sets, such as the familiar Tomb of Washington and +Tomb of Franklin design, seldom were furnished with a set of plates +bearing the same decoration, but consisted only of teapot, water-pot, +creamer, slop-bowl, sugar-bowl, and occasionally two cake-plates. The +copper-lustre china tea-sets of the early part of the century seldom had +tea-plates like the rest of the sets. + +[Illustration: Philadelphia Library Plate.] + +It was only the most popular and universally widespread designs, such as +that of the Landing of Lafayette or the Pilgrim, or the Boston +State-House, that were found on all the pieces of dinner services and +sold together. Sets were formed, usually having the same border, with +different designs on the different-sized plates. We found in the summer +of 1891, under the eaves of an old farm-house in Worcester County, a +painted blue sea-chest which contained a sight to make a china hunter +both smile and weep. The dust of years covered the chest, the floor, the +ladder-like stairs that led to the attic. Every step of the staircase +had to be cleared for our climbing entrance of the accumulated and +forgotten autumn stores of what had been ears of seed-corn, but were now +only rat-nibbled cobs, bunches of cobwebbed herbs, broken chairs, dried +and withered gourds and pumpkins. The house-mistress frankly +acknowledged that she hadn’t “been up garret for years,” she had been +“so poorly and tissicky.” We smiled when we opened the lid of the chest +and saw the familiar and much-loved color, the color of our guiding star +in our search, the rich, dark blue. But we grieved as we lifted the +pieces out, for fully half of them were broken. There was an entire +dinner service of the “Beauties of America,” set of J. & W. Ridgway. All +had the same medallion border that is here shown on the Philadelphia +Library plate. As the chief beauties of America in those days were not +fair maids, but almshouses, all the larger dishes and tureens bore +monotonously ugly views of square and many-windowed almshouses. The +views on the gravy tureens, with their little accompanying platters, +were all of the Exchange at Charleston; the large platters were of the +Capitol at Washington; the smaller, of the Boston Hospital. The twelve +dinner plates bore a view of New York City Hall; the breakfast-plates +were of the Philadelphia Library; the soup-plates all bore the view of +the Boston Octagon Church; little plates six inches and a half in +diameter had a view of the Boston Insane Hospital; the pickle leaves and +handleless bowls of the ladles were still different, bearing a small, +unnamed house with the same border. Tumbled in a crushed heap in the +corner of the chest was the saddest sight of all, a superb old Worcester +cream-pitcher, four pieces of Plymouth porcelain, an India china +tea-set, three Pilgrim plates, all broken, surmounted by two heavy +tankards which the owner thought were pewter, but which were solid +silver. They are all there still, huddled in sad fragments in the old +blue chest; and the Staffordshire dinner set also, for the owner, though +ignorant of the value of the crockery and china, of their number even, +and their condition, still “couldn’t spare them” when we asked to buy +the whole pieces and thus rescue them from the sad fate of their +brothers. The wife was deaf and poor and sick, and the husband looked +sicker and poorer still, but both were stubborn, good-temperedly +stubborn, in their assertion that they “couldn’t spare them.” We sat +down in the dust of the floor and begged; we raised our offer to city +prices; we offered to send another dinner set of French china to replace +the Staffordshire one, but all in vain; we drove away and returned again +to use fresh entreaties; the owner did not care for the “old crockery;” +scorned the assertion that the tankards were silver, and threw them +carelessly back into the chest; had no association with the pieces, no +sentiment against selling them; but he “couldn’t spare them.” + +It is difficult to find a full dinner set of the old Staffordshire dark +blue ware. The scattering of families and consequent division of +property, the destruction through every-day careless use, have seldom +left so full a set as the one just described. The Ridgways issued +another set of views of the various colleges and buildings of English +universities. The stamp on the back was in blue, a pointed oval, about +three inches long, with words, “Opaque China, J. & W. Ridgway;” in the +centre of the mark was the individual name of the building in the +design. + +A great number of these pieces appeared in the antique shops in the +winter of 1890, through the sale of the dining-room furnishings of an +old hotel in Baltimore, which must have consisted largely of this set of +college views. The owners sold all the old blue and white table +crockery, the old substantial and beautiful Sheffield plated trays and +tea-sets, and bought nice new American “hotel ware” and shining +electro-plated silver. + +The name Cambridge on many of these University plates enabled some +unscrupulous or ignorant dealers to palm off the college views of that +University to a few thoughtless buyers, at high prices, as views of +Harvard College, in Cambridge, Mass. Views of private residences in +London are frequently found in America with the same border as the +University pieces, a wreath of convolvulus broken by pretty cameo-like +medallions of boys playing with goats. + +All these English views are exceedingly useful for wall decorations, +especially for high shelves, or as a background for lighter-colored bits +of china, where it is not necessary that the design of the decoration +should be carefully distinguished; and their vast variety makes them a +constantly interesting subject for investigation and purchase. I have +seen one collection of over two hundred Staffordshire plates bearing +each a different English view, and I have seen many scores—perhaps +hundreds—still different. + +Some of the richest pieces of color are the dark blue plates printed +with the “Wilkie Designs,” such as the well-known Letter of +Introduction, and the much sought after Valentine design. The Don +Quixote series is also good. Equally glorious and resplendent in color +are pieces bearing the Dr. Syntax designs. I have seen only plates and +tureens with the latter. These Syntax plates have an additional source +of interest in the wit of the humorous scenes that they represent. “Dr. +Syntax’s Noble Hunting Party,” “Dr. Syntax Upsets the Beehive,” “Dr. +Syntax Painting the Portrait of his Landlady,” “Dr. Syntax Star-Gazing,” +“Dr. Syntax Reading his Tour.” These I have seen, and there are +doubtless many others. They were printed from a set of pictures drawn by +Thomas Rowlandson, one of the most celebrated designers of his day of +humorous and amusing subjects. They were drawn to illustrate a book +published by William Combe, in 1812, called “Dr. Syntax’s Tour in Search +of the Picturesque.” A second tour, “In Search of Consolation,” appeared +in 1820. This was also illustrated by Rowlandson. A third tour, “In +Search of a Wife,” was printed the following year. These books had an +immense and deserved popularity. Not only did these Staffordshire plates +appear, but a whole set of Derby figures were modelled—“Dr. Syntax +Walking”—“In a Greenroom”—“At York”—“Going to Bed”—“Tied to a +Tree”—“Scolding the Landlady”—“Playing the Violin”—“Attacked by a +Bull”—“Mounted on Horseback”—and were sold in large numbers. The +Staffordshire plates have survived in greater variety in this country. +Doubtless they were imported in larger quantities than were the Derby +figures. + +Strangely enough, no Biblical scenes are represented on these +Staffordshire plates, save one with a print of the Flight into Egypt. + +Other interesting forms of ware manufactured in Staffordshire were the +old drinking-mugs known as “Tobys.” They were seated figures of rummy, +old, red-nosed fellows with drinking-mugs in their hands. They wore +usually cocked hats, the hat forming the lip of the mug. They were gayly +dressed in high colors, and were sometimes twelve and even fourteen +inches in height. A terrible damper has been put, within a few years, on +the joy of collecting these “Tobys,” by the fact of their reproduction +in vast numbers after precisely the old models, and in precisely the +same colors. Of course, the modern Tobys are very shining and new, and +upon examination are easily distinguished from the old ones; but when a +closet-door in an antique shop suddenly and most unadvisedly swung open, +the sight of a row of twenty or thirty Tobys, all precisely alike, did +not seem to enhance the value of the asserted-to-be-unique specimen on +the shop shelf, nor make me very warm about purchasing further +specimens, were they old or new. + +It is impossible to obtain any information in England about this dark +blue earthenware, or “semi-china,” which was made for so many years in +such vast quantities for the American market. The Staffordshire pottery +works have all changed owners; the plates from which these wares were +printed have all been lost or destroyed; the present owners of the works +are ignorant of the existence even of these printed American pieces. +There are almost no specimens to be seen in English collections, not +even of pieces bearing English views; none for sale in English shops; +and even in so exhaustive, extended, and careful a treatise on the +ceramic art of Great Britain as that of Mr. Jewitt, he does not speak of +them, and evidently is ignorant of the wares, the stamps, and marks. A +careful search throughout the Staffordshire region developed absolutely +not one fact about these “American historical pieces;” and I may add +that a collection of Staffordshire ware bearing both American and +English views is now being gathered in America for presentation to the +Museum at Burslem, and consequent enlightenment of English collectors +and manufacturers. Hence it is plain that each American collector must +be a law to himself with regard to marks; or rather, American collectors +must unite and form a new table of marks of “American pieces.” I will +specify a few that I find on my Staffordshire pieces. + +A circular impression about an inch in diameter, with an inclosed circle +having in the centre the word “Warranted,” and a spread eagle bearing a +thunderbolt and laurel leaf. In the quarter-inch ring inclosing this +inner disk are the words, in capital letters, “T. Mayer. Stone. +Staffordshire.” Accompanying this impressed stamp is always found (on my +pieces) a very spirited rendering in dark blue of the American eagle, +bearing a laurel branch in his right claw, and a bunch of arrow-like +thunderbolts in his left. He measures two and three-quarters inches from +tip to tip of wings, has an American shield on his breast, and a ribbon +bearing the words “E Pluribus Unum” in his mouth. The lighter, clouded +background has thirteen white stars. This mark is the richest in color +and best in drawing of any that I have seen. This T. Mayer was, I judge, +the Thomas Mayer who had the Dale Hall Staffordshire works from 1829, +and of whom Shaw speaks as having made the best specimen of solid +earthenware ever produced at that time—a vast table. This stamp and mark +are given by neither Chaffers nor Jewitt, nor Phillips and Hooper. The +marks E. Mayer, and E. Mayer & Son, are frequently seen. These firms +were in existence from 1770 to 1830 in Hanley. + +A distinct circular impression an inch in diameter; in the centre +appears a spread eagle with shield on his breast, and below him the +words “Semi China;” surrounding all the words “E. Wood & Sons, Burslem. +Warranted.” In conjunction with this impressed stamp appears often a +dull blue mark, an oblong panel an inch and a half long and about +three-eighths of an inch wide, inclosing the name of the view on the +face of the plate. On this panel stands an eagle with laurel branch in +his right claw, and in his beak a written scroll attached to a small +United States shield, and bearing the words “E Pluribus Unum”—the whole +on a clouded background. Many of the pieces bearing both of these marks +are confused in outline, as if the dies or plates from which they were +printed were worn out. And they also have the poorly drawn, ugly shell +border. This stamp and mark are not given by Chaffers or Jewitt. The +ware also varies greatly, the earlier plates being of much lighter +weight. The impressed circular mark appears alone on some very richly +colored, clearly printed, and beautifully drawn pieces decorated with +spirited marine views and clear and graceful shell borders. These were +evidently made for the American market, for on all of them appears +prominently a full-rigged ship bearing the American flag; yet they +cannot be classed as “American views.” The names given to some of these +views are “A Ship of the Line on the Downs,” “In a Full Breeze,” +“Christianeburg,” “Danish Settlement on the Gold Coast, Africa,” “York +Minster.” + +The name “Wood,” alone, appears impressed, and often accompanied by an +impressed crescent. The date of this mark is apparently about 1818, when +the firm was no longer Wood & Caldwell, and Enoch Wood’s sons had not +been taken into partnership. All the pieces with this stamp are rich in +color and clear in outline, as if the dies or plates were fresh and new. + +The mark “E. W. & S.” on lighter-blue pieces I have also fancied stood +for E. Wood & Sons. + +A circular stamp, impressed, of a crown, surrounded by words “A. +Stevenson, Warranted Staffordshire.” This stamp appears with a mark +printed in blue of an eagle holding a tablet, with the name of the view +on the face of the plate; or sometimes with a blue printed mark of an +urn festooned with drapery, on which is printed the name of the view, +which is usually of an English scene. The Cobridge Works were erected in +1808, were owned for a few years by Bucknall & Stevenson, and afterward +by A. Stevenson alone. The works were closed in 1819, hence pieces +bearing this mark can have the date quite definitely assigned. The +circular mark is given by Chaffers as appearing once on a painted +faïence plate. The impressed mark of name Stevenson in capital letters +is found on many “American historical pieces,” usually on plates with a +beautiful vine-leaf border and white impressed edge. + +A circular stamp of concentric rings, impressed, about one inch in +diameter. In the centre a crown, and in surrounding ring the words +“Clews Warranted Staffordshire.” After 1819 the Cobridge works passed +into the hands of Mr. James Clews, who continued them until 1829, when +they were again closed and remained so until 1836, when they were opened +under another firm name. Mr. Clews came to America, and an account of +his enterprise here is given on page 97 _et seq._ This mark is not given +by Chaffers, who calls the firm J. & R. Clews, and says they made “pale +cream-colored ware.” During the ten years that Mr. Clews owned these +Cobridge Works some of the richest pieces of dark blue color that were +ever made by any potter took the form of pieces bearing American +historical designs, and bear the last-mentioned stamp. + +The mark of an open crown surmounting the words “Clews Warranted +Staffordshire” appears on a set, “Picturesque Scenery.” Upon the back of +each piece appears also the colored stamp which was placed by the +manufacturers to designate this set, all of which were printed with +American views. It is a little landscape of pines and a sheet of water +with a sloop. This scene is crossed diagonally with an oblong stamp +bearing the words “Picturesque Views,” and the name of the special view +printed on the face of the piece; for instance, “Penitentiary in +Allegheny nr Pittsburgh Pa.” This set of views of “Picturesque Scenery” +was of much later date than the rich dark blue pieces, being printed in +sepia, green, chocolate, or plum color, thus showing the degraded taste +of the second quarter of the century. + +An impressed mark of Rogers appears sometimes in conjunction with an +eagle stamped in blue. Occasionally, also, the eagle is seen without the +Rogers mark. Sometimes the chemical sign for iron is found with these +marks. The firm of Rogers was in existence in Burslem until 1849. + +A circular impressed mark, one inch in diameter, with a star in the +centre, surrounded by words “Joseph Stubbs Longport.” This mark is not +given by Chaffers, nor the name of the manufacturer or manufactory. +Jewitt, who gives no marks, says that he was a successful potter at Dale +Hall from 1790 to 1829, preceding T. Mayer at his pottery, and thus +proving that pieces with the Stubbs mark are the earlier of the two. The +circular mark of “Stubbs & Kent, Longport,” also unknown in England, +appears on many pieces; for instance, the dark blue basket and rose, and +the milkmaid designs so common on toilet and dinner services. Still +another impressed mark of “Stubbs” alone, in capital letters, appears on +many American historical pieces, particularly on the ones with what is +known as the eagle, rose, and scroll border. + +A large number of pieces were printed, with views of public buildings in +America, by the firm of J. & W. Ridgway. These pieces bore on the back +an oblong stamp inclosing the name of the building and its location, as, +for instance, “City Hall, New York;” above this the words “Beauties of +America,” below, J. & W. Ridgway. One of the set is shown on page 319. +The pieces bearing this stamp are only medium blue in tint, though the +color is good and some of the shading is dark. These pieces are +disfigured by the border, which has the effect of oval medallions +inclosing alternately a single stiff rose and a six-petalled flower—a +myrtle blossom, perhaps. This border is poorly shaded and far from +graceful in designing. I cannot definitely assign the date of these +pieces; the firm succeeded Job Ridgway & Sons in 1814, and was in +existence in 1829. This mark is not given by Chaffers. Another Ridgway +mark is an oval medallion with the initials J. R. under a crown, and +with the names of the pattern in a scroll. Still another has the +initials J. W. R., another Jno. Ridgway, and another W. Ridgway. + +A large number of very beautiful English views, printed in dark blue, +are found on dinner services of Staffordshire ware, bearing the mark in +blue of a spray of rose-leaves with a double scroll and name “Riley,” +and name also of the view—for instance, “Goggerdan, Cardiganshire.” The +firm of John & Richard Riley rebuilt in 1814 the Hill Works, that had +formerly been owned by Ralph Wood, and ran them until 1839. The prints +of this firm are clear and distinct, and really artistic in drawing, the +borders being specially graceful. The only mark given by Chaffers is +“Riley Semi-China” on blue willow-pattern ware. This I have also found, +the words appearing within a circular belt. The impress Riley also is +seen. + +R. Hall’s wares were imported to America in large quantities, especially +his “Select Views.” I do not know whether this is R. Hall who ran the +“Sytch Pottery” in Burslem until 1830, or whether he was Ralph Hall who +owned the Swan Banks Works, Tunstall, during the first quarter of the +century. Chaffers does not mention either Hall, and Jewitt gives no +marks. The stamp most frequently seen is an oval ring in blue; at the +top, “R. Hall’s Select Views;” below, a sprig of flowers and the words +“Stone China.” The ring inclosed the name of the view, Biddulph Castle, +Staffordshire, and Pains Hill, Surrey, being the most frequent. I have +seen hundreds of Pains Hill plates in New England, fully half the +country houses that I have entered had a few on cupboard or pantry +shelves. + +Still another Hall mark is a crown-shaped blue stamp with “Hall” and the +name of the set—for instance, “Quadrupeds.” Another, a blue stamp in an +irregular shield, at top and bottom “R. Halls Picturesque Scenery,” in +the middle the name—for instance, “Fulham Church Middlesex.” Another is +an irregular shield, with scrolls with words “Oriental Scenery, I. (or +J.) Hall & Sons;” and also “Italian Scenery, I. Hall & Sons;” and +“Indian Scenery, I. Hall & Sons.” The views, of course, on these pieces +are indicative, respectively, of the marks on the back. + +The views of Oriental scenery were taken from the illustrations of +Buckingham’s Travels in Mesopotamia, of the date 1828. + +A very interesting mark is a wreath of blue flowers inclosing the words +“Bristol Flowers,” and accompanied either by impressed initials in +capitals, E. & G. P., or an impressed cross like the Bristol stamp. This +mark has been seen only on pure white “semi-china,” decorated in clear +blue, with a design of fruit and flowers in which the passion-flower +predominates. + +Still another blue mark, on pieces a trifle lighter in tint, is a fine +spread eagle; above, the word “Ironstone;” below, “Sydenham J. +Clementson.” Chaffers does not mention this name or mark. Jewitt gives +no marks, but says Clementson became proprietor of the Sydenham works +about 1832, and manufactured for the American market. + +The impressed mark of “Adams Warranted Staffordshire” appears in a +circle around an American eagle. And the initials R. S. W., in a +graceful scroll with a branch of leaves, appear on many beautiful +American views. I have been told that this was the stamp of R. S. +Warburton, but can give no proof nor further information. It may be the +stamp of some member of the Wood family, so many of whom were potters. + +When we examine all these special American marks on English pottery, it +seems odd to read Mr. Jewitt’s statement, that marks were frequently +omitted on the English china sent to America, “on account of the jealous +dislike of the Americans of that day to anything emanating from the +mother country.” + +With the pieces of Staffordshire wares bearing American designs, and a +few pieces which cannot be classed elsewhere, I conclude my list. + +134. Albany. + +View of city of Albany printed in black on plate. Date of view +apparently about 1840. + +135. Albany. + +View of Albany in bright dark blue. E. Wood & Sons. Marked on back, +“City of Albany State of New York,” and spread eagle with E Pluribus +Unum. In centre the Capitol Hill with old Capitol. On the river a +steamboat and sailing vessels. Cows grazing in foreground. Shell border. + +Albany. Capitol. + +See No. 166. + +Albany. Theatre. + +See No. 170. + +Albany. Canal. + +See No. 171. + +Alleghany. + +See No. 241. + +136. Anti-Slavery Plate. + +This design is printed in a purplish and rather light blue on various +pieces of dinner and tea-services. The plates are most frequently found. +One is here shown. They have slightly scalloped edges and a scroll +border dotted with stars. Four American eagles and shields are in the +border, and four medallions. The upper one contains the figure of +Liberty standing beside a printing-press, while a negro kneels at her +feet. Around the design are the words, “The Tyrants Foe—The People’s +Friend.” In the lower medallion is the design of the scales of Justice. +In the medallion to the right are the words, “Of One Blood are All +Nations of Men.” In the medallion to the left, “We hold that all men are +created equal.” In the centre of the plate, against the background of a +sun-burst, are these words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an +establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or +abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the +people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a +redress of grievances. Constitution U. S.” On some of the +pieces—pitchers and teapots, for example—there also is seen this +inscription, “Lovejoy—the First Martyr to American Liberty. Alton, Nov. +7th, 1837.” It is asserted that the pieces bearing this design were the +gift of the English Anti-Slavery Society to the American Abolitionists, +shortly after the death of Lovejoy; that they were sold at auction in +New York, and the proceeds devoted to the objects of the Society of +Abolitionists. If this account is true, these plates are certainly among +the most interesting relics of those interesting days. + +[Illustration: Anti-Slavery Plate.] + +Battery. New York. + +See No. 217. + +137. Baltimore. Battle Monument. + +A plate printed in black, dark brown, or green, with border of flowers. +In the centre a view of the city of Baltimore with a monument in the +foreground. Name on the back, “Battle Monument Baltimore.” This +monument, which stands in Battle Square at the intersection of Calvert +and Fayette Streets, is commemorative of those who fell defending the +city when it was attacked by the British in 1814. It has a square base +twenty feet high, with a pedestal ornamented at the four corners with +sculptured griffins. On each front is an Egyptian door with bas-reliefs +and inscriptions. A column eighteen feet high rises above the base and +is surrounded by bands inscribed with the names of those who fell in +battle. The column is surmounted by a marble figure typical of the city +of Baltimore. + +138. Baltimore. Exchange. + +View of Exchange building, in dark blue. This plate is very rare. + +139. Baltimore. Court-House. + +A dark blue plate with a rose and fruit border. In the exact centre of +the plate is the Court-House in an open square. Pedestrians are walking +to and fro. The design of this plate is very stiff and ugly. The mark on +the back is a scroll of blue, with words “Baltimore Court-House;” also a +circular impressed mark, smaller than the Clews mark, with words +“Warranted Staffordshire.” + +140. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Wood. + +Plates printed in dark blue with rich shell border, with a train of +little cars like stage-coaches, and the stumpy little locomotive which +it is said was designed by Peter Cooper, and which was originally +intended to have sails like a boat to help propel it along. The +corner-stone of this railroad was laid in Baltimore, July 4, 1828, by +Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the +Declaration of Independence. This event was considered of so great +importance that it was celebrated by a great trades-procession in +Baltimore, during which the cordwainers made a fine pair of satin shoes +which were at once sent to the idolized Lafayette, and were placed in +the museum at La Grange. + +In 1830 the first locomotive was placed on the road. Peter Cooper thus +describes it: + +“The engine was a very small and insignificant affair. It was made at a +time when I had become the owner of all the land now belonging to the +Canton Company, the value of which, I believe, depended almost entirely +upon the success of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. When I had completed +the engine I invited the directors to witness an experiment. Some +thirty-six persons entered one of the passenger cars, and four rode on +the locomotive, which carried its own fuel and water; and made the first +passage of thirteen miles over an average ascending grade of eighteen +feet to the mile, in one hour and twelve minutes. We made the return +trip in fifty-seven minutes.” + +The locomotive on these blue plates is not like the Tom Thumb locomotive +in an old print which I possess; it is more like the “Stourbridge Lion,” +the first engine made in England for America, which arrived in New York +in 1829. Marks on plate both E. Wood and Wood. + +141. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Down Hill. + +This plate is in dark blue with a shell border. It has a stationary +engine at the top of a hill, with a number of small freight cars running +down a very steep grade, with the cars at a very singular angle. Both +Baltimore & Ohio plates are here shown. + +There were several of these down-hill tram-roads built at an early date +in America. One on the western slope of Beacon Hill, in Boston, was +constructed in the year 1807. It was used for transporting gravel from +the top of the hill down to Charles Street, which was being graded and +filled. The descent of the heavy gravel-loaded train drew up the empty +cars—thus the machinery was worked without horse-power. In 1810 a +similar one was built in Ridley, Pa., for transporting stone. In 1825 a +third road was built, in Nashua, N. H., to carry down earth from a hill +to fill up a factory location on a grade below. In 1826 a road three +miles long at Quincy, Mass., carried in the same manner granite to the +Neponset River. In 1828 the coal-mines at Mauch Chunk, Pa., had a road +nine miles long to the Lehigh River. The empty cars were drawn up by +mules. In 1828 the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, and the Bunker Hill +Monument Company, had similar tram-ways or roads. + +[Illustration: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Plates.] + +Other views of early railroads and locomotives appear, and are often +sold as of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. They are probably views of +English railways. + +142. Boston. Almshouse. J. & W. Ridgway. + +This view is upon the cover of an enormous soup-tureen, described in No. +178. The set medallion border is shown on page 319, and is found on all +pieces of this “American Beauties” set. Stamp on back in oblong disk, +“Beauties of America. J. & W. Ridgway. Almshouse, Boston.” + +143. Boston. Common. + +Comparatively modern print in black of a view on Boston Common. + +144. Boston. Hospital. Stevenson. + +Dinner set printed in dark blue with view of the Hospital. Trees in +foreground, and a smart chaise with man and woman driving. Border of +vine leaves on dark blue. White impressed or fluted edge on some +specimens. Mark in blue on back, “Hospital, Boston.” Impressed mark, +“Stevenson.” There is said to be another view of this hospital with a +canal in the foreground. + +145. Boston. Insane Hospital. J. & W. Ridgway. + +Printed in dark blue on various pieces of a dinner service. Small +building in centre with high fence in foreground. Same medallion border +as shown on page 319. Stamp on back in blue, “Beauties of America. +Insane Hospital, Boston. J. & W. Ridgway.” + +146. Boston. Octagon Church. J. & W. Ridgway. + +A plate printed in dark blue, with view of the church and of other +buildings. In the foreground a curious covered coach or carriage with +two horses, one carrying a postilion. The same medallion border as shown +on page 319. Stamp on back, “Beauties of America. Octagon Church, +Boston. J. & W. Ridgway.” This Octagon Church was often known as the New +North Church, and was built in 1815. A description of it is given in +Drake’s “History of Boston,” page 552. + +[Illustration: State-House Plate.] + +147. Boston. State-House. + +Print in dark blue, on dinner and toilet services, of a view of the +State-House and surrounding buildings, including the John Hancock house. +Trees and the Common in foreground, and a group of grazing cattle. Three +poplar-trees appear at the right; also a man with a wheelbarrow. The +border is a pretty design of roses and forget-me-nots. The mark on the +back is different from any stamp I have seen—simply the American +“spatch-cock” eagle in blue. This State-House plate is popularly known +as “the one with John Hancock’s cows.” One is here shown. The “New +State-House” was built on a portion of John Hancock’s field, where not +only his cows, but those of many of his fellow-townsmen, found +pasturage. During the memorable visit of D’Estaing and his officers to +Hancock, the latter’s servants milked all the cows on the Common to +obtain milk enough to supply the visitors. This pasturing of cows on the +Common in front of the State-House continued until the year 1830, when +accidents from bovine assaults upon citizens became so frequent that the +cows were exiled from their old feeding-ground. The pitchers printed +with this view are very handsome, often having an extended view of +Boston in the vicinity of the State-House encircling the body of the +pitcher. I have seen one with the initials R. S. W. on the base, though +I have always attributed this view to Rogers. + +148. Boston. State-House. + +Print in rather light blue of a view of the State-House. Surrounding +buildings do not show in this design. In the foreground is a horse and +chaise with driver. No maker’s stamp. Border of roses. + +149. Boston. State-House. Jackson. + +View of State-House with group of persons in foreground. Printed in +pink. Mark, “Jackson.” + +150. Boston. St. Paul’s Church. + +Blue and white plate with view of St. Paul’s Church. + +151. Boston. Athenæum. J. & W. Ridgway. + +This dark blue design is on plates of different sizes, and possibly on +other pieces of dinner services. It has the set medallion border shown +on page 319. Mark on the back, “Boston Athenæum. Beauties of America. J. +& W. Ridgway.” In the present Athenæum building may be seen one of these +plates with this note: “This building stood in Pearl St., and one-half +was given by Mr. James Perkins, the other half bought of Mr. Cochran in +1822, and the whole occupied by the Athenæum until 1849.” + +152. Boston Court-House. J. & W. Ridgway. + +This design is on platters, plates, and dishes in dark blue. It has the +set medallion border shown on page 319, and in the centre a view of the +Court-House. Mark on the back, “Boston Court-House. Beauties of America. +J. & W. Ridgway.” + +153. Boston. Lawrence Mansion. + +Though all the plates, pitchers, and basins which bear this beautiful +dark blue design are unstamped and unmarked, it is well known that it is +a view of Mr. Lawrence’s handsome house, which stood on Winter Street, +Boston. It is a view of a large three-storied double mansion, surmounted +by a steeple which at first sight seems a part of the house, but which +is intended for the steeple of the Park Street Church in the background. +A garden is on one side of the house. It has a clear vine-leaf border. + +154. Boston. Warehouse. Adams. + +This is a rich plate printed in clear dark blue, with a design showing +Boston streets and buildings. A large warehouse stands at the right, on +the left a block of buildings, and in the background the wharves and +harbor with shipping. The beautiful border is formed on the top and +sides by a design of trees with foliage. On the back is the stamp, in +blue, “Mitchell & Freemans China and Glass Warehouse Chatham St. Boston +Mass.;” also the impressed mark, “Adams.” No doubt these plates were +made at the order of the Boston firm whose name they bear. I have known +of but four pieces with this design. A plate may be seen at the rooms of +the Bostonian Society, in the old State-House in Boston. + +155. Boston. Almshouse. + +A view printed in dark blue of the old Almshouse on Leverett Street. The +border is the beautiful design of vine leaves like that on No. 144, and +the plates and platters have a white edge. Mark on back, “Almshouse +Boston.” + +156. Boston Mails. + +Plate printed in brown or black. The border contains the figures of four +steamships with these names severally printed under them—Acadia, +Columbia, Caledonia, Britannia. In the centre is a view labelled +“Gentlemen’s Cabin.” Mark on the back, “Boston Mails.” These plates were +doubtless printed to commemorate the opening of the first line of +steamships between Liverpool and Boston. I have seen the date of the +first trip given as July, 1840, when the Britannia arrived in Boston. + +[Illustration: John Hancock’s House.] + +157. Boston. John Hancock’s House. + +This print is seen in red, blue, or green on cups and saucers, or on +slightly scalloped plates. One of the latter is here shown. This +historic house is not now in existence. It was the intention of Governor +Hancock to present the handsome and substantial mansion, with its +elegant furniture, by bequest, to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to +be preserved as a memorial of great historical events, and to be used, +if necessary, by the Governor of the State during his residence in +Boston through his term of office. Hancock died without signing this +bequest, and his heirs then offered it to the Government for a modest +purchase sum. After many years of indecision, half-acceptance, and final +refusal on the part of the State, this fine old house was in 1863 pulled +down. In it Washington, Lafayette, and scores of other distinguished men +were visitors. There D’Estaing made his home in 1778, and with forty of +his officers dined with hospitable welcome every day for many weeks. It +was during this visit that the event occurred of which Madame Hancock +complained—that D’Estaing went to bed overcome with Hancock’s good wine, +and tore her best satin bedspread in pieces with his spurs, which he had +been too drunk to remove. + +158. Brandywine Creek. + +View of Gilpin’s Mills on Brandywine Creek. Dark blue. Mark on back of +scroll, eagle and E Pluribus Unum. + +Brooklyn. View from. + +See No. 208. + +Bunker Hill Monument. + +See No. 164. + +159. Burlington. Richard Jordan’s House. J. S. & Co. + +View of a commonplace frame house and outbuildings, and an inclosed +door-yard, with a broad-brimmed Quaker and a cow in foreground. Mark, +“Richard Jordan’s House. J. S. & Co.” This house was in Burlington, N. +J. The design is printed in pink or black on tea-services, and appears +to have been a popular one in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. + +Cadmus. + +See No. 74. + +Cambridge. Harvard College. + +See No. 179 _et seq._ + +Capitol at Washington. + +See No. 259 _et seq._ + +160. Catskills. Pine Orchard House. + +This is a pretty landscape in dark blue, with hotel in the distance, and +a man on horseback in the foreground. Mark on back, “Pine Orchard House, +Catskills.” It is doubtless made by E. Wood & Sons. + +161. Catskills. + +Print in rich dark blue of a mountain-scene with cliffs, peaks, and +pines, and a solitary figure. A confused shell border. Mark on the back, +of eagle with E Pluribus Unum, and an oblong stamp with the words, “In +the Catskills;” also a confused impressed stamp, probably E. Wood & +Sons. + +162. Centennial. + +Various pieces of ornamental and useful nature were made of a clear +white china for the Centennial of 1876. The stamp on the bottom was, +“Manufactured solely for J. H. Shaw & Co., New York. Trade Mark, +Philadelphia, 1876.” Each piece bore the words, “A Memorial of the +Centennial, 1876;” also in high colors a medallion with portrait of +Washington and two United States flags surmounted by an eagle. These +modern pieces deserve mention among the historical china, since a single +piece is usually desired by collectors. Views also were made of the +different buildings at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, on porcelain +plates, with ugly purple and brown border. + +163. Charleston. Exchange. J. & W. Ridgway. + +This is one of the few Southern views. Dark blue print, with medallion +border shown on page 319. Stamp on back, “Exchange, Charleston. J. & W. +Ridgway. Beauties of America.” This historical building was erected in +1767, at a cost of £60,000. It was used as a “provost” during the +occupation of Charleston by the British during the Revolution. Prisoners +were confined in the cellars. Colonel Isaac Haynes, an American officer, +spent, in 1781, the last few months of his life in confinement within +its walls, and from thence he was taken to his execution amid the +protests of the entire populace. His death so enraged the officers of +the American army that they joined in a memorial to General Greene, +proposing measures of retaliation on captive British soldiers and +officers, thus subjecting themselves to a certainty of like death in +case they were captured by the enemy. After the Revolution the Exchange +was used as a Custom-House and Post-Office, and is now used in the +latter capacity. It is still standing. The cupola has been removed. + +164. Charlestown, Mass. + +A view in black of Bunker Hill Monument at Charlestown, Mass. + +Chief Justice Marshall. Steamboat. + +See No. 185. + +City Hall. New York. + +See No. 211 _et seq._ + +City Hotel. New York. + +See No. 218. + +Columbus. Landing of. + +See No. 186. + +Constitution of United States. + +See No. 136. + +165. Conway. New Hampshire. + +A