Llewellyn Jewitt

From a bust by W. H. Goss.

THE
CERAMIC ART
OF
GREAT BRITAIN

FROM PRE-HISTORIC TIMES DOWN TO THE PRESENT DAY

BEING A HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN

POTTERY AND PORCELAIN WORKS

OF THE KINGDOM

AND OF THEIR PRODUCTIONS OF EVERY CLASS

BY

LLEWELLYNN JEWITT, F.S.A.

LOCAL SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON;
HON. AND ACTUAL MEMBER OF THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL ARCHÆOLOGICAL COMMISSION, AND STATISTICAL
COMMITTEE, PSKOV;
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND;
ASSOCIATE OF THE BRITISH ARCHÆOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION;
HON. MEMBER OF THE ESSEX ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND OF THE MANX SOCIETY, ETC.;
COR. MEMBER OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
ETC. ETC. ETC.

ILLUSTRATED WITH NEARLY TWO THOUSAND ENGRAVINGS

IN TWO VOLUMES.—I.

LONDON
VIRTUE AND CO., Limited, 26, IVY LANE
PATERNOSTER ROW
1878

[All rights reserved.]

LONDON:
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED,
CITY ROAD.

TO

COLIN MINTON CAMPBELL, Esq.

M.P. FOR NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE,

ETC. ETC.,

THIS WORK,

WHICH TREATS OF AN ART FOR WHOSE DEVELOPMENT AND EXTENSION

HE AND THE FIRM OF MINTON

(OF WHICH HE IS NOW THE HEAD) HAVE DONE SO MUCH,

IS APPROPRIATELY AND WITH PERMISSION

Dedicated,

AS A MARK OF HIGH PERSONAL ESTEEM, AND AS

A SLIGHT TOKEN OF APPRECIATION OF THE EMINENT SERVICES

HE HAS UNIFORMLY RENDERED

TO THAT IMPORTANT BRANCH OF ART-MANUFACTURE

WITH WHICH HIS NAME IS SO INTIMATELY

AND SO WORTHILY ASSOCIATED.

LLEWELLYNN JEWITT.

Winster Hall, Derbyshire,

November, 1877.

INTRODUCTION.

In issuing my present work I have two distinct personal duties to perform, and I hasten, in these few brief lines of introduction, to discharge them. First, I earnestly desire to ask indulgence from my readers for any shortcomings which may be apparent in its contents; and next, I desire emphatically to express my thanks to all who have in any way, or even to the smallest extent, assisted me in my labours. The preparation of the work has extended over a considerable period of time, and I have had many difficulties to contend with that are, and must necessarily be, wholly unknown to any but myself—hard literary digging to get at facts and to verify dates, that is not understood, and would scarce be believed in, by the reader who turns to my pages—and hence errors of omission and of commission may have, nay, doubtless have crept in, and may in some places, to a greater or less extent, have marred the accuracy of the page whereon they have occurred. I can honestly say I have left nothing undone, no source untried, and no trouble untaken to secure perfect accuracy in all I have written, and yet I am painfully aware that shortcomings may, and doubtless will, be laid to my charge; for these, wherever they occur, I ask, and indeed claim, indulgence. I believe in work, in hard unceasing labour, in patient and painstaking research, in untiring searchings, and in diligent collection and arrangement of facts—to make time and labour and money subservient to the end in view, rather than that the end in view, and the time and labour and money expended, should bend and bow and ultimately break before time. Thus it is that my “Ceramic Art” has been so long in progress, and thus it is that many changes have occurred during the time it has been passing through the press which it has been manifestly impossible to chronicle.

I have the proud satisfaction, however, of knowing that my work is the only one of its kind yet attempted, and I feel a confident hope that it will fill a gap that has long wanted filling, and will be found alike useful to the manufacturer, the china collector, and the general reader.

When, some twenty years ago, at the instance of my dear friend Mr. S. C. Hall, I began my series of papers in the Art Journal upon the various famous earthenware and porcelain works of the kingdom, but little had been done in that direction, and the information I got together from time to time had to be procured from original sources, by prolonged visits to the places themselves and by numberless applications to all sorts of people from whom even scraps of reliable matter could be obtained. Books on the subject were not many, and the information they contained on English Ceramics was meagre in the extreme. Since then numerous workers have sprung up, and their published volumes—many of them sumptuous and truly valuable works—attest strongly to the interest and pains they have taken in the subject. To all these, whoever they may be, the world owes a debt of gratitude for devoting their time and their talents to so important a branch of study. To each of them I tender my own thanks for having devoted themselves to the elucidation of one of my favourite pursuits, and for having given to the world the result of their labours. No work has, however, until now been entirely devoted to the one subject of British Ceramics, and I feel therefore that in presenting my present volumes to the public I am only carrying out the plan I at first laid down, and am not even in the slightest degree encroaching on the province of any other writer.

