‘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.
Founded by Ambrose Gallimore and Thomas Turner, Caughley porcelain works was a producer of fine tea-wares and and serverware that was often compared to the likes of Worcester. Throughout the factory’s operational years, it found its niche in producing mostly blue printed and painted wares, often gilt by Chamberlains of Worcester; aimed towards the growing English middle-class in late 18th Century England.
In 1799, the company was incorporated into the Coalport / Coalbrookdale manufactory just down the road.
Ralph & James Clews
Porcelain & Earthenwares, Staffordshire, c.1815-34
The firm of Clews first appears in the Staffordshire records when they rent the Cobridge Pottery in 1817; earlier references suggest they worked elsewhere for a couple of years prior. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 1834. In 1835 an advert announces their works are available to rent immediately, and by 1837 all trace of the firm ceases.
PRODUCTS
They produced masses of white earthenware with underglaze blue prints, predominantly for the American market.
They produced tablewares & services, alongside tea wares.
There was also some fine quality Jasperware with blue ground & white sprigging, in the Wedgwood manner.
Also in earthenware were Lavender-ground wares with white sprigged flowers.
For some of the production period, they also made some interesting porcelain products. While the pottery is marked, the porcelain is not: however, by isolating a unique bow-shaped handle on their marked earthenwares and finding the same mould on porcelain, it has been possible to attribute a series of otherwise anonymous Staffordshire Porcelain wares to the firm.
The porcelain is a bright white good quality bone-china type, typical of most makers in the Potteries at the time. Translucency is excellent, with a granular look and a slight blueish tinge. The glaze is good for the most part, but tends to have a lot of small inclusions and bubbling; this is probably due to a kiln design flaw, as some of it is soot debris. Plates with this were still decorated and included in services, so the quality control was not as high as it was at the more premier manufacturers.
On-glaze enamels are the same as other factories, and the artists were of medium to good quality. An exception is a group that were obviously sold in the white, and decorated in studios. The Bradley Studio in London can be identified as one such outside decorator, and none of their products have pattern numbers.
Pattern numbers reach the 400’s, possibly the 800’s. They are medium sized, painted in red (usually) neatly rear the foot rim.
Painted patterns are all very reminiscent of those seen at Swansea, reflecting the current taste and demand for colourful flowers & fine gilt work that lingered after Swansea closed. As noted above, the London Decorators used Clews blanks after Swansea (and Nantgarw) closed, obviously accepting them as substitutes.
The scroll & wreath pattern, borrowed from Sevres and used at number of English factories at the time, is often seen.
Clews Porcelain, pattern 169, Staffordshire, c.1825 at Moorabool Antiques
MARKS
Marks are apparently only found on the earthenware products.
Pattern Numbers Services had minimal pattern marking, as is often the case with smaller makers of the earlier 19th century, with only key pieces such as the shaped serving dishes in the part service pattern 169 illustrated above.
Patterns recorded at Moorabool Antiques, Australia:
The following two patterns, 70 + 197, have the same distinct moulding to the wreath. This differs from the examples above, and may be a different master-mould used at some stage, or may be another contemporary potter who also made both pottery & porcelain.
Dihl et Guérhard, Paris Porcelain manufacturers 1781-1828
The firm of Dihl et Guérhard was initially established in 1781, under the patronage of the duc d’Angoulême – even though he was only 5 at the time! This Royal Patronage was essential, as the Royal Decree of 1766 had given the monopoly of Gold & Colour decoration to porcelain to the Royal factory of Sèvres. However, any concerns with Royal Patrons were exempt from the restriction. When the Ancien Regime was swept away in the Revolution a decade later, the firm engaged with the new wealth of the French Republic, producing a superb quality range of luxurious porcelain that rivalled the State-owned Sèvres factory.
Christophe Dihl was a German ceramics expert, and Antoine Guérhard was his French partner with the money. His wife Louise-Françoise-Madeleine was the brains who kept things running. When her husband died in 1793, she ran it alongside Dihl, and 4 years later they were married. She went on to out-live him, and the factory; it found it hard to survive in the age after Napoleon, and went out of business in 1828. Dihl died 1830, Louise in 1831.
Below: Large French bisque porcelain group, depicting Astraeus (Dusk) with the Anemoi (his children, the four winds), attributed to Dihl et Guérhard, circa 1790
Keeling is a fascinating small factory that was only positively identified in the late 1990’s. The wares are often in the Chinese Export style, of which the best known manufacturer is Newhall.
In the 1970’s was given the placeholder ‘Factory X’ name until it could be attributed to a known manufacturer. Alongside it were two other Newhall-type manufacturers, Factory ‘Y’ and ‘Z’.
Current research has revealed ‘X’ is in fact A & E Keeling, ‘Y’ is still an unknown smaller maker from circa 1790-1800, and ‘Z’ is Thomas Wolf & Co.
Anthony Keeling (1738-1815) was a Tunstall, Staffordshire, potter. He married Ann, the daughter of well-known potter Enoch Booth, and built the original Phoenix Works in Tunstall. His earlier wares are recorded as being Queensware, Black Basalt, but not porcelain. He had, however been a part of the partnership of Hollins, Warburton & Co, who had purchased the rights to make hard-paste porcelain from Champion of Bristol in 1781; however, he was once of the disgruntled members who withdrew. By 1792, when he is recorded at Hanley, Staffordshire, Porcelain manufacturing is in full swing. Records from the Wedgwood Archives reveal he was buying his raw materials from Wedgwood – the China Clay and China Stone necessary for a hard-paste porcelain mix.
Production period can be defined as beginning circa 1784, at Tunstall, and ending circa 1807 in Hanley.
The highest patten number recorded is 426, and over 300 patterns have been discovered, with around half having a pattern number associated.
There is one definitive book on the subject for further reading:
Jean Barratt “A&E Keeling – Formerly Factory X. – Shapes and Patterns on Porcelain, Gomer Press, Wales, 2009
ISBN 978-989-20-1816-4
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