pink or red print. In the centre a view of dwellings, including a +log-cabin with sheds; mountains, highway, pine-trees, and people. Marked +on the back “View near Conway N. Hampshire.” A plate bearing this design +is usually considered to be worth about a dollar and a half. + +Deaf and Dumb Asylum. + +See No. 178. + +166. Erie Canal. A. Stevenson. + +This print is in dark blue on plates. In the centre of the plate is a +view of buildings, among them a church with a high fence. These are said +to be intended to represent the Capitol grounds and surroundings at +Albany. The border is of oak leaves and acorns, broken by five designs, +four being the portraits of Jefferson, Washington, Lafayette, and +Governor Clinton, with their respective legends, “Jefferson,” “President +Washington,” “Welcome Lafayette The Nations Guest,” and “Governor +Clinton.” The fifth design, at the bottom of the plate, is the picture +of an aqueduct with the words, “View of the Aqueduct Bridge at +Rochester.” Mark, impressed, “A. Stevenson warranted Staffordshire,” in +circle, with crown in centre. Another mark printed in blue is of an urn, +wreath, and the words “Faulkner Ware.” This plate is in the possession +of A. G. Richmond, Esq., of Canajoharie. + +167. Erie Canal. Utica. + +The plate bearing this design is usually known as the “Utica Plate.” In +the centre is printed these words, “Utica, a village in the State of New +York, thirty years since a wilderness, now (1824) inferior to none in +the western section of the state in population, wealth, commercial +enterprise, active industry, and civil improvement.” This inscription is +inclosed in a laurel wreath. The border of this plate has two views of a +canal lock and aqueduct, and two of a canal-boat. The print is also seen +on pitchers. + +168. Erie Canal. + +Same border, with designs of canal-boats and locks as No. 167. In the +centre the words, “The Grand Erie Canal, a splendid monument of the +enterprise and resources of the State of New York. Indebted for its +early commencement and rapid completion to the active energies, +pre-eminent talents, and enlightened policy of DeWitt Clinton, Late +Governor of the State.” I have seen pitchers bearing this design and the +design described in No. 167. + +169. Erie Canal at Buffalo, N. Y. + +This print is in black upon a plate marked “R. S.” (Robert Stevenson.) + +Erie Canal. + +This entry might properly come under the head of either No. 166 or No. +167, since it describes a pitcher which had both of those decorations in +blue, and also an American eagle with the words “E Pluribus Unum.” + +170. Erie Canal. + +Black print upon a pitcher. On the right of the handle is a large view +of an aqueduct, river, hills, and buildings, and the words, “View of the +Aqueduct Bridge at Little Falls.” At the left of the handle a building, +with the words “Albany Theatre 1824.” Below the spout a front view of +the head of Washington, and words, “President Washington.” This piece is +not marked with maker’s name. + +171. Erie Canal. Clews. + +Entrance of the Erie Canal into the Hudson at Albany. Marked “Clews.” It +is a pretty view of a canal lock with boats, and with high-wooded hill +in the background. In foreground, groups of men fishing. This design is +seen on dinner and toilet services. The border is of roses. The color is +rich and dark. + +172. Erie Canal. + +Oval platter of Oriental china of greenish tint, decorated in gay +colors, with a gold edge, and the monogram D. W. M. C. (DeWitt and Maria +Clinton). In the centre a landscape with the Erie Canal. This odd and +interesting piece sold at the Governor Lyon sale for $10. + +Fairmount Park. + +See No. 227 _et seq._ + +173. Fishkill. + +This is one of the sets of Clews Picturesque Views. Marks are described +on page 327. Printed in red, green, black, and brown. The name on back, +“Nr Fishkill Hudson River.” This is a pretty view of an old Dutch house +and kitchen on a high bank. In the background, poplar-trees and a +manor-house. By the side of the water fishermen are stretching nets. + +Fort Gansevoort, New York. + +See No. 215. + +Gilpin’s Mills. + +See No. 158. + +Girard’s Bank. + +See No. 231. + +174. Harper’s Ferry. W. Ridgway. + +Print of landscape view in black or sepia. Mark on back, “Harper’s Ferry +from the Potomac side. W. Ridgway.” + +175. Hartford, Conn. State-House. + +Print in dark blue of the old State-House, with two stiff poplar-trees +on either side. + +176. Hartford, Conn. Mount Video. + +Print in dark blue of Mount Video, now known as Wadsworth Tower. + +177. Hartford, Conn. Mount Video. Jackson. + +Print in black of view similar to No. 176. Mark, “Jackson Ware.” + +178. Hartford, Conn. Asylum. J. & W. Ridgway. + +Print in dark blue on enormous soup-tureen and other pieces of a dinner +service, of a view of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Hartford which was +established by Dr. Gallaudet. Same medallion border as shown on page +319. Mark on back, “Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Hartford. J. & W. Ridgway. +Beauties of America.” + +179. Harvard College. R. S. W. + +A very finely printed plate in dark blue of the College buildings. Only +three halls are shown. The trees in foreground are unusually well drawn. +The clear border of oak leaves and acorns is on a stippled background. +Mark on back, in scroll with rose branch, “Harvard College,” and some +specimens also R. S. W. A plate is here shown. + +[Illustration: Harvard College Plate.] + +180. Harvard College. E. Wood & Sons. + +Black print with flower border marked “E. Wood & Sons.” + +181. Harvard College. E. W. S. + +A clear and beautiful print in medium shade of blue on white ground. The +edge has a white beading. The border is a most artistic design of +flowers and fruit, with a pretty spray of blackberries. In the centre a +well-drawn view of four college buildings. A pond is in the foreground, +with tree at right and left. By tradition this platter once formed part +of the table-furnishing of the College dining-hall. Mark on back, +“Harvard College. E. W. S.” + +182. Hoboken. New Jersey. + +A view of the old Stevens mansion, marked on the back “View at Hoboken +New Jersey.” + +183. Hudson, N. Y. Clews. + +View of the town of Hudson as it looked in 1823, printed in black, with +rose and vine border. On the back or underside of this dish are views of +Stockport, a few miles above Hudson. It is said that engravings were +sent abroad by Hudson residents, from which these views were copied. + +184. Hudson River. Baker’s Falls. + +Black print of view of Baker’s Falls. + +Hudson River, near Fishkill. + +See No. 173. + +Independence of Texas. + +See No. 254. + +Jordan, House of Richard. + +See No. 159. + +185. Hudson River. Steamboat. E. Wood & Sons. + +This is a view in dark blue of a steamboat on the Hudson River taking +passengers from the shore in a small boat attached to a rope which is +wound around the steamer’s wheel. Accidents became so frequent from this +means of transfer that the method was quickly abandoned. There are two +of these sets of plates, precisely alike, save that on one on the +wheel-house of the boat is the name “Chief Justice Marshal Troy,” and on +the other the words “Union Line.” On another flag, which is seen on both +plates, are the words “Troy Line.” They are marked “E. Wood & Sons.” I +have seen three sizes of plates bearing these designs. One is here +shown. + +[Illustration: Steamboat Plate.] + +186. Landing of Columbus. Adams. + +A plate stamped in pink or black with a pretty design of the landing of +Columbus. He stands with his two captains dressed in Spanish costume; +Indians peer out from behind the trees; the three Spanish ships lie +anchored off the shore. A scroll and flower border inclosing four +medallions of quadrupeds. The stamp is “Adams.” The name “Columbus” is +on an anchor. + +Landing of the Fathers. + +See No. 240. + +Landing of Mayflower. + +See No. 240. + +187. Lake George. + +A beautiful view printed in dark blue on platters and plates, with shell +border. Mark on back “Lake George, State of N. Y.” This is doubtless by +E. Wood & Sons. + +188. Lake Champlain. Macdonough’s Victory. Wood. + +This is a rather confused view of a naval encounter representing the +battle of Lake Champlain. It has the clear, beautiful shell border, and +the color is invariably rich and dark. It appears on all the pieces of +tea and dinner services, and must have been sent to America in large +numbers. On a rock in the foreground are the words “Commodore +MacDonough’s Victory.” On the back, the impress mark “Wood.” A plate is +here shown. + +[Illustration: MacDonough’s Victory Plate.] + +Lawrence Mansion. + +See No. 153. + +189. Lexington. Transylvania University. E. Wood & Sons. + +A plate with a view of Transylvania University in the centre. On either +side are rows of stiff poplar-trees, and in the foreground a man and +woman walking. The print is in a good shade of dark blue, and has the +poor shell border. It is marked on the back with an eagle, shield, and +“E Pluribus Unum,” and words “Transylvania University Lexington.” Also +the impressed mark of E. Wood & Sons. I have rarely seen this plate—one +lot of three only, and all three were rather indistinctly and poorly +printed; still they may be plentiful in the South or in the neighborhood +of the University. + +190. Lexington. Transylvania University. + +Transylvania University. A print in black or light blue of a smaller +representation of the University and grounds. Apparently quite modern. + +Little Falls. Erie Canal. + +See No. 170. + +191. Louisville. Marine Hospital. + +A rich dark blue plate with shell border. Stamp on back, “Marine +Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky.” This is doubtless by E. Wood & Sons. + +Macdonough Victory. + +See No. 188. + +Marine Hospital. Louisville. + +See No. 191. + +192. Maryland. Arms of State. T. Mayer. + +A large oval soup-tureen and plates, printed in dark blue, with a +handsome and spirited version of the arms of the State of Maryland. The +stamp of T. Mayer and the blue mark of an eagle that appear on these +pieces are fully described on page 324. The border is a beautiful design +of trumpet flowers and roses, while the extreme edge of the plates is +ornamented with a conventionalized laurel wreath broken at intervals of +about six inches with a star. + +Mayflower. Landing of The. + +See No. 240. + +193. Mendenhall Ferry. Stubbs. + +A print in clear dark blue of a landscape with cattle in the foreground +and a comfortable house, a story and a half high, a Lombardy poplar and +an elm-tree, and a narrow river. In the background, on the opposite side +of the river, hills with several dwelling-houses. The main point is the +ferry—a cable stretching across the river, and by which boats were taken +from side to side. The ferry-boat is shown. The border is a scroll, with +eagles with half-spread wings and flowers, such as is shown on page 354. +Though these pieces have no maker’s stamp, the impressed mark on pieces +bearing the same border is “Stubbs.” The only mark on this piece is the +name Mendenhall Ferry in an oval medallion. Mendenhall is an old +Pennsylvania name, but I do not know where the ferry was located. Joseph +Mendenhall owned a farm of a thousand acres on the Brandywine, below +Shadd’s Ford, in Chester County, and it is very probable that the ferry +was there. + +Merchants’ Exchange. New York. + +See No. 204. + +194. Millennium. + +A plate printed in blue, plum, green, black, and pink. In the centre a +design of a lion led by a child, while lions and lambs lie peacefully at +their feet. Above, the words, “Peace on Earth,” surmounted by a dove +with olive branch. Below, the words, “Give us this day our daily Bread.” +The border is a design of wheat sheaves and fruit, broken at the top of +the plate by an eye and a Bible open at Isaiah. Mark on back, +“Millennium.” One is shown on page 24. + +Mitchell & Freeman’s Warehouse. + +See No. 154. + +195. Mount Vernon. + +This view of Mount Vernon is in black on a cup and saucer of white +china. It is the front view of the house, and in the foreground a negro +is leading a prancing white horse. At the top is this inscription, +“Mount Vernon, Seat of the late Gen’l Washington.” Inside the cup is a +dotted border. It has no stamp or mark of maker. I have also seen this +print upon a cup and saucer of cream-colored Liverpool ware. + +196. Mount Vernon. + +Landscape in dark blue. Marked “Mount Vernon nr Washington. J. & W. +Ridgway.” + +197. Mount Vernon. + +Dark blue plate with Mount Vernon in foreground and city of Washington +in background. Mark, “View of Washington from Mt. Vernon.” Geographical +and topographical laws were naught to English potters. + +198. Mount Vernon. + +Stamped in pink. In the centre a group of visitors at a monument; the +border a good floral design. On the back of plate the mark, “Virginia.” + +Mount Video. + +See No. 176 _et seq._ + +199. Nahant. No. 1. Stubbs. + +[Illustration: Nahant Plate.] + +This plate is ten inches in diameter, of a rich dark blue color, and is +very handsome—as are all the plates with its border, a scroll containing +alternate eagles and roses. In the centre is a view of the Nahant Hotel, +with the ocean and rocks in the foreground. On one rock are a dog, and a +man firing a gun; on a second, two women fishing; on a third, a man and +woman walking. On the right of the foreground is an old-fashioned +curricle with two horses harnessed tandem. On the back of the plate is +an oval blue stamp with the words, “Nahant Hotel near Boston.” One of +these plates is here shown. This hotel was built of stone in the year +1818, by the Hon. Edward H. Robbins, at a cost of sixty thousand +dollars. It was enlarged by a wooden addition until it contained three +hundred rooms. It was burnt on September 12, 1861, and has never been +rebuilt. The view on the plate shows only the old stone part of the +hotel. It has been suggested that these plates were decorated for and +used in the hotel. There is no evidence to prove this, nor is it +probable. I have never seen any pieces save plates with this design. + +200. Nahant. No. 2. R. S. W. + +Same view of the hotel at Nahant, with a large tree in the foreground at +the left, and no curricle. The border is the oak leaf and acorn design, +shown on page 361; the stamp on the back, “Nahant Hotel nr Boston R. S. +W.” The plates bearing this design are about an inch less in diameter +than the ones described in No. 199. + +201. Natural Bridge. Virginia. + +A poor and small view of the Natural Bridge, printed in light blue or +pink in the centre of a white plate. Sometimes the plate has a weakly +drawn flower border. + +202. Newburgh, on the Hudson River. W. R. + +This is a black print on a white china plate twelve inches in diameter. +On the back an impressed shield and eagle, and an oblong stamp +surmounted by an eagle and having a pendent festoon of flowers. The name +“View from Ruggles House in Newburgh Hudson River,” and the initials W. +R., are on the stamp. There is no border. In the centre of the plate is +a pretty view of the Hudson River with the familiar mountains in the +background. The water is dotted with sloops and little boats, and a +large tree is at the left of the foreground. + +203. Newburgh, on the Hudson River. + +Black print on dinner set of a view of Washington’s Headquarters at +Newburgh. Confused rose border. + +204. New York Fire, or Ruins of Merchants’ Exchange. + +This plate is ten inches in diameter, in a brown or dull blue print. A +view of the ruins of the Merchants’ Exchange, with the front still +standing, is in the centre of the plate. A safe and books and papers, +and a group of persons, are in the foreground, also a squad of four +soldiers with an officer. Sentries patrol in front of the Exchange; +groups of lookers-on are on either side; and flames and smoke in the +background. The border is divided by eight scrolls bearing alternately +the words “Great Fire” and “City of New York.” The spaces contain +alternate subjects; one a group of old fire-implements, a fire-engine, +fireman’s hat and trumpet, and underneath the date, 1833; the other +space contains a phœnix with flames behind, against a background of old +city buildings, and underneath the date, December 16th. On the back of +the plate, the same phœnix over the stamp “Ruins Merchants Exchange,” +and in fine letters the mark “Stone-Ware.” + +This plate was printed to commemorate the terrible fire which devastated +the business portion of New York in 1833, burning over thirteen acres in +extent and causing a loss of seventeen million dollars. The fire +extended from Coffee House Slip along South Street to Coenties Slip, +thence to Broad Street, along William Street to Wall Street, burning +down the south side to the East River, with the exception of the +buildings from Number 51 to 61. The Merchants’ Exchange was one of the +last buildings to yield to the flames. + +This beautiful marble building had a front of one hundred and fifteen +feet on Wall Street, was three stories high above the basement, and was +considered at the time the handsomest building in the United States +except the New York City Hall. The Post-Office had been established in +its basement in 1827. The letters and mails were removed to a place of +safety, but the noble marble statue of Alexander Hamilton, which stood +in the Rotunda, was crushed by the falling sidewalls. The Seventh +Regiment (then called the National Guard) kept guard over the ruins, and +the funny fur-capped sentries shown on the plate are doubtless of this +regiment. A fine view of the front and rear of the ruins of the +Merchants’ Exchange is shown in William L. Stone’s “History of New +York;” but the old stone-ware plates form an equally faithful, and much +more curious and interesting, memorial of the great conflagration. + +205. New York. Arms of State. T. Mayer. + +The arms of New York with seated figures, instead of standing figures as +in the present coat of arms; also the motto “Excelsior” and name New +York. On the back is printed in blue the American eagle, with motto “E +Pluribus Unum,” also the impressed mark of “T. Mayer, Stone, +Staffordshire.” Both marks are described on page 324. There were +doubtless dinner services with the arms of all the existing States of +the Union, but I have seen only the plates and platters with arms of New +York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, and the +soup-tureen with the arms of the State of Maryland. + +206. New York. Arms of State. + +I have seen in many collections, the Trumbull-Prime Collection being one +of the number, pieces of Lowestoft china bearing a poor and crude +rendering of the Arms of State of New York. These must have been +decorated in China in large numbers, to be so widespread and numerous. + +207. New York Bay. Clews. + +This view of the Bay is taken from Castle Garden. In the centre is the +fort on Governor’s Island. A side-wheel steamer and frigate are among +the shipping. The stamp on back is “View of New York Bay.” + +208. New York. Stevenson. + +A dark blue print of a view of New York from Brooklyn Heights. In the +foreground is a pretty old Dutch homestead view, low sheds, a well, and +a man on horseback. On the river is some shipping and a small steamboat. +In the background the lower portion of New York, showing Trinity Church +spire. The border is a rose pattern. On the back is the mark “View of +New York from Brooklyn Heights by (or for), Wm. C. Wall Esq.” Also the +impressed mark of “Stevenson Warranted.” A plate with this print is in +the rooms of the Long Island Historical Society, in Brooklyn. + +209. New York. Jackson. + +A view of Castle Garden, with a tree to the right, printed in brown. +Marked “Jackson’s Ware.” + +210. New York. Scudder’s Museum. Richard Stevenson (?). + +A dark blue plate with a design in the centre of the plate of a house +with the sign “American Museum,” and a garden in front. The border is a +pretty design of oak leaves. On the back, in a scroll, the mark +“Scudder’s American Museum R. S.” This museum stood in a garden on the +corner