I think I may safely say there is scarcely a manufacturer—even if there be one at all—in the length and breadth of the kingdom with whom I have not frequently communicated in the progress of this work. Except in some few solitary instances I have received the information I have sought, and my inquiries have met with the most cordial and ready response.

To all those who have thus assisted me with information or otherwise, and especially to my friend Mr. Goss, who has greatly assisted me over the onerous task of some of the Staffordshire potteries, I offer my warmest thanks; and to those few others, who from inattention, shortsightedness, or other cause, have not responded to my inquiries, I would express my sorrow if, through that inattention on their part, I have been unable to give as full particulars regarding their potteries as I could have wished. To thank by name those who have assisted me with information would require a long list indeed; I therefore tender my acknowledgments to all in the one emphatic good old English expression—“Thank you!”

LLEWELLYNN JEWITT.

Winster Hall, Derbyshire.

November, 1877.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CERAMIC ART IN GREAT BRITAIN.

CHAPTER I.

Practice of the Art in England—The Celtic Period—Classes of Vessels—Cinerary Urns—Food Vessels, Drinking Cups, &c.—Modes of Ornamentation—Food Vessels—Immolation Urns or Incense Cups—Handled Cups.

The history of the ceramic art in our own country is one of intense interest and of paramount importance. I open my present work, which I intend to devote to its consideration, with this assertion, and before it is done I hope I shall have proved its truth.

It is a subject which may be treated in more ways than one. It may be considered technically, i.e. with regard to manipulation, to the mixing of bodies and glazes, and the practical parts of the potter’s art; or historically, so as to treat of the introduction and progress of the art in this country, its gradual extension and improvement, the chief seats of its operations, and the characteristics of the productions of each age and place. To neither of these do I purpose confining myself; but to the latter I shall, here and there, mix up just sufficient of the former to render it more intelligible and useful. The main ingredients of the “body”—to use a potter’s term—of my work will be history, description, and biography, with just sufficient technicology to temper it and give it its proper tenacity and consistency. For the facts relating to the earliest examples of that art, from which I shall deduce my narrative, I rely upon actual researches into grave-mounds and otherwise, undertaken by myself or by others; and for the rest—those relating to the art in mediæval and later times—upon constant inquirings and searchings and readings carried on, with this special end in view, during the course of many years.

It is impossible to show when the potter’s art was first invented or when it was first brought into use in this island; but that it was practised here in the very earliest days of its being inhabited by its savage population can be abundantly proved. To this pre-historic period, then, I shall first direct attention; and then endeavour to trace the history of the art down from the Celtic to the Romano-British period; from the time of the Romans to the Anglo-Saxons and Normans; and so gradually come downwards through mediæval to modern times, giving, under each separate seat of the more modern manufacture, historical notices of the works and their founders, and descriptive particulars of the more characteristic of their productions.

Fig. 1.—Celtic Pottery in the Norwich Museum.

The practice of the fictile art in England dates back, as I have already said, to a very remote period—that of its Celtic or ancient British population, by whom there is abundant evidence it was much esteemed. It is pleasant to know, and to be able indisputably to prove, that from those early days down to the present time the art has, through a long succession of ages, continued with more or less skill, to be observed among us, and that thus in pottery, as in nothing else, an unbroken chain, connecting us in our present high state of civilisation with our remote barbarian forefathers of the stone age, exists. The weapons and other implements of imperishable stone and flint have, long ages ago, died out, and any possible connection between them and the weapons or tools of our own day has died with them; but the vessels of simple clay have an abiding-place with us which has lasted without a break until now, and will yet last for ever. Hitherto the course of the potter’s art has been one of constant and gradual improvement; but its capabilities for further development are almost unbounded, and another generation will witness advances of which we can now but dimly dream.

Among the ancient Britons, vessels of clay were formed for sepulchral and other uses, and it is entirely to their grave-mounds that we are indebted for the examples which have survived to our time. It is in the course of examination of these mounds that these fictile remains have been brought to light; and it is by a careful examination of these alone, and by constant comparison of the “finds” of one locality with the discoveries of another, that a proper estimate of their character has been, or can be, drawn.

