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