PORCELAIN AND FAIENCE.
31
signs to a glazed surface to the decoration of bis porcelain.
The earliest known dato of this printed wäre is 1757, upon a
jug now in the Collection of the Museum of Practica! Geol-
ogy, London. The design is in black, over the glaze; and
the pieces so decorated were exposed to the heat of the en-
amel kiln only. The invention of ifnder-glaze printing soon
followed, the designs being transferred to the unglazed bis-
cuit. Robert Hancock, ’who had studied under Ravenet at
the enamel works at Battersea in 1750, was the engraver of
the early designs for transfer.
The earliest Worcester porcelain, according to Mr.
Binns, * was made of a frit body, and he thinks that the
following formula is similar to that used by Dr. Wall: sand,
120 parts; gypsutn, 7; soda, 7; alum, 7; salt, 14; and
nitro, 40. After fritting, it was crushed, and 75 parts were
mixed with 15 of whiting and 10 of pipe-clay. The glaze
used contained 38 per ccnt. of red-lead, 27 of sand, 11 of
ground flints, 15 of potash, and 9 of carbonate of soda. For
common wäre an inferior pasto was made, containing steatite.
This gave a body less dense than the other, and of a yello-wish
eolor.
Attention was early given to the Imitation of Chinese and
Japanese wares, induced by the high estimation in which
oriental porcelain, or china, was then hold. And with that
depraved pandering to public prejudice,-which seems to be
one of the great vices of the eeramic art, false marks were
sametimes affixed, especially to these early imitations.
A crescent is one of the earliest ordinary marks, as, also,
a script W, and afterwards the name or initials of the firm,
either stamped in or printed. A Chinese fretted square,
marked in blue, was frequently employed. Oriental charac-
ters were also marked in blue on some of the pieees, and a
specimen in the Geological Museum has the Dresden marlt of
two crossed swords in blue under the glaze.
Specimens were shown of the beautiful tea-set presented
to Lord Dudley on his marriage. The decqratiou consists of
turquoise blue enamel, put on in drops near together, so that
* “ A Century of Potting in the City of Worcester, being the History of the Royal
Porcelain Works from 1751 to 1851,” by R. W. Binns, F. S. A., 1865, p. 40. Also, in
De La Beclie, “ British Pottery and Porcelain.”