Fig. 2.—Monsal Dale.

Fig. 3.—Cleatham.

The pottery of this period may be safely arranged in four classes[1], viz.—1. Sepulchral or Cinerary Urns, which have been made for and have contained, or been inverted over, calcined human bones; 2. Drinking Cups, which, in a similar manner, are supposed to have contained some liquid to be placed with the dead body; 3. Food Vessels (so called), which are supposed to have contained an offering of food, and which are more usually found with unburnt bodies than along with interments by cremation; 4. Immolation Urns, (erroneously called Incense Cups by Sir R. Colt Hoare for want of more knowledge of their use), which are very small vessels, found only with burnt bones (and usually also containing them), placed in the mouths of, or close by, the larger cinerary urns. These latter I believe to have been simply small urns intended to receive the ashes of the infant, perhaps sacrificed at the death of its mother, so as to admit of being placed within the larger urn containing the ashes of the parent: I venture, therefore, to name them “Immolation Urns.”

No notice of the pottery of this period is to be found in ancient writers, if we except the allusion of Strabo,[2] who says that one of the commodities with which the Phœnicians traded to the Cassiterides was earthenware. But in connection with this it is necessary to state that no example of pottery which can possibly be traced to Phœnician origin has as yet been found in any of the hundreds of barrows which have been opened.

Fig. 4.—Ballidon Moor.

Fig. 5.—Tresvenneck.

The pottery exhibits considerable difference, both in clay, in size, and in ornamentation. Those presumed to be the oldest are of coarse clay mixed with small pebbles and sand; the later ones of a somewhat less clumsy form, and perhaps a finer mixture of clays. They are entirely wrought by hand without the assistance of the wheel, and are mostly very thick and clumsy. They are very imperfectly fired, having probably been baked on the funeral pyre.

In the examination of barrows of this period it not unfrequently happens that the spot where the funeral pyre has been lit can very clearly be perceived. In these instances the ground beneath is generally found to be burned to some considerable depth; sometimes, indeed, it is burned to a fine red colour, and approaches in texture somewhat to that of brick. Where it was intended that the remains should be placed in an urn for interment, it appears, from careful examinations which have been made, that the urn being formed of clay—most probably, judging from the delicacy of touch, and from the impress of fingers which occasionally remains, by the females of the tribe—and ornamented according to the taste of the manipulator, was placed in the funeral fire and there baked, while the body of the deceased was being consumed. The remains of the calcined bones, the flints, &c., were then gathered up together, and placed in the urn; over which the mound was next raised.

Fig. 6.—Trentham.

From their imperfect firing, the vessels of this period are usually called “sun-baked” or “sun-dried;” but this is a grave error, as any one conversant with examples cannot fail, on careful examination, to see. If the vessels were “sun-baked” only, their burial in the earth—in the tumuli wherein, some two thousand years ago, they were deposited, and where they have all that time remained—would soon soften them, and they would, ages ago, have returned to their old clayey consistency. As it is, the urns have remained of their original form, and although, from imperfect baking, they are sometimes found partially softened, they still retain their form, and soon regain their original hardness. They bear abundant evidence of the action of fire, and are, indeed, sometimes sufficiently burned for the clay to have attained a red colour—a result which no “sunbaking” could produce. They are mostly of an earthy brown colour outside, and almost black in fracture, and many of the cinerary urns bear internal and unmistakable evidence of having been filled with the burnt bones and ashes of the deceased, while those ashes were of a glowing and intense heat. They were, most probably, fashioned by the females of the tribe, on the death of their relative, from the clay to be found nearest to the spot, and baked on or by the funeral pyre. The glowing ashes and bones were then, as I have already stated, collected together, and placed in the urn, and the flint implements, and occasionally other relics belonging to the deceased, deposited along with them. In some instances, however, it is probable that even the cinerary urns were burned in a separate fire, as were the “drinking cups,” which are usually fired to a much harder degree than they are. No kiln, or anything approaching to one, however, could of course have been used.

Fig. 7.—Darley Dale.

Fig. 8.—Darley Dale.

Fig. 9.—Darley Dale.

Fig. 10.—Darley Dale.

