Bow Porcelain 1747-76

‘New Canton’ began producing ‘soft-paste’ porcelain near the village of Stratford-le-Bow, east London, in around 1748. They imitated the Chinese Export ‘hard-paste’ porcelains that were so in-demand at that period.

There was an earlier patent for porcelain taken out in 1744 by Edward Heylyn and Thomas Frye, and a small group of items – some marked with an ‘A’ and therefore known as ‘A-mark’ – have been attributed to this earlier effort.

Frye took out his further patent in 1748, and began commercial production of items characterised by a dense body with a ‘greasy’ looking glaze and bright blue cobalt or colourful enamels.

Around 1755 there is a change in the body to a lighter ‘floury’ body.

Translucency can be quite clear, mostly with a brownish tinge.

Marks are not always found, but include mock-Chinese characters, numbers, ‘workman’s marks’, and occasionally crossed swords copying Meissen.

The factory struggled with sales and quality in the early 1770’s, closing in 1776.

 

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