of Broadway, where now is the great _New York Herald_ building. +It was a famous place of amusement in its day, and afterward passed into +the possession of P. T. Barnum; there he laid the foundation of his fame +and fortune. + +211. New York. City Hall. Jackson. + +This is a black or brown print with a flower border. In the centre is +the City Hall with flag flying from the staff on the roof; in the +foreground a horse and wagon, men and boys. Stamped on the back “City +Hall New York;” and “Jackson Warranted.” + +212. New York. City Hall. J. & W. Ridgway. + +A plate printed in dark blue with a view of the New York City Hall. In +the foreground are large trees and a wondrouslyattired man, woman, and +child standing facing the building, to which the man points with his +cane. The border is the ugly set medallion border of flowers shown on +page 319. Mark in blue on the back, “City Hall New York. Beauties of +America. J. & W. Ridgway.” The corner-stone of this building was laid in +1803, and the edifice was completed in 1812. It stood with the bridewell +on the west, the almshouse behind it, and the jail on the other side. It +cost half a million dollars—a most reasonable expenditure when compared +with the twelve million dollars for its neighbor the Court-House—and was +at that time the handsomest structure in the United States. The “three +fronts,” as they were called, are of Stockbridge marble. It is still +standing, a good example of pure design and style. A very simple way of +dating the various City Hall prints is found in the presence in the +design of the clock in the cupola; this was placed in its position in +1830. Some prints show the dial very distinctly. + +[Illustration: City Hall Pitcher.] + +213. New York. City Hall. Stubbs. + +Same view of City Hall as No. 212, but the park in the foreground is +intersected with paths and the trees are different. The border is of +scrolls, roses, and eagles, shown on page 354. Color, dark blue. Mark on +back, “City Hall New York.” This view is taken, I think, from a drawing +by W. G. Wall, which was published December 20, 1826. + +214. New York. City Hall. + +Same view of City Hall as No. 213, with no trees in the foreground. Oak +leaf border with outer edge of white. Color dark blue. Probably by +Stevenson. A pitcher bearing this view is here shown. + +215. New York. Fort Gansevoort. + +Printed in dark blue on various pieces of a dinner service. A view of +the fort with water and sloop in foreground. A confused leaf border. The +pieces I have seen bore no maker’s mark. + +216. New York. Almshouse. J. & + +A view printed in dark blue of the ugly Almshouse on Blackwell’s Island. +One of the Beauties of America set, with same marks and border as shown +on page 319. + +217. New York. Battery. + +A view of the Battery in common black print. + +218. New York. City Hotel. R. S. W. + +A plate printed in dark blue, with a view looking down Broadway, and +including Trinity Church. In the foreground, in the middle of Broadway, +in front of a hotel, a man is sawing wood on an old-fashioned saw-buck. +The clear oak leaf and acorn border, and scroll mark on back, with R. S. +W., as in No. 219. + +219. New York. Park Theatre. R. S. W. + +[Illustration: Park Theatre Plate.] + +A view of the Park Theatre, including the lower end of City Hall Park +with its ancient brick posts, where now stands the Post-office. In the +distance the spire of the Old Brick Church, where Dr. Spring preached. A +clear oak leaf and acorn border, and scroll and leaf mark, with initials +R. S. W. A plate is here shown. The first Park Theatre was built in +1797. It stood in Park Row, about two hundred feet from Ann Street. It +was opened on January 29, 1798, the first play being “As You Like It;” +$1,232 were taken in at the first performance. In May, 1820, it was +burned to the ground. In 1821 it was rebuilt, and opened with “Wives as +they Were and Maids as they Are.” It was burnt on December 16, 1848. An +original water-color drawing of the interior is in the rooms of the New +York Historical Society, with a key to the members of the audience, for +the figures are portraits. Many of the men are sitting with their hats +on. In this theatre appeared Thomas A. Cooper, Charles Mathews, the +Keans, Charles and Fanny Kemble, Malibran, Celeste, Fanny Ellsler, +Madame Vestris, Clara Fisher, Julia Wheatley, Master Burke, the Ravels, +Mr. and Mrs. Wood, Charlotte Watson, Charlotte Cushman, Ellen Tree, +Taglioni—what prettier memento of the old New York stage can there be +than the old Park Theatre plate? + +220. Niagara. + +A view of Niagara Falls in a pink print on small plate. + +221. Niagara. + +Print in medium shade of blue. A large house and trees in foreground and +diminutive semi-circular waterfall in background. On back the stamp +“Niagara.” + +222. Niagara. Table Rock. + +This beautiful dark blue plate has the rich shell border of Wood, though +it does not bear his impressed mark, and has only the stamp with eagle +and motto “E Pluribus Unum” and words “Table Rock Niagara.” The view is +taken from the foot of Table Rock looking upward, and is very artistic. +Entire dinner services bearing this design were exported to America. + +Park Theatre. New York. + +See No. 219. + +Passaic Falls. Trenton. + +See No. 256. + +223. Peace and Plenty. Clews. + +A medium blue plate decorated with border of fruit and flowers. In +centre, a Roman husbandman crowned with grain and surrounded by sheaves +of wheat; in his right hand a sickle, and in his left a basket of fruit; +by his side a shield with the American eagle and the motto “Peace and +Plenty.” Made by Clews. Two plates bearing this design sold at the +Governor Lyon sale for three dollars each. + +Penn, Wm. Treaty with Indians. + +See No. 267. + +224. Pennsylvania. Arms of. T. Mayer. + +A very spirited and beautiful rendering of the arms of this State, +printed in dark blue on platters and plates, with border and marks like +No. 190. Marks fully described on page. + +225. Pennsylvania Hospital. J. & W. Ridgway. + +In dark blue, marked “J. & W. Ridgway. Beauties of America.” Border +shown on page 319. + +226. Philadelphia. View. + +This print is in dark blue upon a plate six inches in diameter. The +border is a confused scroll with roses. The spires of two churches are +seen, and in the foreground is a wharf with a derrick, and a sloop +alongside. Some of the plates have upon the back the stamp “View of the +city of Philadelphia.” Also the impressed stamp of a star like the +Worcester mark. + +227. Philadelphia. Fairmount Park. Stubbs. + +A view of Fairmount, with a large tree in the foreground, and a man and +woman in the dress of the early part of the century. On the opposite and +further shore of the lake are two of the handsome dwelling-houses which +stood there at that time. The border is the handsome design of scroll, +roses, and eagles. The medallion stamp on back “Fairmount near +Philadelphia.” Impressed mark, Stubbs. A plate with this design is here +shown. + +228. Philadelphia. Upper Bridge. Stubbs. + +This is one of the four Fairmount Park views. It bears on the back the +impress and the oval blue stamp “Upper Bridge over River Schuylkill.” +The border is the same as shown on page 364. On the left of the +foreground of the view is a large tree, and under it is a group of +persons, one of whom is sketching. At the left is an old covered +Pennsylvania wagon with six horses. The view of the ferry bridge is +clear and good, and the color is a good blue, though not rich and dark. +Impressed stamp on some specimens, Stubbs. + +[Illustration: Fairmount Park Plate.] + +229. Philadelphia. Library. J. & W. Ridgway. + +Plate printed in dark blue with set medallion border. In the centre a +view of the Library at Philadelphia. Mark on the back, “Philadelphia +Library. Beauties of America. J. & W. Ridgway.” One of these plates is +shown on page 319. + +230. Philadelphia. Stoughton Church. J. & W. Ridgway. + +Plate printed in dark blue with set medallion border shown on page 319. +In the centre a view of the old church which stood on Filbert Street +above Eighth. The church looks like an old Grecian building. Mark on the +back, “Stoughton Church. J. & W. Ridgway, Beauties of America.” + +231. Philadelphia. Girard’s Bank. Jackson. + +A view, printed in pink or black, of Girard’s Bank. Mark on back, +“Jacksons Warranted.” + +232. Philadelphia. United States Hotel. + +A view of the hotel in rich dark blue, with a border composed chiefly of +the foliage of two trees standing at the right and left and meeting +overhead. + +233. Philadelphia. Woodlands. Stubbs. + +View of a low building like a lodge and landscape in dark blue. Scroll, +eagle, and rose border shown on page 364. Stamp on back, “Woodlands near +Philadelphia.” + +234. Philadelphia. Washington Church. + +235. Philadelphia. Race Street Bridge. Jackson. + +Print in black, brown, or pink, marked on back with name of view and +“Jacksons Warranted.” + +236. Philadelphia. Race Street Bridge. Stubbs. + +Eagle, rose, and scroll border like No. 225. Impressed mark, “Stubbs.” + +237. Philadelphia. Waterworks. R. S. W. + +Low building with dome in centre of the plate, fountain at right, and +trees, fence, and an old-time covered emigrant wagon in foreground. +Distinct oak leaf and acorn border, like No. 180. Clear dark blue in +color. Mark on back in scroll with leaves, “Philadelphia Waterworks. R. +S. W.” + +238. Philadelphia. Waterworks. Jackson. + +Same view as No. 237, but smaller, and printed in black. Mark on back, +“Jacksons Warranted.” + +239. Philadelphia. Bank of the United States. Stubbs. + +A plate in dark blue with street and buildings in the centre. Eagle, +rose, and scroll border shown on page 364. This is the bank which was in +1833 forced into bankruptcy by President Andrew Jackson. + +240. Pilgrims. Enoch Wood & Sons. + +[Illustration: Pilgrim Plate.] + +This Plymouth Rock decoration is found on plates and pitchers, and the +pieces are perhaps more highly prized than any other historical +Staffordshire wares, especially by all descendants from and lovers of +the Pilgrims. The print is clear and good, though the blue color is not +very dark. In the centre of the plate is a print representing a +“rock-bound coast” with the Mayflower and a small boat overfilled with +Pilgrim Fathers landing on Plymouth Rock, upon which are inscribed the +names Carver, Bradford, Winslow, Brewster, Standish. Two Indians are +also perched on the rock. Above this print is the small-lettered +inscription “The Landing of the Fathers at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1620.” The +border consists of a handsome design of eagles and scrolls, broken by +four medallions or shields. The upper one contains the words “America +Independent, July 4, 1776;” the lower the words, “Washington born 1732, +died 1799;” on the right a little view of two full-rigged ships with +names Enterprise and Boxer (?); on the left a part of the print on No. +128—a steamer, rock, and eagle. On the back is the blue stamp “Enoch +Wood & Sons Burslem.” One of these plates is here shown. In spite of the +presence of the steamship, the name of Washington, and the date 1799, I +have been gravely informed by country owners that these plates were two +hundred years old, and once even that they “came over in the Mayflower.” +We have often been told that the plates were “made for the dinner at the +laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument, in 1824, when Daniel +Webster spoke.” This account was obviously improbable, since nothing in +the design on the plate bore reference to that occasion, and the +probability seemed equally clear that the celebration was instead the +bicentennial celebration of the Landing of the Pilgrims, which was held +in Plymouth in 1820, and at which Webster, clad in silk gown and satin +small-clothes, made the address which laid the foundation of his +reputation as an orator. I was glad to receive confirmation of my belief +from Mr. T. B. Drew, Librarian of Plymouth Hall, at Plymouth. He says, +“The Pilgrim plates you refer to were made in England by order of John +Blaney Bates, a well-known contractor and builder of his day, who in +1820 was building the Plymouth County Court-House. He had it so nearly +completed that the dinner of the celebration was provided in that +building. It was, as you say, the bicentennial of the Landing of the +Pilgrims, but often termed by us the Webster celebration, on account of +Daniel Webster being the orator of the day. There were two sizes of +pitchers and two of plates, and one of the plates has on the rock the +names as you describe. After the dinner the wares were sold either at +auction or private sale, and the different pieces became distributed +quite widely through New England. I know of no publication that gives +any account of what I have been telling you, but the facts were well +known and have been told by aged people who remember the circumstances.” +To this information I can add in one respect. There are six sizes of +plates, one being deep like a soup-plate. An old lady still living in +Plymouth, asserts that while the plates were furnished by Mr. Bates, her +husband, seeing their popularity and ready sale, ordered the pitchers, +as she remembers, from Holland. As the print on the pitchers varies from +that on the plates, being encircled also by a narrow ribbon scroll with +the words “The Landing of the Fathers,” and as the former do not bear +the stamp of Enoch Wood of Burslem, this reminiscence is probably +correct, except possibly the point that the pitchers came from Holland. +These plates are usually found one in a family, but from one household, +near Worcester, Mass., were purchased by a china hunter eight +tea-plates, and from another family two soup-plates, four tea-plates, +seven saucers, and ten “cup-plates.” By cup-plates I mean the little +flat saucers in which our grandmothers set their teacups when they +poured the tea in the deep saucers to cool. + +Pine Orchard House. + +See No. 160. + +241. Pittsburg Penitentiary. + +This is upon large and small platters and plates in purplish pink, blue, +brown, and black prints. The ware is stone-ware of good quality. The +border is a pretty scroll-work design with roses and other flowers and +eagles. The edges are slightly scalloped. This Pittsburg plate has a +clear unperspectived drawing of the Penitentiary, with high hills at the +background. Stiff little houses and trees are scattered around. In the +foreground a man in knee-breeches is holding a horse which is harnessed +to a chaise. The building in this print is the Western Penitentiary of +Pennsylvania, at Alleghany City. It is an enormous stone building of +ancient Norman style of architecture, that was built in 1827. + +242. Pittsburg. + +Print in pale blue, brown, or black of a view of Pittsburg, with the +Iron Mountain in the background and two large steamers, named +respectively “Home” and “Pennsylvania” in the foreground. Mark on the +back, “Picturesque Views, Pittsburg.” + +243. Pittsfield. Clews. + +A winter view of the town common at Pittsfield, Mass., with the church +and other public buildings. In the foreground an elliptical enclosure +with a skeleton elm-tree, intended to represent the famous great +Pittsfield Elm. The author of “The China Hunters’ Club” quotes from a +newspaper of 1864, that the trunk of this tree was made into bowls and +other relics, and that “about 1825 Mr. Allen, a merchant of Pittsfield, +had a view of the elm and park, as they then appeared, taken and sent to +England, where it was reproduced on blue crockery ware.” As the fence +which appears in the view on the plate was not placed around the elm +until 1825, this date is probably correct. Before that the tree had been +entirely unprotected; it was sadly nibbled by the farm horses that were +frequently hitched to the iron staples that were driven into its trunk. +When the elm fell in 1861, a great number of these staples were found +imbedded in the wood. The design of the church appears in four +medallions in the border of the plate. It is marked “Clews” and the name +“Winter View of Pittsfield Mass.” I have also seen this same view with a +vine-leaf border. + +Plymouth Landing. + +See No. 240. + +244. Quebec. + +Dark blue print of view of the heights at Quebec. Mark on back in blue +scroll “Quebec,” also the impressed stamp of a Greek cross. + +245. Quebec. Falls of Montmorency. + +Dark blue view of the Falls, with a shell border. Stamp on the back +“Falls of Montmorenci near Quebec.” This and the previous number are the +only views of Canadian scenery that I have ever seen on old +Staffordshire plates. Persons who have gathered china in Canada tell me +that they have found no other views there. + +246. Rhode Island. Arms of State. T. Mayer. + +Dark blue print marked “T. Mayer Stone Staffordshire.” Same border as +No. 192. Marks fully described on page 324. + +247. Richmond, Va. College. + +View of college printed in light blue. + +248. Savannah. Bank. J. & W. Ridgway. + +View of the Bank at Savannah. It has the same set medallion border shown +on page 319. Mark on back “Bank, Savannah, Beauties of America. J. & W. +Ridgway.” + +Scudder’s Museum. New York. + +See No. 210. + +249. South Carolina. + +A plate with a palmetto-tree in the centre, and a ship in the distance, +on either side a flag. A shield with the date July 4th and the motto of +the State of South Carolina. Flower border like plates of E. Wood & +Sons. + +250. South Carolina. Arms of State. T. Mayer. + +Dark blue plate. Marked “Stone Staffordshire T. Mayer.” Same marks and +border as No. 192, and a very clear rendering of the State arms. + +251. States. Clews. + +This design is the larger plate shown on page 9. It is found on all the +pieces of a dinner service, but I have never seen a tea-set. The dinner +plates are exceptionally large. The print is in a rich shade of dark +blue. In the centre is a medallion of what is said to be the White +House, at Washington, with sheep or cattle grazing in foreground. It is +supported on one side by a kneeling figure with plumed helmet and +bearing a liberty cap—labelled Independence. On the other side the +figure of a woman kneeling on her ankles with the bandage of justice on +her eyes, and Masonic emblem on her apron. She holds a portrait +medallion labelled Washington. On the pedestal at her ankles, the word +“America.” The border is of flowers and a scroll with names of fifteen +States, and with fifteen stars. On some pieces these stars are simply +crosses. Impressed stamp “Clews Warranted Staffordshire.” On the larger +pieces, such as tureens, the centre view is often of an English +castle—the White House view not being large enough, apparently, to fill +the space. Some of the platters have in the centre a view of a two-story +house, while in the foreground are two men and a sheet of water with a +sloop. This is sometimes called the Washington Masonic Plate. + +252. Steamship. + +A dark blue print of a side-wheel steamship, bark rigged, under full +sail, and flying the American flag. Impressed mark of “E. Woods & Sons.” +This may commemorate the Savannah, the first steamer to cross the +Atlantic, in 1819. + +Stevens Mansion. + +See No. 182. + +Stoughton Church. + +See No. 228. + +Table Rock. Niagara. + +See No. 222. + +253. Temperance Plate. + +This curious and finely printed plate is very rare. It is made of a soft +yellowish paste, and the decoration is printed in black. The edges are +slightly scalloped and have a little line of black. In the centre of the +plate is a shield supported by the figures of a man and woman; the man +bearing a banner inscribed with the word “Sobriety,” and the woman a +similar banner with the words “Domestic Comfort.” By the side of the man +is a small figure of a boy seated reading; on the opposite side that of +a girl sewing. The shield is surmounted by a crest—an oak-tree—and above +that a scroll containing the motto “Firm as an Oak.” Below the shield +are clouds and two shelves of vases and jars of antique shapes; and +beneath all a scroll with the motto “Temperance, Sobriety.” The