The Cinerary or Sepulchral Urns vary very considerably in size, in form, in ornamentation, and in material—the latter, naturally, depending on the locality where the urns were made; and, as a general rule, they differ also in the different tribes. Those which are supposed to be the most ancient, from the fact of their frequently containing flint instruments along with the calcined bones, are of large size, ranging from nine or ten, to sixteen or eighteen inches in height. Those which are considered to belong to a somewhat later period, when cremation had again become general, are of a smaller size, and of a somewhat finer texture. With them objects of flint are rarely found, but articles of bronze are occasionally discovered. Sometimes they are wide at the mouth, without any overlapping rim; at others they are characterised by a deeply overlapping lip or rim; others are more of “flower-pot” form, with encircling raised bands, while others again are contracted inwardly at the mouth by curved rims. Some also have loops at the sides. The ornamentation is produced chiefly by incised lines, or punctures, or by lines, &c., produced by indenting into the soft clay a twisted thong (Fig. [37]). Encircling and zig-zag lines of various forms, reticulated and lozenge-formed patterns, and rows of indentations, are the usual decorations; but occasionally, as at West Kennet and Launceston Heath, clearly defined patterns are produced by the finger or thumb nail.

Fig. 11.—Launceston Heath.

Fig. 12.—Cleatham.

Fig. 13.—Launceston Heath.

Fig. 14.—Stone.

Fig. 15.—Cleatham.

The more usual of the forms will be best understood by the engraved examples, selected from the proceeds of many barrow openings in different parts of the kingdom.

Fig. 16.—Broad Down.

Fig. 17.—Tredenny.

The four urns (Fig. [2], [3], [4], and [6]) are characteristic examples of the variety with the broad or deep overlapping border or rim. The first of these has the pattern incised in the soft clay, that on the rim being in diagonal lines, and the central portion reticulated. The second has the herring-bone or chevron ornament around its rim, and the third example is ornamented with horizontal and vertical lines alternately on its rim, and zig-zagged, filled in with horizontal and crossed, lines on the central part. The lines in this are all produced by indenting a twisted thong into the clay while in a soft state. Fig. [16] has its ornamentation indented with twisted thongs in “herring-bone” pattern both on the outside and inside the rim and around the central part. Fig. [8] has a central band as well as overhanging lip. Figs. [11] and [13], from Dorsetshire barrows,[3] are of different form, the ornamentation consisting of incised lines and impressed thumbmarks, &c. The remaining engravings also give excellent examples of other forms and varieties of these sepulchral vessels. Figs. [9] and [10] have the upper part curved, and almost approaching to cup shape, and Fig. [7] has raised bands; in Fig. [14] the upper parts are hollowed out; and in Fig. [15] the upper part is marked with lozenges. Figs. [19] and [23] are ornamented with indented dots produced by pressing the end of a stick or other substance into the soft clay. Fig. [23] has these dots in zig-zag lines.

Fig. 18. Fig. 19. Fig. 20. Fig. 21.

Cinerary and Immolation Urns from Darwen.

Fig. 22.—Darley Dale.

Fig. 23.—Calais Wold.

Fig. 24.—Glen-Dorgal.

Fig. 25.—Clahar Garden, Mullion.

Figs. 26, 27, 28.—Clahar Garden, Mullion.

Fig. 29.—Denzell.

Fig. 30.—Gerrans.

Fig. 31.—Place, near Fowey.

Fig. 32.—Lanlawren.

Figs. 33 and 34.—Bosporthennis.

Fig. 35.—Trevello.

Fig. 36.—Boscawen-Un.

Fig. 37.—Darwen.

Fig. 38.—Morvah Hill.

Fig. 39.—Fimber.

Fig. 40.—Roundway Hill.

Fig. 41.—Monsal Dale.

Fig. 42.—Green Low.

Fig. 43.—Broad Down.

Fig. 44.—Gospel Hillock.

Fig. [21] has the reticulated lines produced by indentations from twisted thongs. Fig. [22] is a remarkably fine example. Around its upper portion are encircling lines, between which is the usual zig-zag ornament. Around the central band, too, are encircling lines, between which are a series of vertical zig-zag lines. The whole of the ornamentation has been produced by twisted thongs; some, however, being of tighter twist than others. Inside, the rim is ornamented by encircling and diagonal lines. It has on its central band four projecting handles or loops, which are pierced. Nine other looped examples, from Cornwall, are shown on Figs. [5], [17], [24], [25], [26], [27], [29], [30], and [35];[4] along with other examples from the same county. Figs. [18] and [20] are two “Immolation Urns,” found along with, or in, Figs. [19] and [21]. Fig. [38] shows a kind of ear or handle on the side of another vessel.

