Among our illustrations (see Fig. 148) are two plates containing portraits of Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Dürer. The colors are red, brown, and gold; also a teacup and saucer, most delightfully and richly painted. These are in the possession of G. W. Wales, Esq., of Boston. In Fig. 152 is a teapot in rich blue and gold, part of a set belonging to Mr. W. C. Prime. This has the mark + of Bristol, but, as it is soft paste, it is probably Worcester.
[Illustration: _Worcester crescent (1755)._]
[Illustration: _Messrs. Flight (1783 to 1788)._]
[Illustration: _Flight and Barr (1793 to 1807)._]
[Illustration: _Barr, Flight and Barr (1807 to 1818)._]
The marks used at the present time at Worcester (1876) are as follows:
CHAMBERLAIN'S--WORCESTER.--In 1786 Robert and Humphrey Chamberlain began a porcelain-factory at Worcester. Robert had learned the business in the old Worcester works, and was an accomplished man. Some splendidly-decorated porcelain was made by them; and a breakfast-set, made for Lord Nelson, is quite famous. Pieces of it are found in collections. The Chamberlains employed the best painters, and paid high wages. Their expensive work was made rich with much gold.
A dessert-service in the possession of Mr. W. C. Prime, of New York, shows this, and is brilliant and effective. We engrave one of the plates (Fig. 152). The birds are tropical, and fine in color, and the plants are bordered with gold. The Chamberlains' factories are now incorporated with the "Worcester Company," under the charge of Mr. Binns.
The Chamberlains' first mark was the name "Chamberlain," written with a brush in a running hand. Afterward a stamp was used, containing a crown and the names "Chamberlain and Company," and Worcester. Then the names simply of
PLYMOUTH--HARD PORCELAIN.--The first true or hard-paste porcelain made in England was made by William Cookworthy, who, being greatly interested in porcelain-making, established a factory at Plymouth about 1760. He seems to have discovered the true kaolin clays in Cornwall, the beds from which so much of the English clays are now taken. He took out patents for "a kind of porcelain newly invented, composed of Moorstone or growan, and growan clay," found in Devon and Cornwall. He advertised for painters, and a Frenchman named Soqui seems to have been very skillful. Bone, also, was one of his best painters. The ware made was perfect hard porcelain, but it was much more costly than the ordinary soft porcelain of England, and could not compete with it for price. Many of the pieces were warped or crazed in the strong heat necessarily used, and the loss in this way was great. Besides this, the good public did not care to pay high for what then had no prestige, and was really no more beautiful than the soft-paste porcelain of England. As the _first_ hard-paste porcelain made in England, and as but little of it was made, it is now valued by china-collectors, and it sells for high prices.