shield +is divided by perpendicular lines and transverse bars. In the spaces +thus formed are designs. That of a beehive has on the bar beneath it the +word “Industry;” that of a farmer working in a field, the word “Health;” +that of a sailor, the word “Freedom;” that of a pile of money, the word +“Wealth;” that of a cornucopia, the word “Plenty;” that of a snake, the +word “Wisdom;” in the lower space are an open Bible and the letters +I.H.S. There is no stamp or mark on the back. It is probably a Masonic +design, but is called the “Temperance Plate.” + +254. Texas. J. B. + +English stone-ware with blue or pink prints. Trophies of war in the +corners, and on the sides symbolical figures of Peace and Plenty. In the +centre, a fight between Texans and Mexicans, marked “Gen. Taylor in +Texas.” It was doubtless printed to commemorate the Independence of +Texas. Marked on the back with initials J. B. A large platter bearing +this design sold in the Governor Lyon sale, in 1876, for $7.50. + +255. Texan Campaign. + +Plates with a small, poor print in sepia green, red, or black, of a +scene with troop of soldiers with mounted commander. Border, a scroll +with trophies of arms and flags. Stamp on the back “Texan Campaign.” + +Transylvania University. + +See No. 189 _et seq._ + +256. Trenton Falls. + +This plate is eight inches in diameter, of a rich dark blue. The +handsome shell border indicates it to be one of Clews manufacture (as +Mr. Prime asserts); the impressed stamp on the back cannot be +deciphered. The view in the centre of the plate is a pretty group of +pine-trees with the Passaic Falls in the middle. On the back is a blue +stamp of an eagle with the scroll and the words “E Pluribus Unum,” and +the name “View of Trenton Falls.” + +257. Troy. Clews. + +A view of Troy, N. Y., from Mount Ida, marked Clews. + +Union Line. Steamboat. + +See No. 184. + +United States Bank. + +See No. 239. + +United States Hotel. + +See No. 232. + +Utica. + +See No. 167. + +Virginia. Natural Bridge. + +See No. 201. + +Virginia. + +See No. 198. + +258. Virginia. J. W. Ridgway. + +Print in black or brown with floral border. In centre a landscape view. +Mark on back “Virginia. J. W. Ridgway.” The house bears a close +resemblance to Arlington House. + +Wadsworth Tower. + +See No. 176. + +Washington’s Headquarters. + +See No. 203. + +Washington, D. C. View of. + +See No. 197. + +259. Washington, D. C. Capitol. J. & W. Ridgway. + +A view of the Capitol in dark blue with man and woman on horseback in +the foreground. Medallion border shown on page 319. Marked “J. & W. +Ridgway. Beauties of America. Capitol Washington.” This appears usually +on large platters. + +260. Washington, D. C. Capitol. R. S. & W. + +[Illustration: Capitol Plate.] + +A very beautiful dark blue plate with slightly scalloped edge, with view +of the Capitol, large tree in foreground. A vine-leaf border. Mark on +back in shield “Capitol Washington. R. S. &. W.” One is shown here. + +261. Washington, D. C. Capitol. Stevenson. + +Dark blue print of same view. Vine-leaf border and white fluted edge. +Impressed mark, Stevenson. + +262. Washington, D. C. Capitol. E. Wood & Sons. + +Dark blue plate with view of the Capitol. Confused shell border. Mark +“E. Wood Warranted Staffordshire.” + +263. Washington, D. C. White House. Jackson. + +This is a view of the Executive Mansion at Washington, with garden to +the left and a group of figures to the right. It is printed in black and +marked “Jackson.” + +264. Washington, D. C. White House. + +Another view printed in black of the White House. Scalloped edges and +wide ornate border. Marked on the back “White House Washington.” + +265. Washington, D. C. White House. Jackson. + +Pink and white printed plate marked on the back “Presidents House +Washington,” and mark “Jacksons Warranted.” Same border as No. . + +White House. Washington. States. + +See No. 251. + +266. West Point. Clews. + +View of West Point, with river and steamboat and row-boat. Mark on back +“Picturesque Views. West Point Hudson River,” also impressed mark +“Warranted Clews Staffordshire.” + +267. William Penn. Treaty with Indians. Jackson. + +Print in black or brown on dinner service of a view with William Penn, +in Quaker garb, talking with an Indian chief. At their feet a box of +treasure, including a string of beads which an Indian woman is +examining. Border a stencil design. + +Woodlands. + +See No. 233. + + + + + XVIII. + CHINA MEMORIES + + +What fancies we weave, what dreams we dream over a piece of homely old +china! Every cup, every jar in our china ingatherings, has the charm of +fantasy, visions of past life and beauty, though only imagined. I like +to think that the china I love has been warmly loved before—has been +made a cherished companion, been tenderly handled ere I took it to be my +companion and to care for it. It is much the same friendly affection +that I feel for an old well-read, half-worn book; the unknown hands +through which it has passed, the unseen eyes that have gazed on it, have +endeared it to me. This imagined charm exists in china if it be old, +though we know not a word of its past, save that it has a past and is +not fresh from the potter’s wheel and the kiln. The very haze of +uncertainty is favorable to the fancies of a dreamer; I summon past +owners from that shadowy hiding-place; weave romances out of that cloud; +build past dwelling-houses more quaint, more romantic than any in whose +windows I have gazed, whose threshold I have trodden in my real china +hunting. Victor Cousin says: “If beauty absent and dreamed of does not +affect you more than beauty present, you may have a thousand other +gifts, but not that of imagination.” If you have no imagination you may +have none of these china dreams—these “children of an idle brain,” but +you still may have china memories. Fair country sights does my old china +bring to my eyes; soft country sounds does it bring to my ears, the +sound of buzzing bees, of rustling branches, “the liquid lapse of +murmuring streams,” of rippling brooks where we dipped the old blue +crockery mugs and cups the day we found them, and drank the pure but +sun-warmed water. When I look at this queen’s-ware creamer, I hear the +sweet, clear, ear-thrilling notes of the meadow-lark, “in notes by +distance made more sweet”—who sang outside of the farm-house where I +first saw the dainty shell of china. Sweet scents, too, does the old +china bear. When I found that old yellow Wedgwood dish in the country +tavern, it was filled with tiny fragrant wild strawberries—I smell, nay, +I taste them still. That flaring-topped vase was full of sweet white +honeysuckle when I espied it in a farm-house window—I carried away the +scent of the honeysuckle when I bought the vase. This old mottled +stone-ware jug, with the hound handle, stood in the deep shade of a +stone wall by the side of a sunny hay-field when first it met my view. +It was filled with honest home-brewed beer for the hay-makers. We sat +fuming and sizzling in the hot sun, watching them spread and turn the +fragrant hay until the beer had all been drunk (and we did not have to +wait long), and we bore the jug off in triumph, breathing to us forever +the scent of new-mown hay with, to speak truthfully, a slight tinge of +stale beer. + +A halo of “sweet Sabean odors” fairly envelops all family china. In +those blue and white Canton sugar-bowls, and in that great jar with the +red lacquered cover, my grandmother kept her fragrant spiced +rose-leaves—there are rose-leaves in them now. In that tall pitcher she +always placed the first lilac and cherry blooms—and lo! as I look at the +poor cracked thing, “sweet is the air with budding haws and white with +blossoming cherry-trees.” More prosaic and homely, but equally +memory-sweet, what a penetrating aroma of strong green tea rises out of +that copper-lustre teapot! What a burnt and bitter, but wholly +good-smelling steam arises from that old flip-mug, the steam from many a +quart of flip brewed from New England rum, and home-made beer, stirred +with the red-hot iron loggerhead. + +[Illustration: Crown Derby Plate.] + +Like Charles Lamb, I was born china-loving. “I am not conscious of a +time when china jars and saucers were introduced into my imagination.” +When I was a little child the dearest treasures of my doll’s house were +a small cup-plate of purest porcelain, delicately bordered with a +diagonal design of tiny berries and spike-shaped bachelor’s buttons and +fine lines of gold, and a nicked India china tea-caddy, cork-stoppered, +and filled with precious rose-water—rose-water of my grandmother’s own +make, distilled in the old rose-water still that stood, when unused, a +cumbrous and mysterious machine under the dusty eaves of the garret. I +suspect that still had been employed in early colonial days to +manufacture a less innocuous liquid than rose-water, but now only the +petals of the Queen of the Prairie, the sweet-brier, the cinnamon roses, +went into its innocent limbec; and its sweet-scented product was +intensified by the contents of one of the long, thin, gilt glass bottles +of ottar of roses that my great-uncle, Captain Royal, who “followed the +sea,” brought home in such vast numbers from China. One day there poured +out from the door of my doll’s house a penetrating fragrance of roses; I +peered within—the keen anguish of that moment fills me even now; the +tea-caddy had fallen—nay, had been knocked on my precious little plate, +and both were broken. There on her back, drenched with my cherished +rose-water, lay the iconoclast, my miserable maltese kitten, in mischief +still, pulling down with her sharp, wicked claws my proudest +masterpiece, a miniature chandelier of wire and glass beads over which I +had spent many a weary hour. I burst into a loud wail of hopeless +despair; the bedraggled kitten rushed frightened from my side, shedding +odors of Araby as she bounded away, + + “An amber scent of odorous perfume + Her harbinger.” + +Ah! never again, even at sight of housemaids’ broken spoils, have I felt +such heart-breaking grief. To this day, when I look back at the plate +here shown and the little coffee-cans of the blue Tournay sprigged set +which I now know to be Crown Derby, and to have been bought by Uncle +Royal in a sudden streak of extravagance (perhaps he, too, was +china-mad); to this day I grieve for their companion, the little broken +cup-plate, and again I smell the sweet, cloying fragrance of rose-water. + +These old dark blue plates also tell a tale. They are known to us as +“the doctor’s pie-plates,” not from the comical figure of Dr. Syntax +with which they are decorated, but so called in derision. An old New +England physician, a pie-hater, stole, one Thanksgiving eve, +twenty-eight carefully made pies that his patient wife and daughters had +provided for his Thanksgiving guests. He rose stealthily in the dead of +night, threw lemon and apple, quince and cranberry, mince and +“Marlborough” pies to the pigs, and hid the blue pie-plates in an old +rat-nibbled, cobweb-filled, musty, dusty coach that had stood for half a +century in his carriagehouse, and in which his English grandmother had +journeyed in state throughout New England. Thirty years later, after his +death, at the destruction of the old coach, these hidden pie-plates were +found by his descendants. They are therefore not simply “good pieces of +blue,” they are ceramic monuments of the household tyranny of man. + +Shall I ever forget my first view of my largest and choicest Washington +pitcher? It stood filled with dried grasses and pressed and varnished +autumn leaves, and painfully covered with an ignominious shell of +decalcomanie and scrap-book pictures, on a table in a lonely lighthouse. +Only by its shape did we know it, the old watermelon shape of Liverpool +ware. Not a vestige of its early decoration could be seen, but we bought +it as a hazard of fortune. Oh, the delight I felt when I reached home +and scraped off Pauline Hall’s smirking and high-colored countenance, +and saw with a thrill of friendly recognition the black-lined face of my +own solemn and immaculate Washington surmounting her full-blown, rosy +shoulders and scarlet and gold bodice. Never do I look at my fully +restored pitcher but I see him again, as then, with his dignified head +turned very much aside, as if sadly shocked at the position and dress he +found himself in. + +The clear blue letters on these old Delft apothecary jars speak not to +me of the drugs and syrups, of the lohocks and electuaries that were +contained within them in olden times; they are abbreviations of various +Biblical proverbs, such as “Every fool will be meddling,” and “Let him +that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” The little, ill-drawn +blue cherubs that decorate these jars seem always to wink and smirk +maliciously at me, and to hold their fat sides as though they were +thinking of the first time they gazed at me and jeered at me out of the +window of the gray old farm-house in Narragansett, as I stood entrapped +by the sudden crushing in of a peaked-roofed hen-house upon which I had +climbed to peer within a window at the hidden Delft treasures. There I +stood on broken eggs and piercing splinters for one hour, with only +distracted hens and scarcely less distracted thoughts for company, until +the owner of hen-house and Delft jars returned and kindly chopped me out +of my absurd and well-deserved stocks. Severe and unceasing monitors are +my old apothecary jars. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: Delft Apothecary Jars.] + +When I stick gillyflowers and clove-pinks in the pierced tops of these +three-legged India china “posy-holders,” I am, like Marjorie Fleming, +“all primmed up with Majestick Pride”—the honest pride of a successful +china-finder who has snatched her prize from before the very face of a +dozen other collectors. These “posy-holders” stood for forty years on +the high-towering mantel-tree of a country parlor, a parlor that was +viewed yearly by scores of inquisitive and curiosity-seeking summer +visitors, visitors too dull-visioned to recognize these china treasures. +Perhaps the high-shelved station of the china, a foot only from the +ceiling, helped to hide them. Perhaps the gruesome row of oval silvered +disks that stood in their company, tarnished coffin-plates bearing the +names of past and dead dwellers in that home, may have chilled and +repelled investigation. Perhaps the scarlet, blue, and gold dragons and +shrimps on the posy-holders were dulled by the greater glories of their +surroundings, for this parlor shone resplendent with glowing color. The +walls had been painted by a travelling artist in the early part of this +century, and lavish was his fancy and his sense of color. Above the high +black mantel-shelf a yellow ochre sun threw his rays over vermillion and +purple clouds. These rays of light were gilded and curved in various +directions, and gave Phœbus the appearance of a good-tempered, smiling +octopus, withal somewhat intoxicated. At either side of the fireplace +sprung a great palm-tree that bore at the base of a spreading cluster of +leaves luscious bunches of great hanging pineapples. Around one tree a +frightful serpent coiled, his striped folds most beautifully diversified +with gilded spots. Behind the other tree lurked a crouching tiger. On +the plastered wall were painted two portraits with fine simulated gold +frames, apparently held in place by heavy cord and tassels; one was of +George Washington, the other the past owner of all these glories. It was +curious to see the marked and comic likeness a fair young daughter of +the house, the village school-mistress, bore to the hard-faced, +non-perspectived old daub of a grandfather on the wall; had you dressed +her in a brass-buttoned blue coat and a high stock, she would have been +far more like the portrait than most portraits are like their originals. +One large space was decorated with a full-passengered coach with four +prancing horses; the other bore a marine view—fierce waves, and a +strangely rigged brig, with gilded cannon, and fine flags and pennants +all blowing stiffly against the wind that filled the sails. A steamboat, +too, sailed these waters blue—the greatest triumph of the painter’s art. +Robert Fulton’s invention was in its infancy when this steamboat was +evolved, and it was plainly constructed from the artist’s imagination. +The cranky hull bore two brick chimneys; it rested on crossbars like a +wagon, and had four great wheels that sat well up out of the water. The +floor of this room was painted a dull drab color, and in brilliant +yellow was displayed a diagram of the solar system, planets, moons, and +orbits, sadly worn and defaced, however, by the footsteps of three +generations of New Englanders. + +Do you wonder that the china posy-holders were overlooked in all this +blaze of glory? I recount the gaudy decorations with grateful praise. +Through them my treasures stood, ever “eye-sweet and fair,” but +unnoticed, for years, humbly awaiting my china-loving and china-spying +vision. + +These dainty egg-shell cups and saucers have also their memory, their +lesson—a word softly spoken but clear; they were once owned by two +silver-haired “antient maides” of Chippendale elegance and Pilgrim +blood, who lived under the moss-covered, decaying rooftree of a pallid, +gaunt, old colonial home in New England. These “last leaves on the tree” +kept their dainty, shallow, apse-shaped china closets in a state of +snowy purity, of precise and unvarying order, of unspotted +contamination, which might be taken as an emblem of their narrow, pure, +and monotonous lives. No thick, substantial modern wares, no gayly +painted crockery, no vessels of common clay, stood on their well-ordered +and softly shining shelves, just as no modern notions, no knowledge of +the common, the evil things of life, had ever entered their simple +minds, had ever shocked their fair souls. Fragile, graceful, antiquated, +pale in decoration, were their weakly sprigged, lavender-bordered, +delicately fluted cups; looking like their own softly wrinkled faces, +their meagre, bent figures, their slender hands. Worn was the gilt on +the china, faded was the furniture of their rooms, as ill-health had +worn their gentle spirits. Rather scantily filled were their china +shelves, as were thin and few their garments, as was sparsely filled +their larder. Deep green shadows fell on the glass doors and white +shelves of their china closets from the thick-branched old lilacs that +close-screened each small-paned window, from the dark century-old cedars +that overhung their home; death and loneliness and scanty means had +shadowed their lives. My pure, dignified, and silent old cousins, no +sweetly-perfumed, softly-tinted, strong-growing blossoms of New England +life were you, but rather the sad, white, scentless “life everlasting” +that waved like summer snow-drifts over your own sterile, rock-filled +fields. These fragile porcelain emblems of your colorless life shall not +be carelessly handled and rudely gazed at in their new home, but, +close-hidden away in an old apple-wood beaufet which once stood beside +your virginal china closets, shall forever teach to me the lesson of +contentment, simplicity, and resignation which you showed in your gentle +lives, the lesson which through your old china still lives—the lesson of +peace and rest. + +[Illustration: Copper-Lustre Pitcher.] + +A halo of mysterious ghost-seeing, an eternal radiance of poesy, +surrounds this copper-lustre pitcher. We found this irradiated pitcher +when we went a-spinet-hunting. We found the ghost also, a tall, pale, +terrifying apparition, who stealthily entered our room at midnight as we +slept in the old Pardon tavern, who mysteriously and quietly carried off +our gowns, but who proved in the cold disillusionizing daylight to be +our landlady’s daughter, an amateur dressmaker of unbounded ambition and +few resources. And our poet! we found him also, a unique and untutored +son of the gods, a rare product of New England soil. We prosaically +hired this Yankee Walt Whitman to drive us to the Maybee farm—the house +which we had been assured held both china and spinet. Our +dearly-remembered poet was a tall, wiry New Englander, whose only +visible attire was a moth-eaten fur hat, a woollen shirt, a pair of +heavy boots, and faded overalls, held in place by a single suspender. He +looked too thinly clad for the raw spring weather, but seemed perfectly +comfortable and contented in his light clothing. Poet-like, his hair was +long. Four little wintry curls blew out from under the old hat. We had +been warned that he did not call himself a farmer, but proudly avowed +and named himself a poet; and it was hinted that he was a little “luny.” +He had begun his rhyming career with the composition of epitaphs for all +the village inhabitants, both living and dead; and from thence had +advanced to the constant use of rhymes in every-day life and hence had +acquired the name of “Rhyming Darius.” He “lisped in numbers for the +numbers came;” and proudly did he display his God-given talent to us +prosy city folks. He also combined with his vocation as poet the +additional talent of employing intensely legal forms of speech; for he +had at an early period of his life been a witness in some country +trespass case, and had since then always spent a day “in court,” +whenever the rare days of idleness of a New England farmer would permit. +As a result, he always cross-questioned everyone with whom he had any +conversation, and adopted, as far as he could remember, a lawyer’s +phraseology and legal terms. He had a wily manner of evading questions, +and seldom gave a direct answer; so between questions and answers we +held “open court” all the way to the Maybee farm. + +Our poet also made a strange introduction of the letter “u” into +words—which use he evidently regarded as something extremely eloquent +and scholarly, but which produced some very astonishing variations in +our vernacular speech. He was much excited at the nocturnal abstraction +of our gowns and he poured forth a perfect volley of rhymed questions +upon the subject to us as he drove, seated sidewise, fixing us “with his +glittering eye:” + + “Why didn’t she apply to ye purs-u-nal + An’ ask ye fur the garment? + Did she retain the artucle + Long enough to bring a warrant? + Did she take it with malice of forethought + Or unpre-med-ure-tated? + Did she terrure-fy ye very bad + A-purloinin’ as ye stated? + What air ye goin’ to do? + Did her mother know it too? + Why didn’t ye holler out? + An’ ask her what’s she’s about?” + +At last, to stop his flood of inquiry, we began to question him, to draw +him out about the spinet and china. + +“Do you know the Maybees well?” + + “Wall—I may perhaps assert + And assure-vure-rate I do; + At any rate I know him + And I s’pose I know her too.” + +“Is it an old farm, and an old house?” + + “It ain’t so old as some, + And it’s a little older ’n others. + The farm ’s older ’n the house; + It used to be my brother’s.” + +“How long have you known them?” + + “Oh—quite an in-ture-val, + But I ain’t known ’m all my life; + I’ve known him sence I was two year old, + And a leetle longer his wife.” + +“Do you know whether they have an old spinet?” + + “I’ll tell you in a minute + If you’ll tell me what’s a spinet?” + +“It is like a little old-fashioned piano. Have they got such a one? Is +it old? Is it small? Describe it to us.” + + “They ‘ve the funniest thing you ever see; + It’s just as cur-u-ous as it can be; + How to dure-scribe it just beats me; + Spinet’s the name for it down to a T. + It ain’t so big as some pianures, + And it ain’t so small as othures; + ’Tain’t so old as some you’d see, + And ’tain’t so new as it might be; + That is all that I can say. + I heard old Maybee tell one day + He’d a mus-ure-cal com-bure-nation + He’d be glad to sell for a very small sum; + ’Twas as old and mean + As any he’d seen, + And he’d like to sell it, he says, + Before it drops to pieces.” + +We looked at each other in amazement at this strange specimen of Yankee +humanity—that is, we did it whenever his gaze was averted long enough to +give us any chance to look at each other. We sank back in despair of +ever receiving a definite description of the spinet, and above all of +any china—that most indescribable of country possessions. We feebly +tried to parry him with some of the skill which he himself displayed, +but failed ignominiously under the scathing sharpness of this “lawyer” +of thirty years’ experience. We finally answered his rhyming questions +with as much directness and truth as the chief witness in a murder +trial. As we alighted from the wagon and were about to enter the Maybee +door, Darius pulled me back by the sleeve and whispered: + + “Ye mustn’t mind Miss Maybee + If ye find her a leetle cross; + She ain’t at all e-lab-ure-ate, + Any more than my old horse. + She won’t show any man-ures + When you ask to see her pianure.” + +A sharp-featured young woman advanced to meet us. Her hair bore two +partings, an inch apart, and the middle lock was strained painfully +back. Her face was curiously mottled with yellow patches which showed +plainly that dyspepsia and biliousness had marked her for their own. She +looked so sour, so sharp, so devoid of “man-ures” that we quailed +visibly before her keen black eye. What new specimen of humanity had we +here? Into what world was our China and spinet-hunting carrying us? + +We began the conversation very mildly by saying that we had heard that +Mrs. Maybee had some china that she wished to sell. + +“Then you’ve heard a lie,” the acrid voice broke in. + +“But surely we have heard that you have a piano to sell?” + +“Well, I ain’t. I’ve got a musical combination, but I ain’t so awful +anxious to sell it.” + +For minutes we stood there, facing this resentful being, who showed no +desire to have us seat ourselves, while we pleaded, we praised, we +cajoled, we apologized, and we questioned, until, at last, she allowed +us to see her precious spinet. We entered the gloomy “best room” where +it stood, gave one glance at it, and sank on the haircloth sofa. It was +a _melodeon_—a forlorn, broken-down, old _melodeon_—to which some +farm-tinker had added an oblong frame strung with catgut and wire +strings, in the apparent hope of forming some instrument of the nature +of an Æolian-harp. + +Tears of disappointment fairly sprang to our eyes; but the contrast, the +revulsion of feeling, the sense of the ludicrous, was so keen, that we +gave way to hysterical laughter; we could not suppress it. Where, alas! +were our “manners?” I was the first to recover my self-possession. I +turned to Mrs. Maybee, who stood before us speechless with angry +astonishment, and said pacifically: “You were very good to let us see +it. It is not quite what we expected to find. It is so much newer than +an old spinet! I fear my sister could not afford to buy it, as she has +one piano already. It is very curious and very ingenious, and no doubt +you will sell it to someone.” We were walking slowly toward the open +door in the hope of immediate escape; but we were not to escape so +easily, not without punishment for our adventurous raid. As we drew +back, Mrs. Maybee advanced; and it seemed for a while that we should be +obliged to buy the old melodeon and take it off with us. But I seized +upon a diversion, a godsend, in the shape of a row of window-plants in +the kitchen. One fine geranium flourished in this “copper-lustre” +pitcher, which had had a hole knocked in the bottom, to permit the water +to drain out. I immediately began to admire that geranium, and offered +Mrs. Maybee a dollar for the pitcher and plant. This diverted her mind +from the unfortunate “spinet;” and after much sharp talk and bargaining +we paid her one dollar and seventy-five cents for the geranium and +pitcher, rushed from her inhospitable door, and drove away with our +poet. “The True Story of the Life, Temper, and Adventures of Orvilla +Maybee,” related to us in legal verse by “Rhyming Darius” on our +homeward drive, made us wonder that we escaped unharmed from that New +England vixen. + +So our broken lustre pitcher was all that we had to carry home with us +from our “spinet hunt.” And I will close this little tale of New England +experience with a simple statement of the cost of the pitcher and the +geranium (which died when transplanted). + + Two fares to Pardon and return $4 00 + Bill for supper, bed, and breakfast for two 1 50 + Wagon, poetry, and legal advice 1 00 + Paid Mrs. Maybee for pitcher 1 75 + ————— + Total cost of pitcher $8 25 + +As I have since seen a fac-simile of our pitcher (only whole and +unbroken) in a bric-a-brac shop, ticketed $2, we cannot consider the +trip financially successful; though, truth to tell, it was far more so +than many another expedition we have made. But a golden lustre, the +memory of our legal poet, englamours forever in our eyes our copper +pitcher. When we look at it we hear again the strident voice, the +bizarre pronunciation, the voluble rhymes of our poet of the soil, our +Darius, as he exclaimed in amazement: + + “Ye don’t hang ’em on the wall, + Them cracked old kitchen dishes! + An’ keep a frac-tured pitcher + As if ’t was act-ure-ly precious! + They say that city folks + Is mighty extrav-ure-gant, + But with such test-ure-mony + I’m willin’ to swear they ain’t. + There ain’t a party in this town + So stingy an’ such a non-com + As to hang that pitcher on the wall, + Lookin’ ’s if ’t was jest goin’ ter fall, + An’ the hole showin’ in the botturm.” + +Many ghosts has our china hunting revealed to us; the ghosts of the +past, the visions and dreams that never become realities, the inexorable +fate, the sad kismet of New England life. Such was the story of the +house of Hartington, a story sadly typical of many New England homes; a +story which the sight of these little lettered and escutcheoned cups +always retells to us. + +A description had been given to us of an old town with old houses and +old people and old china, and after a gloomy night in a hideous country +hotel we started out to find some townsman of whom we could hire a horse +and carriage of some or any sort to carry us to Rindge and Anthony +Hartington’s house—the oldest house of all. + +A thin, auburn-haired, freckle-faced Yankee, about twenty-one years old, +answered our questions with the greatest interest, and finally offered +us the use of his own horse and open wagon for the whole day for two +dollars. “And I’ll drive fer ye, too,” he added, with enthusiasm. “Ye’d +never find old Hartington’s if ye took the hoss yerself, an’ I do’ ‘now +as I can neither, without some pretty tall huntin’ and questionin’.” + +So off we started on the back seat of an open country “express wagon” to +find “old Hartington’s farm.” The warm October sun streamed down upon +us, the great red and russet rock-broken fields stretched off into the +beautiful lonely purple mountain, “heeding his sky affairs,” the dying +brakes and weeds sent forth their sweet nutty autumn fragrance, the soft +yellow and brown leaves fluttered down on us, and the ripe chestnutburrs +fell rustling by our side as we rode through the narrow wood-roads. The +hard New England landscape was softened and Orientalized by the yellow +autumn tints. The half-sad stillness of dying nature and the warmth of +the Indian summer inclined us to ride quietly and thoughtfully along the +country roads, but that neither Mr. Simmons, nor his new wagon, nor +Jenny, his steed, would for a moment permit. She had the unpleasant +habit, so common among country horses, of “slacking-up” suddenly at the +foot of every hill. The wagon was a “jump-seat,” so the back seat was +not fastened in securely. At every hill (and the New England hills are +countless) we and the seat were pitched forward on Mr. Simmons’s back. +He seemed to expect this assault and rather enjoy it. To quite +counterbalance this sudden stoppage of progression, Jenny would spring +forward with much and instantaneous speed whenever she caught sight of +Mr. Simmons’s short whip. This whip he used as a pointer in his many and +diffuse explanations, so whenever our attention was called to an old +house, or a poor “run-out” farm, or “the barn old White hung himself +in,” Jenny emphasized the explanation with a twitch of our necks that +brought into active play muscles little used before. + +At last the long hill leading to the Hartington house was reached, the +longest and steepest yet seen. The road was almost unused, a mere track, +and spoke to our china hunting instincts most favorably of the little +intercourse held by the Hartingtons with the rest of the world. Slowly +plodded Jenny over the fringed gentians, for here the road was full of +them, as open and blue as the October sky over our heads. We had never +seen this lovely delicate flower growing elsewhere than sparsely by a +brookside or in damp ground, but here, on this rocky hill-side, in this +poor soil, it opened its blue eyes in such luxuriance that the road was +as full of its azure bloom as in September the fields are yellow with +goldenrod, or in June white with daisies. As we turned in from the main +country road we passed an elderly man with bowed head, ragged clothes, +slouching gait, and a general appearance of extreme depression and +sadness more marked even than is usual in the carriage of the New +England farmer. As he did not lift his head to look at us, nor nod with +the cordial common country form of recognition, we did not speak to him, +and he slowly followed us up the hill. + +The Hartington house was a mansion, a brick manor-house. We were met at +the great door by a young untidy woman, whose clear pink-and-white +complexion and curly hair could not, however, compensate for her lack of +good teeth, several front teeth being missing and the others discolored. +This poor care and poor condition of the teeth is most common among New +England women in the country. Nearly every woman over thirty years of +age will show when speaking two rows of blue-white porcelain disks so +evidently false that they hardly seem like teeth, but look like a “card” +of cheap buttons. We thought her the daughter of the house; she proved +to be its mistress, the wife of Anthony Hartington. A more desolate, +unhappy, hopeless home I have never seen. The elderly gloomy man, who +now entered, proved to be Anthony himself. He spoke but little, and from +the young wife, who seemed in a feverish state of excitement at our +visit, we learned the forlorn and desolate story of the household. + +Anthony had married early in life and had had nine children, all of +whom, with his wife, had died of that fell curse of New +England—consumption. The last child, a daughter, Luriella, had died in +June. This young wife had been her school friend and had married the +forlorn old man two years ago, in order to come to live there and nurse +her friend through her last illness, thus giving a touching example of +the life-sacrifices and self-abnegations so sadly frequent in New +England country homes. “We didn’t think she’d live through the winter,” +she said, “but she did, and died in June. I was glad she lived till it +was warm. It is so cold here in winter,” she added apologetically. + +A heavy gloom settled on us as we walked from room to room, and I was +additionally overwhelmed by the uncanny, unreasoning sense that I had +been there before, had lived there. It was all so familiar to me, so +strangely well known, that I could scarcely speak, but walked bewildered +and frightened through the rooms I had known a hundred years ago. I have +never felt at any other time that sense of pre-existence, but I know +that nothing about that old house was new to me. + +The upper part of the windows were of small panes of greenish +“bull’s-eye” glass, rarely found in the country now; the lower panes of +cheap, modern glass, some being broken and pasted over with dirty bits +of calico and paper, and all as opaque with dirt as the ancient upper +panes. Outside the windows lay an unkempt tangle of lilac bushes, +shrubs, weeds, straggling withered flowers, box borders, and thistles, +that once had been a lovely, well-kept garden, but had evidently been +unentered and unheeded for years. It stretched down the hill-side to the +well-tenanted family graveyard with its moss-grown and chipped slate +headstones with their winged cherubs’ heads and crossbones. I had often +gathered flowers in that garden; I remembered it well, and had walked +and played among the gravestones. + +Inside the four great parlors hung cobwebs and dust—and wasps! the +floors were sprinkled with them; thousands lay dead in the two-feet-wide +window-seats, while swarms of live ones buzzed loudly at the dingy +windows. “They won’t touch you,” she said, as we drew back. “He thinks +there must be a nest somewhere.” A nest! A colony of nests rather—a +hundred nests, the accumulated nests of years. + +The parlors had few pieces of furniture, and all were broken except a +modern marble-topped table and a “what-not.” “I bought these,” she said, +“when I was married, to please Luriella; I didn’t want to spend much, +for fear she would need medicine. But she didn’t take much at last; she +thought it didn’t do any good.” + +A set of painted book-shelves in a corner held a few books, two or three +china dogs, some common seashells, a large ginger-jar, and a number of +really beautiful pewter porringers with handles. My companion had +already conveyed to “him” our wish “to buy any old pieces of furniture +or china you may wish to part with,” and though we had not heard a word +nor seen a gesture of assent, the wife told us that “he” was willing to +sell. Yet, when we said we would like to buy the little handled +porringers, he walked out of the room without a word. + +All the wood-work in these parlors—the wainscoting, the high mantels, +the panels of the doors, the heavy window-frames—were ornamented with a +curious design, a row of half-pillars joined at the top in a series of +pointed arches, with carved sunbursts in the spandrels. It was most +graceful and odd—I have never seen it elsewhere—yet it was perfectly +familiar to me; I could almost remember, yes, I could remember, counting +the number of pillars in the room. + +The two kitchens were enormous rooms. One, entirely closed away and +disused, disclosed a horror of dirt and rubbish, old pots and pans, and +tubs, and wheels, thrown, a shapeless mass, into the fireplace, and +scattered over the floor. In the smaller kitchen the chimney-nook, the +great fireplace, had been boarded over, and a small rusty kitchen stove +placed for daily use. I seemed to remember when I sat by this ingleside, +and great logs lay on this broad hearth, and the roaring flames surged +up the great chimney and threw their cheerful light into the now +desolate room. + +Through this kitchen there wailed a moaning noise from the empty +chimney, which made even my cheerful companion look solemn and +depressed. She “didn’t like to hear it, either,” our guide said, +quietly. + +Two bedrooms and a “living-room” completed the number of apartments on +the ground floor. But the living-room was not lived in; the two bedrooms +were the only apartments that bore signs of occupation. There was not a +carpeted floor in the house, but to these two rooms, braided rag rugs +and strips of homespun carpet gave an appearance of comparative comfort. +The “rising-sun” and “twin-sister” patchwork quilts on the untidy beds +added to the effect. + +The most incongruous, most inadequate apartment on this floor was the +pantry, a little dark box of a closet, to which one small greenish glass +window dispensed a dingy light. We had intended to ask for our dinner, +since it was then “high noon,” but a sight of this cooking sanctum +dispelled all thought or wish for dinner. It was so cobwebby, so dusty, +so poor-looking, that we could not wish to eat any dinner that could +issue from its dark shadows. We found afterward, beyond the disused +kitchen, a large square room which, in the early days of the prosperity +and good cheer of this house, had doubtless been a pantry, but