China Learn

Bow China

The manufacture of porcelain is said to have commenced at Stratford-le-Bow, in Essex, as early as 1730, but the earliest authentic information concerning the factory is dated 1744, when a patent was granted to Edward Heylyn and Thomas Fry. The wording of this specification is given by Mr Jewitt, and is as follows :

“A new method of manufacturing a certain material whereby a ware might be made of the same nature and kind, and equal to-if not exceeding in goodness and beauty-china and porcelain ware imported from abroad.”

Fry, who was an artist and engraver of considerable skill, became manager of the works for Messrs Weatherby & Crowther, and devoted himself assiduously to the improvement of the manufacture. He died in 1762, and subsequently, on the death of one of the partners and the bankruptcy of the other, the works were sold in 1775 to William Duesbury, who removed the models and moulds to Derby.

The Bow factory stood on a site now occupied by Messrs Bell & Black’s match manufactory, and during some excavations in 1868 most valuable information was derived when, at a depth of eight or ten feet below the surface, some workmen discovered a quantity of fragments of Bow porcelain, both in the biscuit and in the glazed state. This discovery has led to the identification of many pieces which had previously been wrongly attributed to other factories.

In the British Museum is a punch bowl, contained in a box, on the cover of which is written the following interesting information the writing is signed “T. Craft, 1790,” and runs thus:

“This bowl was made at the Bow China Manufactory about the year 1760, and painted there by Mr Thomas Craft. My cipher is in the bottom; it is painted in what we used to call the old Japan taste, a taste at that time much esteemed by the then Duke of Argyll; there is nearly two pennyweight of gold - about fifteen shillings. I had it in hand at different times about three months; about two weeks’ time was bestowed upon it. It could not have been manufactured, etc. for less than £4. There is not its similitude. I took it in a box to Kentish Town, and had it burnt there in Mr Gyles’s Kiln; cost me three shillings… The above manufactory was carried on many years under the firm of Messrs Crowther and Weatherby, whose names were known almost over the world. They employed 300 persons; about 90 painters (of whom I was one), and about 200 turners, throwers, etc. were employed under one roof. The model of the buildings was taken from that at Canton in China.”

The statement in the last paragraph no doubt explains why Bow china was sometimes inscribed as “made at New Canton,” and also why the works were known as “New Canton.” We have little information as to the materials used at this factory. According to the patent taken out by Heylyn and Fry in 1744, one part of potash or pearl ash is mixed with “one part of sand or flint and a variable proportion of ‘unaker.’” This latter, however, is not mentioned by Fry in another patent, taken out in 1749, in which “virgin earth” (supposed to be bone ash), mixed with flint or sand and a proportion of pipeclay, is used, the glaze being described as made of “saltpetre, red lead, and sand, with the addition of white lead and smalts.”

The paste of Bow is soft and similar to that of Chelsea, but is generally coarser and more vitreous in appearance. The glaze is creamy white and thickly applied, so that on pieces decorated with raised designs it fills up small spaces in the design. Small specimens will be found to be comparatively heavy for their size; the paste, where thin, is very translucent, but at the bottom of cups, bowls, and teapots, where it is thickest, it is not nearly so translucent as Chelsea china, and when looked through in a good light it appears “yellowish -not greenish, like Worcester” (Church).

The raised May-flower or hawthorn pattern was a very favorite design copied from the Oriental; also acorns and oak-leaves, and two roses with leaves on a stalk, all in white, in high relief on a white ground, are very characteristic of Bow; but the style has been copied by Coalbrook Dale and other factories. I have noticed, however, that the extreme edges of these white flowers and leaves in genuine specimens are often slightly discolored, and look as though the glaze had been worn off by baking.

A very favorite design was the” partridge” pattern, of which an illustration (Plate XI 1.) is given. This pattern was also copied by Chelsea, Bristol, and Worcester. Under-glaze blue, in a peculiar pale shade of cobalt, was used in Chinese designs in which there are generally birds and a “weeping willow.” Transfer-printing in black and colors - both under and over glaze-was employed; shell sweetmeat stands and salt-cellars were made, also handles for knives and forks.

The figures and statuettes are very fine, and closely resemble those made at Chelsea, but the colors used in the dresses and drapery of Bow figures are brighter, an.d a square hole at the back in, or near, the base-made to hold a metal stem to support the nozzles for candles -is only met with in Bow figures. Fine vases were made, beautifully painted with flowers, birds’, and landscapes, and ornamented with masks and flowers in relief; and a set decorated in the peculiar Bow shade of blue, and marked with a monogram T. F. is undoubtedly the work of Thomas Fry, who is known to have signed some of his engravings with this monogram.

The marks were generally roughly painted in red, or incised in the paste. 1730- 1775.