was now +filled with broken grindstones, crushed Dutch ovens, fragments of +crockery, pails and pans, “peels” and “slices,” yarn-winders, and part +of an old rose still. Indeed, through this entire house, nothing could +ever have been wholly destroyed or carried away, but was thrown, in its +broken, grimy desuetude, into some neglected closet or room to gather +years of dust and dirt, as if the owner, too poor to buy new furniture, +still clung to the shattered remnants of past plenty. + +We rescued from the dingy little pantry, from among the litter of broken +cups and plates and knives, bunches of dried herbs, empty spice-boxes, +cracked woodenware, and greasy pans, a few treasures which we spread out +on the kitchen table—half a dozen “Pain’s Hill” plates (a favorite +pattern throughout New England), two open-work bordered Leeds platters, +a dear little boat-shaped queen’s-ware creamer with dainty twisted +handles, two helmet pitchers, two teacups, and half a dozen plates of a +set of old Lowestoft china bearing a pretty armorial device and +initials. We hardly dared ask to buy the latter pieces until we saw the +evident contempt the farm-wife had for them. Nothing so American as a +Lafayette or Pilgrim plate was to be seen. + +One large dresser in the kitchen was found to be literally filled with +battered and broken brass and pewter candlesticks, glass whale-oil +lamps, snuffers, pewter savealls, extinguishers, and trays, and brass +chimney hooks for shovel and tongs. We rescued from this medley several +candlesticks, two curious Dutch hanging-lamps, and a really beautiful +but broken candelabra of Sheffield plate. These we placed with the china +on the kitchen table. I wished to add the pewter porringers found in the +parlor, but the wife softly drawled in her nasal voice: “He won’t sell +’em—they were hers—she used to make mud-pies in ’em when she was +little.” And pretty playthings they must have been—fifteen dear little +shallow pewter posnets and porringers with flat pierced handles, varying +in size from one large enough to hold a pint to a true doll’s or a +“’prentice” porringer an inch and a half in diameter. They were full of +little, common, colored pebbles and shells, dried seeds, and old purple +glass beads, perhaps just as “she” had last played with them. Other and +more distant memories, too, may have clung to the old porringers—of days +when the old man was a boy and took his “little porringer” and ate his +supper of bread and milk from it; and perhaps, in the far years when the +old man was a baby, his mother had had served to her in one of these old +porringers her “dish of caudle,” that rich mixture of eggs, spices, +bread, milk, and wine which was thought years ago to be the proper diet +for a sick person. + +Then we mounted the spiral staircase to the second floor, the chambers. +Through this dreary expanse we walked slowly—the dusty half-furnishings +growing shabbier and shabbier—still stumbling over broken furniture on +the uneven floors, until we entered a south room that was such a blaze +of cheerful, yellow, tropical light that we exclaimed with delight. +Walls and ceilings were hung solid with long yellow ears of corn, left +to dry for use in the winter. Even the old cherry fourpost bedstead was +draped with them. Such a color! Such a glory! “She used to like to see +them too,” the low voice murmured. + +A third story, a gambrel-roofed attic, was too dusty and repelling to +enter, but in one of the deserted bedrooms we found, whole, though black +with dust, a dressing-table which had been the lower portion of a high +chest of drawers. As is common now in New England farm-houses, the top +drawers had been lifted from this table portion and set upon the floor +to use as a bureau; not half so tidy and cleanly a fashion of furniture +as when it stood on its high legs and let a broom or brush sweep freely +every portion of the floor under it. The upper portion of this high +chest was seen afterward in the outer wood-shed full of strips of +leather, broken harness, nails, and pieces of iron. It had been gnawed +by rats and whittled by knives till it was valueless. The lower or table +portion was whole. It had three shallow “jewel drawers,” three deep +drawers with brass handles and carved “sunbursts.” It proved, when +dusted, to be of curled maple; and after long discussion with Mr. +Simmons we decided to take it with us. Its bowed legs ended in +claw-and-ball feet that would just set within the carriage sides. “If +one on ye don’t mind settin’ in front with me, the other can set in the +back seat with the table in front of her,” he said. + +This young wife had not once shown the usual country curiosity about us, +but as she turned away to find some newspapers to wrap around the +plates, I said to her, “There is much here we should like to buy and +take away with us, but it would cost so much to move the pieces so far, +and they are so out of repair.” Then we told her who we were, whence we +came, what we should do with the china, and that we should often think +and speak of her when we looked at the plates this coming winter. “I +can’t bear to think of the winter without her,” she answered, softly. + +Jenny had been fed and watered and “hitched up,” and we prepared to +start. I clambered into the back seat of the wagon, then the +dressing-table was lifted in and placed in front of me. Luckily its legs +were long enough, so the weight did not rest on my legs, else I could +never have taken it. Our laps were filled with the frail china; the +candlesticks, lamps, and two warming-pans were placed on the floor of +the wagon, and we started, leaving the two dreary figures and the dreary +house behind us. All the way down the steep hills I had to hold the +table to keep it off the occupants of the front seat, and all the way up +the steep hills it lay heavily in my lap; but at last we reached the +country station and packed our china and brass in two market-baskets +which Mr. Simmons brought us from his “store.” We could hear the sallies +of country wit from the loafers at the station at Mr. Simmons and his +strange load, and his indignant and most offensively personal and +profane answers in return. Then we received a baggage-check for the +dressing-table, and finally entered the train rather conscious that two +warming-pans and two newspaper-covered market-baskets are hardly +ordinary or desirable travelling luggage. + +A few days later, when cleaning the inside of the dressing-table, the +following letter was found. It had been caught and held by a splinter of +wood under the top of the table, and had evidently lain untouched for +years. It was folded in the old-fashioned way, dated May 12, 1810, and +addressed to Madam Janet Hartington. It read thus: + + D^R AND RESPECT^{ED} MOTHER The letter which I wrote you some three + months ago on the s’bj’ct of my proposed marriage was answered by you, + and the answer duly rec^d by me. + + The two letters I wrote you since on the same s’bj’ct have rec^d no + answer. + + And now it is too late to receive any further advice on the matter, + for I wish to most Respectfully inform you that I married the object + of my choice a week past to-day in Kings Chapel in Boston. There were + but few present, as was Oriana’s wish. + + The plans you wrote me, most Respect^{ed} Mother, for the advancement + and future prospects of our family, interested me much, and I quite + concur in them all. + + And no one could be more fully fitted to assist me in my career than + my Oriana. Her graceful and ladylike deportment fit her to adorn any + circle no matter how exalted. + + She is quite ready to become a most dutifull and obedient daughter to + you and I trust, my D^r Mother, the fact of her being an orphan will + open your heart to her; and then the wish you have always had, viz, to + have a daughter, may thus find its fullfillment. + + I know not from what source you obtained the strange advice that her + Father did amass his fortune in the African Slave Trade. I have never + wounded her tender heart by inquiry as to the source of her Fathers + wealth (tho’ ’tis a calling & trade has been followed by many citizens + apparently much respect^{ed}). But the thought of his “ill-gotten + gold” need no further trouble you. Thro’ ill advice and knavery, her + fortune has dwindled to a thousand dollars, and now her wealth is only + in her beauty and her amiable disposition. She has however much good + furniture and china which will grace well our home. + + I regret much to hear that my bills and debts in College have cost you + so much, and that the Farm is so run behindhand. This, with the debts + my Father left behind him, make it most advisable for me to give up my + intention to practice as a lawyer, and have decided me to return to + manage your Farm. + + It is quite opportune and most Providential that your Farmer is dead, + since he managed so ill. + + With your wise instructions and counsels, we can no doubt retrieve the + money that has been lost, and carry out my Grandfathers plans to make + our house and name one of the most powerful in the State. + + Thus shall I assume the position in town and county that you always + wished me to take. + + We shall leave by coach for Ringe in a week, our household goods and + furnishings to follow us in waggons. + + I know, D^r Mother, that you will admire and praise my Oriana, as who + could do otherwise? + + I have talked much to her of your aspirations and ambitions, and she + hopes most Respectfully to help to carry out any plans you may have. + + With most affectionate greeting from Oriana and myself, I am + + Your Loving and Honour^{ed} Son + GEORGE HARTINGTON. + +In due time the table was scraped, cleaned, and polished, and with its +cheerful mottled golden color and shining brass handles, was most +thoroughly attractive and satisfying. The pretty Lowestoft china cups +were set on it and used for petty toilet purposes. An old canopied +mirror was hung over it, and every night after I had lighted the candles +in the repaired and resilvered candelabra, I sat there looking at the +china, thinking of the blue-fringed gentians, the old house, of the +lonely empty rooms, the poverty, the dreariness; then of the high hopes +and ideas of George Hartington, and ambitions of his mother, and, above +all, the strange familiarity I had had with my old home. + +At last I wrote to the wife at the farm, telling her of the old letter; +asking of the career of George Hartington, his success, his life, his +fate. I thought he must be Anthony’s grandfather or granduncle. The +answer came, written in a stiff, uneven hand, but showing more +intelligence than her conversation: “George and Oriana Hartington were +my husband’s father and mother. My husband is seventy-five years old, +and was their only child. George Hartington died three years after he +was married. My husband remembers his mother as a feeble, sickly woman +who didn’t have much to say on the farm, and seemed always afraid of +Madam Hartington. She died of consumption when he was twelve years old. +That was her china you bought with the O on it. His grandmother lived to +be ninety-two years old. He is not very well this winter, he has a bad +cough. If you know of any good cough medicine, I could buy it with the +money you gave us for the table and china,” etc. + +And this is the end of all Madam Hartington’s ambitions—a broken-down, +broken-hearted, childless old man. It is the New England kismet. + +Sad often are many of the memories, sad are the pictures, brought to my +mind by my old china. It speaks to me too often of deserted farms, of +unthrifty farmers; of shabby homes, the homes of drunken fathers and +sickly mothers; of rasping young Philistines, haters of old things and +old ways; of miserly old women and extravagant young ones; of gloomy +widowers and miserable bachelors; of the hopeless round of toil of New +England farm-wives, those human beasts of burden, bending grievously +under the heavy load of loneliness and labor; it speaks sadly to me of +the pinched ways and poor living, the _res angusta domi_ too frequently +to be seen, alas! in my beloved New England. All these shadows, however, +are softened and lessened by the lapse of time, just as in my memory the +days of my china hunts have all been sunshiny and bright; it never +rained, nor was it cold nor windy, nor was it ever sultry or dusty when +I have been a china hunting; all china days were Emerson’s + + “... charmed days + When the genius of God doth flow. + The wind may alter twenty ways, + A tempest cannot blow; + It may blow north, it still is warm; + Or south, it still is clear; + Or east, it smells like a clover-farm; + Or west, no thunder fear.” + + + + + XIX. + CHINA COLLECTIONS + + +In past years any stray china-lover who wished to see and to learn had +to search well to find any public collections, or even specimens of old +china, in America. In town-halls, in the curiosity shops of eccentric +old women, or in the “museums” of land-stranded old sailors, a few +pieces might be seen—not saved nor shown because they were china, but +because “Parson Boardman, who preached forty-nine years in this town, +owned this tea-set;” or “this china was taken out of the cabin of an +English frigate in 1813;” or “these mugs were used when George +Washington passed through the town.” In this class of discursive and +disjointed collections, though of course in a superior and highly +honored way, might be placed the china of the Museum of the East India +Marine Company in Salem, of whose arrangement Eleanor Putnam wrote, “it +was as if each sea-captain had lounged in and hustled down his +contribution in any convenient vacant space.” In that old museum, as I +remember it a decade ago, elaborate models of Chinese junks and American +merchant vessels bore on their miniature bowsprits strange additions to +their rigging, and shadowed by their dusty hulls queer and varied +trophies, queerer then than now—sharks’ teeth, Turkish pipes, +sandal-wood beads, Italian crucifixes, Peruvian pottery, and South Sea +shells and savage weapons. Teak-wood furniture and miniature palanquins +and pagodas sheltered many curious china treasures which I vaguely +recall, queer in name and shape—nests of egg-shell saki-cups and +saki-bowls galore; ink-stones of green celadon with their accompanying +water-bottles and little cakes of gilded India-ink; perfume flasks of +painted Japanese wares; bottles of purest porcelain for Oriental +hair-oil, or, rather, hair-glue; pottery jars full of unpleasant-looking +mouldy mysteries, which might be preserved fruit or might be mummies; +“plaster boxes” lettered in Chinese; strange triangular bits of blue and +white Persian porcelain “to clean out shoes with;” old Liverpool mugs +taken from a wreck and wildly labelled “from Ceylon;” and, chief of all, +two vast soup-tureens of purest white Canton porcelain, duck-shaped, six +feet in length from beak to tail by _memory’s_ measurement. In the cold +light of recent and more mature inspection these two great East India +birds of good cheer, like many another remembered object of the good old +times, shrank to about half their ancient size; but are still impressive +relics of the great days and great dinners of the old East India Marine +Company, the dinners where, filled to the wings with some hot, +well-peppered Indian broth, the twin tureens graced the board around +which gathered all these old treasure-bringing and treasure-giving Salem +mariners. + +A recent visit to my dearly loved and warmly-remembered old museum +grieved my heart; its charm was gone. Great, light, airy rooms have been +added to the old building; an arranger, a labeller, and a model +cataloguer have ruthlessly invaded the dusty cases and weeded out the +boxes of dried-up and shrivelled fruits, the skins of moth-eaten birds, +and of seedy and disreputable fishes. The Chinese paper-fans and woven +baskets, once rare enough to be carefully treasured in a museum, now +seen in every dry-goods shop in the land, seem wholly to have +disappeared. The iconoclasts have prosaically separated each old +sea-captain’s relics into parcels and placed them in wonderfully +well-arranged and classified cases, labelled Madagascar, Alaska, +Sumatra, or whatever the land of their early home may be. I suppose the +shoe-cleaners and hair-oil bottles are there somewhere in their properly +assigned places, but I did not search for them. I glanced at my old +friends, the punch-bowls, and the great duck-tureens, but the old-time +glamour, the “unstudied grace” of the museum was gone. + +In many public buildings at the present day, among treasured colonial +relics, may be seen fine specimens of old china. A neighbor of the East +India Marine Company, the Essex Institute, has a small but interesting +and well-labelled collection of old Salem china. + +The Bostonian Society displays in its rooms in the old State-House in +Boston a number of old Liverpool pitchers and about twenty Staffordshire +plates and platters with American designs, as well as some pieces of the +china of John Hancock and a few other good Boston citizens. + +In the rooms of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in Locust +Street, Philadelphia, may be seen a number of interesting pieces, +including a set of Dresden cups and saucers, presented to Benjamin +Franklin by Madame Helvétius, of Auteuil, that extraordinary friend of +Franklin’s whose behavior so shocked Mrs. Adams. By the side of this +Dresden set are the beautiful coffee-cups, teacups, saucers, teapot, +creamer, bowl, and chocolate-pot presented to Mrs. Robert Morris, wife +of the United States Minister of Finance, by Luzerne, the French +Minister; a cup and saucer said to have been used at the wedding of +George Washington; a punch-bowl made for the Society of the Cincinnati +by order of Colonel Hampden; several Washington pitchers; a Perry +pitcher, and an Erie Canal pitcher. + +In the Deerfield Memorial Hall, in the rooms of the Connecticut +Historical Society, of the various societies of antiquity, and local +associations throughout New England, may be seen good pieces of old +pottery and porcelain, often with an interesting and doubtless authentic +story attached, but too frequently wildly and amazingly labelled as to +place of manufacture and date. + +Many rich private collections exist. Vast stores of old colonial +treasures are preserved in private houses in our Eastern States. The +Washington pieces of pottery and porcelain in the Huntington Collection +are far outdone in beauty and in rarity by many private collections, +such, for instance, as that of Miss Powel, in Newport; of Mrs. Russell, +in Cambridge; while the varied collection of old china at the house of +the Washington Association of New Jersey, with the exception of the +historical interest which attaches to it through the story of various +past owners of renown, and excepting, of course, the rare and beautiful +punch-bowls, is equalled and excelled in many a New England home. In +Hartford the collections of Mr. Trumbull, of Dr. Lyon, would make +envious any English china-buyer. In Albany, in Philadelphia, in +Worcester and Providence, in New Haven and Washington, in New York and +Brooklyn, many a closet and room full of well-preserved colonial china +show the good taste and careful judgment of loving owners. In Boston the +collection of Mr. Wales is of unbounded interest and value. + +There is but one public collection in America which I have seen that is +of positive and unfailing worth to the American china collector—the +Trumbull-Prime Collection. I mean for the china collector for whom these +pages are written, the gatherer of household wares of colonial times and +of the early part of this century. It is much deplored by residents of +New York that this beautiful and instructive collection has not found a +home on shelves neighboring the Avery Collection of Oriental porcelains +in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But it has been placed where it will +serve a nobler purpose than contributing to the pleasure or profit even +of china-lover or china collector—where it will instruct the +china-maker. In the spacious cabinets of the beautiful art building of +Princeton College, it is near the great china factories of Trenton; and +may the owners of those factories soon learn the lesson of beauty and +variety of form, color, and paste, that is so plainly shown in the china +treasures gathered by Mr. and Mrs. Prime. + +It has been easy for anyone, for everyone, who had any idea or knowledge +of old china, to form a collection of china in America. Of course, the +value of the accretion was variable, not so much resulting from the +length of the purse of the gatherer as from his judgment and care in +buying. It is still possible to obtain such a collection. The old china +is not yet all discovered and culled from country towns. One china +hunter found in Northampton, that besearched city, in a summer week in +1891—found and bought and bore away in triumph—a large States pitcher, a +Boston State-House pitcher, a Trenton Falls plate, a Capitol plate, two +State-House plates, several pieces bearing the design of McDonough’s +victory, a dozen or more plates with English views, two helmet-pitchers, +several pepper-pots, and, in addition to the “treasures of clay,” a tall +clock and four harp-backed chairs that once were Jonathan Edwards’s, a +Chippendale table, and various trophies of pewter and brass. Dealers +might have visited these Northampton folk in vain, but this beguiling +china hunter bore away his cart-load of old furniture and crockery for a +sum total as small as in days of yore. + +It is for such slow and careful collectors that these pages are written, +for the collectors who having read and studied all the foreign +text-books and histories and manuals of pottery and porcelain still know +very little of the china within their gates, the china to be gathered in +America. The number of such china hunters is steadily crescent. In +Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, china collections are being formed; and +many of the finest specimens of American historical china that have been +offered for sale in New York and Boston “antique shops” during the past +year have been purchased and sent to California. + +[Illustration: A Beaufet.] + +It is a matter of course that this old china should show to its best +advantage in an old-fashioned house, or in a new house built in +“American colonial” style of architecture. But whatever the house may be +in which all these loved china waifs are assembled and cherished, it +should not conceal them, as in Charles Lamb’s “great house,” in a +china-closet. A suitable resting-place for the old pieces is in the +sheltering home in which it passed its early days—in a corner cupboard. +This was in olden times called a “beaufatt,” or “bofet,” or “beaufet,” +or “bofate,” or as Cowper wrote of it— + + “This china that decks the alcove + Which here people call a buffet, + But what the gods call it above + Has ne’er been revealed to us yet.” + +A corner cupboard seems to be, like all old-fashioned furniture, well +adapted for the express purpose for which it was made. It is not a +modern pattern combination china-closet, washstand, and refrigerator all +in one, but for the simple purpose of china-holding and china-showing it +is perfect. The old china never looks prettier (except when on the +table) than in its wonted home—a corner cupboard or beaufet. The narrow +scalloped or crenated shelves with their wider rounded projections at +the extreme back seem expressly shaped to show each piece to its best +advantage. Even the Gothic small-paned glass door, when present, does +not hide the dainty pieces. The apse-shaped, shell-fluted top with its +pillared frame and carved sunbursts, and its surmounting brass eagles or +balls, seems a fitting roof to shelter the fragile ingatherings. + +The old china seems always to look better and more at home in an +old-time setting. On page 44 is shown a shallow dresser, an adaptation +of an old kitchen fashion, with narrow ledges of shelves hung with old +pewter porringers, which proves also a delightful way to show to plain +view the rows of blue and white plates, especially the dainty gems of +“cup-plates,” which are so treasured and loved by the china hunter that +there never seems to be any spot altogether worthy to hold and display +them quite as they ought to be shown. Of course, large articles—what +were called in olden times “hollow-ware”—cannot be placed on a dresser; +tiny pepper-pots, salt-cellars, tea-caddies, very small creamers, and +plates and platters set on edge must form the dresser’s only burden. + +[Illustration: China Steps.] + +Another old-fashioned resting-place for china may be adopted in modern +times for the sustentation of any broken-nosed, handleless, nicked, +cracked, or scorched treasure, “the broken teacups wisely kept for +show,” which no true china hunter will despise, but which will not bear +the too close examination of scoffers, and to which distance lends a +haze of enchantment and veil of perfection. I mean a “crown of steps,” +or “shelf of steps,” or “china steps,” as they were variously called. +One is here shown, but as they are so rare nowadays perhaps the term +needs some explanation. On top of a high chest of drawers, a “high-boy,” +was placed in olden times a three-tiered, graduated platform of “steps” +to hold and display china. The lower tier of the platform was about +eight or ten inches shorter and five inches shallower than the top of +the “high-boy.” This left free a shelf of about five inches wide upon +the sides and front of the top; the tier was four or five inches high. +The second tier, or step, was made shorter and narrower in the same +proportion, thus leaving a second ridge or shelf. The top tier, or +platform, was smaller still. Thus when the china was arranged around the +three sides of the “crown of steps” it made a pretty pyramid of pitchers +and teapots and jars, and each piece could be plainly seen. Rather high +up in the air they were, perhaps, for purposes of close examination or +for freeing from dust, but safe from danger of breaking. Very rarely an +old “high-boy” will now be seen with a fixed or permanent “crown of +steps,” but usually this set of china shelves was separate, and +frequently was only made of stained wood. Such were probably the “Steps +for China Ware” of Abraham Blish, of Boston, in 1735, which were worth +only two shillings. Such also were “the steps & some small China +thereon” of John Proctor in 1756, since they were worth only five +shillings and fourpence. Another inventory has this item: “1 Japan Chest +Draws and Steps for China.” + +On such a “shelf of steps” the china is “out of the way;” and for the +same virtue I like to hang china on the wall—pitcher, jugs, cups, as +well as plates—they are so safe and yet so plainly visible in that +position. Then you can do away with “the dozen little teetery tables” +that litter and obstruct our rooms and make man’s life a burden. There +is a certain restfulness in the spacious parlors of some old houses that +I know, a sense of room in which to move, of liberal elegance, of +substantial good taste, that is owing largely to the absence of small +littering chairs and tables. Everything is upon the walls that can be +hung or placed there; decoration is profuse, but not in the way. I would +rather keep china anywhere than upon a table. Perhaps the upsetting of a +tea-table, with its burden of eighteen teapots, and the utter +annihilation of teapots and depression of spirits that resulted, may +have conduced to this feeling. For the purpose of hanging plates upon +the wall come various little wire frames or holders; but when you have +fifty or one hundred plates in your dining-room, even these cheap +holders are quite an expense. Mr. Prime gives in his book an +illustration and the details of the manner of making a wire frame or +holder by which to hang plates on the wall. This invention of his is +very ingenious and very good; many a one have I in my home; but it +requires for its manufacture a wire-workman or a tinker, either amateur +or professional, and tools of various kinds, and a neatly made spiral +cylinder of wire. This places the possibility of manufacturing Mr. +Prime’s holder quite out of the reach of the average woman. I, too, have +invented a holder, and it can be made by any woman, since she need +employ but one tool—her own distinctive instrument—a pair of scissors. +The materials, too, are peculiarly feminine—picture-wire or strong +twine, and dress-hooks. I will say for the benefit of the masculine +china hunter who may read these pages that both white and black +dress-hooks can be purchased for a few cents a dozen, and of various +sizes, from the heavy cloak hooks, which are strong enough to hold a +thick Delft plaque, to the tiny hooks that are sufficient to sustain a +fragile saucer. And the process of manufacture of my plate-holder is so +simple! You use your tool but once—to cut off the length of wire. Then +place four of the dress-hooks at equal distances around the rim of the +plate, slipping them firmly over the edge. String your wire on the back +of the plate through the two loops at the end of each of the four hooks +and draw it tight. Twist the ends of the wire firmly and neatly +together, make a little wire loop by which to hang it, and your +plate-holder is done. A man may use a pair of “cut-nippers” to cut the +wire, and a pair of pincers to twist it if he so will; but a pair of +scissors is all that is really necessary, and will answer every purpose, +though the usage is not thoroughly conducive to the welfare of the +scissors. I will not say that this holder is better than Mr. Prime’s, +though I point with pride to the facility and simplicity of its +construction; but I think I can boast that it is cheaper. + +The dark blue Staffordshire plates especially should be thus hung on the +wall, where they form so rich a point of color that they put to shame +all the thin water-colors and pale French china in their vicinity, and +make us fully appreciate Oscar Wilde’s sigh of “trying to live up to his +blue and white china.” + +But let me no longer dwell on the charms of our widely gathered +possessions, lest it be said of me as was of Horace Walpole— + + “China’s the passion of his soul, + A cup, a plate, a dish, a bowl + Can kindle wishes in his breast, + Inflame with joy or break his rest;” + +but end with the assurance that I fully concur in the words of a +well-known English collector: “China-collecting is not a mere fancy—it +is a complete education.” + + + + + INDEX + + + Acrelius, Parson, 217 + + Adams, President, china of, 251, 301 + + Alchymy spoons, 43 + + Annely, Edward, 80 + + Anti-slavery plate, 333 + + Apotheosis of Washington, pitcher, 265 + + Arnold, Governor Benedict, 45 + + Auction, country, in New England, 33 + + + “Baby,” Milliner’s, 58 + + Bache, Mrs., 65 + + Bainbridge portrait on mug, 310 + + _Baltimore Advertiser_, announcement in, of sale of china, 235 + + Baltimore plate, 334 + + Baltimore and Ohio plates, 334 + + Barlow, S. L. M., sale of china of, 176 + + Bat-printing, 156 + + Beach ware, 26 + + Bennington ware, 97 + + Binney & Ronaldson, 93 + + Bonaparte, Lucien, cup and saucer of, 29 + + Bonaparte mugs, 152 + + Bonnin, Gousse, 89 + + Boston plates, 337 + + Bostonian Society, the, 305, 311, 411 + + Bow china, 54, 119, 120, 122 + + Bowen, Samuel, 86 + + Bradford, Governor, china of, 45 + + Bristol porcelain, 123; + teapot, 208 + + Broseley blue dragon pieces, 131 + + Buchanan, President, china of, 253 + + Bugbee, Thomas, 83 + + Burlington, old pottery at, 79 + + Burnet, Governor, 60 + + + Cadogan teapot, 204 + + Calumet, the, 75; + of the Cherokees, 76 + + Cambridge plates, 321 + + Canton china, blue, 183; + sale of, direct from the vessel, 186 + + Castleford pottery, 117 + + Centennial china, 343 + + Champion, Richard, 85, 89, 123, 280 + + China collector, a professional, 13; + a Yankee, 18 + + China in America, earliest mentions of, 56; + advertisements of, in the early Boston papers, 66; + old American, 70; + inexhaustible materials for manufacture of, in America, 90; + with American scenes, etc., 137 + + China steps, 418 + + Chinese ewer, 190 + + Cincinnati punch-bowl, 223; + of General Washington, 230 _et seq._, 239 + + City Hall pitcher, 360 + + Clews, Mr. James, 327 + + Congressional punch-bowl, 216 + + Cookworthy, William, 84 + + Copper-lustre pitcher, 387 + + Crouch-ware, 109 + + Crown Derby plate, 380 + + + Danvers pottery, song of, 78 + + Davis, Mrs. James M., Bristol porcelain urn of, 124 + + Decatur portrait, 310 + + Deerfield Memorial Hall, 412 + + Delft ware, early, 53; + early sale of, 57; + in New York, 102; + on Long Island, 103; + price of, 103; + tea-caddies, 104; + apothecary jars of, 105, 382; + in the Trumbull-Prime collection, 106; + tiles, 106, 158 + + Derby, Elias Haskett, 180 + + De Witt Clinton, portrait of, 313 + + Dextra, Zachary, 104 + + Drinks, colonial American, 217 + + Dwight, John, 197 + + + East India Marine Company’s Museum, 409 + + Elder Brewster teapot, 202 + + Erie Canal plates, 345 + + Essex Institute, the, 313, 411 + + + Faneuil, Andrew, 57 + + Faneuil, Peter, 60 + + Farmer pitchers, 154 + + Franklin, Benjamin, sends china to his wife, 64, 91, 157 + + Franklin pottery, list of, 274 _et seq._ + + Franklin, William, medallion, 302 + + Frog mugs, 144 + + Fulham jugs, 107 + + Funeral-punches, 211 + + + “Guglet,” 237 + + Ginger-jars of Canton china, 188 + + Glazing, Indian method of, 72 + + Glider, to, 214 + + Goat cream jugs, 120 + + Grant, General, china of, 254 + + Gray, Billy, 180 + + + Haig, Thomas, 93 + + Hall’s, R., wares, 330 + + Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander, china of, 243 + + Hancock, John, portrait, 304 + + Hanover, First Church of, pewter service of, 45 + + Harrison pitcher, 314 + + Hartington house, the, 396 + + Hayes, President, china of, 255 + + Henrietta Maria, Queen, recipe book of, 212 + + Hews, A. H., & Co., 81 + + Historical Society of Pennsylvania, collection, 411 + + Hodges, Dr. Caspar Wister, 280 + + Hound-handled pitcher, 99 + + Holder for hanging china, 422 + + Hull pitchers, 143 + + Hull portrait, 310 + + Huntington collection, 160; + Franklin pottery in, 287 + + Hylton pottery, 215 + + + Indian bowls, 39 + + Indiana Pottery Co., 98 + + Inscriptions on pitchers, 143 + + + Jackfield teapots, 208 + + Jackson, President, china of, 252 + + Japanese teapots, 205 + + Jefferson, Thomas, Wedgwood cameos of, 115; + hospitality of, 249; + china of, 250; + portraits, 303 + + Jones, Cadwallader, vases given to, by Lafayette, 174 + + Johnson. Dr., teapot of, 198 + + Jug, hot water, of pewter, 50 + + + Keen, Joseph, 93 + + + Lafayette, 241 + + Lafayette pottery, 288; + list of, 289 + + Lafayette Landing platter, 294 + + Lamb, Charles, 1, 378 + + Lawrence portrait, 310 + + Lay, Benjamin, 63 + + Lefferts, John, 103 + + Lincoln, President, china of, 253 + + Liverpool ware, 135 + + Liverpool pitchers, 162 + + Lowestoft ware, 165; + vase, 174; + value of, 175; + in New England seaport towns, 179; + in the south, 194; + of John Hancock, 195; + teapot, 208 + + Lowestoft town, 175 + + Lustre sets, 132 + + Lyman & Fenton, 96 + + Lyon, Dr. Irving, 112 + + Lyon, Miss Henrietta D., 129, 254 + + Lyon, Governor, sale of china of, 175, 178, 203 + + + Macdonough’s victory plate, 351 + + Macdonough portrait, 312 + + Madison, china of, 251 + + “Map” pitcher, 268 + + Mayer, Thomas, 324 + + Metropolitan Museum, 160, 173, 245, 257, 270, 271, 277, 279, 283, 284, + 286, 296, 297 + + Millennium plate, 24 353 + + Milliners, Boston, sell “chayney,” 58 + + Miranda, General, 231 + + Mirror-knobs, 159 + + Monroe, President, china of, 252 + + Montgomery pitcher, 304 + + Morris, George Anthony, 90 + + Morristown, pewter utensils in the Washington House at, 49 + + Morse collection, 205 + + Mottoes on teapots, 207 + + Mount Vernon plates, 353 + + Museum of Practical Geology, 110, 112, 122, 140, 154, 168 + + + Nahant plate, 354 + + Naval pitchers, 141, 309 + + Neptune, the, voyage of, 181 + + Newbery’s “Dives Pragmaticus,” 38 + + New Jersey, early china not plentiful in, 62 + + New York plates 356 + + Niederweiler china of Washington, 244 + + “Noggins,” wooden, 39 + + Norton, John and William, 96 + + + Osborne, William, 77 + + + “Packing Penny,” the, 57 + + Pain’s Hill plates, 330 + + Park Theatre plate, 361 + + Patch-boxes, 161 + + Pepys’ tea-drinking, 199 + + Perry pitchers, 142 + + Perry portraits, 309 + + Persian vase, 192 + + Peters, Miss, 94 + + Pewter plates and platters, 47 + + Pewterers, English, 41 + + Philadelphia, colonial drinks of, 216 + + Philadelphia, early china in, 63; + plates, 363 + + Philadelphia Library plate, 319 + + Pierce, President, china of, 252 + + Pike portrait, 311 + + Pilgrim plate, 366 + + Pitcher, historical, of the war of 1812, 299 + + Pitcher portrait of Washington, 260 + + Pitchers, patriotic, etc., list of, 301 _et seq._ + + Plymouth coffee-pot, 122 + + Poore, Ben Perley, collection of pewter of, 49 + + Porcelain ware, early in America, 52 + + Porringers, pewter, 44 + + Posset-pot, the, 212 + + Posnets, 44 + + “Posy-holders,” 191 + + Pottery of the North American Indians, 70; + in burial mounds, 73; + in Louisiana, 74; + of the Iroquois, 75 + + Preble, portrait of, 311 + + Prentiss, A. M., presentation pitcher of, 158 + + Presidential china, auction sales of, 255 + + Pride, John, 77 + + Province House pitcher, 65 + + Punch, 213; + varieties of, 217 _et seq._; + bare-legged, 218 + + Punch-bowl, the, 210; + of lustre ware, 215; + of Liverpool Delft, 215; + Henry Weatherbourne’s, 219; + of Washington, 221 _et seq._; + of the good old times, 226 + + Puzzle jugs, 145 + + + Quilted china plates, 59 + + + Randolph, Edmund, punch-bowl of, 219 + + Reed, Joseph, 77 + + Remmey, 80 + + Richards, Horace Jones, 300 + + Richmond, A. G., his collection of Indian pottery, 75 + + Ridgway, J. & W., china, 318, 328 + + Rose, Thomas, 172 + + + Sadler, John, 155 + + Sadler’s ware, 137 + + Sailor pitchers, 148 + + Salt-glazed ware, 108 + + “Savealls,” 43 + + Sewall, Judge, 200 + + Seixas, David G., 93 + + Shrewsbury, old house in, 46 + + “Slaw bank,” a, 46 + + Smith, James R., 258 + + “Sneaker,” 237 + + Sack-posset, recipe for, 212 + + “Sourings,” 225 + + South Amboy, 80 + + Staffordshire crockery, 316; + marks on, 324 + + Standish, Miles, 45 + + Steamboat plate, 350 + + Stienwerck, Cornelius, 61 + + Syntax, Dr., designs on china, 321 + + + Tea, in Boston, 200; + price of, 201; + drinking of, 199 + + Tea-sets, Staffordshire, not uniform. 317 + + Teapot friezes, 206 + + Teapots, mottoes on, 207; + Lowestoft, 208 + + Temperance plate, 371 + + Thomas, Gabriel, 79 + + Timberlake, Lieutenant, 72, 76 + + “Tobys,” 323 + + Toddy strainer, 189 + + Transfer-printing, 155 + + Trenchers, wooden, 40 + + Trumbull-Prime collection, 96, 99, 123, 178, 261, 268, 279, 291, 304, + 413 + + Truxton, Commodore, 142 + + Tucker, William Ellis, 94 + + + Van Braam, Mr., china given by, to Martha Washington, 233, 242 + + Voiders, china, 69 + + + Wales, George M., 145 + + Ward, J., poem of, on the Potter’s art, 42 + + Warren pitcher, 304 + + Washington, George, china, 177, 229; + value of, 248; + letter of, to Colonel Tilghman, 234; + portraits of, on china, 257, 265 + + Washington, Martha, plate, 8; + china, 240 + + Washington pitchers, 138 + + Washington Association, 174, 203, 216, 223, 243 + + Washington pottery, list of, 262 + + Washington toddy-jugs, 261 + + Washington, D. C., plates, 374 + + Wedgwood, Josiah, his alarm at the progress of china manufacture in + America, 87 + + Wedgwood, Thomas, pewter plates of, 42 + + Wedgwood ware, in America, 114, 116; + teapots, 209 + + Welsteed, William, 57 + + Willow-pattern ware, 130 + + Winthrop jug, 54 + + Worcester ware in “Japan taste,” 29; + porcelain, old, in America, 133 + + + Yendell, S., presentation pitcher of 155 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● The caret (^) serves as a superscript indicator, applicable to + individual characters (like 2^d) and even entire phrases (like + 1^{st}). + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77000 *** |