Fig. 45.—Monsal Dale.

Fig. 46.—Grindlow.

Fig. 47.—Elk Low.

The Drinking Cups are usually of tall form, globular in the lower half, contracted in the middle, and expanding at the mouth. In ornamentation they are more elaborate than the cinerary urns, many of them, in fact, being covered over their entire surface with impressed or incised patterns, frequently of considerable delicacy in manipulation, and always of a finer and higher quality than those of the other descriptions of pottery. Figs. [39 to 48] will show some of the varieties both of form and style of decoration. Instances have been known in which a kind of incrustation has been very perceptible on the inner surface, thus showing that their use as vessels for holding liquor is certain; the incrustation being produced by the gradual drying up of the liquid with which they had been filled when placed with the dead body.

Fig. 48.—Elk Low.

Fig. 49.—Hitter Hill.

Fig. 50.—Hitter Hill.

Fig. 51.—Trentham.

Fig. [47], which, however, may perhaps be a food vessel, has the unusual feature of being ornamented on the bottom quite as elaborately as around its sides. The bottom is shown on Fig. [48]. The whole of the ornamentation has been produced by the indentation of twisted thongs into the pliant clay.

Fig. [39], from Fimber, is richly and elaborately ornamented over its entire surface with the most delicate indentations, and is (with Fig. [42]) one of the best and most perfect of known examples. When found it stood close to the shoulders of the skeleton of a strong-boned, middle-aged, man, which lay on the right side. Fig. [42] is equally as elaborate in ornamentation, and as good in form. Like the former, it is ornamented by thong indentations. Fig. [41] is of the same general shape, but not so elaborate in design; the greater portion of the ornamentation consisting of reticulated and lozenge patterns. Fig. [45] is also a remarkably good example, and is about equal in point of ornament with Fig. [46]. Fig. [40] is of very different form, as are also Figs. [43] and [44]. The ornamentation on the first of these is produced in the usual way, and on the second, by simple indentations. Other forms of drinking cups are met with, but these are the most usual.

Fig. 52.—Penquite.

Fig. 53.—Fimber.

Fig. 54.—Hay Top, Monsal Dale.

Fig. 55.—Fimber.

Fig. 56.—Trentham.

Fig. 57.—Monsal Dale.

The Food Vessels—small urns, so called because they were probably intended to contain an offering of food—are of various forms and sizes, and are, in point of decoration, more or less elaborate. They are usually small at the bottom, and gradually swell out until they become, frequently, wider at the mouth than they are in height. They are formed of clay of much the same kind as the other vessels, and are fired to about the same degree of hardness. Figs. [49 to 57] will show their general form and style of decoration. Figs. [49] and [50] were found in the same barrow, and yet, as will be seen, exhibit very different styles of ornamentation. The first of these is four and three quarter inches in height, and five and a half inches in diameter at the top. It is richly ornamented with the usual diagonal and herring-bone lines, formed by twisted thongs impressed into the soft clay, in its upper part. Around the body of the urn itself, however, is a pattern of lozenge form, very unusual on vessels of this period. The second is five and a quarter inches in height, and six and a quarter inches in diameter at the top. It is very richly ornamented.

Fig. 58.

Fig. 59.

Fig. 60.

Fig. 61.

Fig. 62.

Fig. 63.

Fig. 64.

Fig. 65.

Fig. 66.

Fig. 67.

Fig. 68.

Fig. 69.

Fig. 70.

Fig. 71.

Fig. 72.—Broad Down.

Fig. [53] has the pattern rudely indented over its whole surface. Fig. [51] is coarse and rude, and the pattern very simple. Figs. [54], [55], and [57] are of different character, and have a kind of handle or projecting stud on four sides. They are among the most elaborate, in point of ornamentation, of any of these interesting vessels, of which other forms besides those engraved have occasionally been found. On Wykeham Moor, in Yorkshire the Rev. Canon Greenwell has brought to light some urns of a different character, and of greater width at the mouth.

Fig. 73.—Broad Down.

The diminutive vessels, usually called (though, as I have said, erroneously) “Incense Cups,” but which I propose to call “Immolation Urns,” are ornamented in the same manner as the other pottery. The form, as will be seen from Figs. [58 to 75], varies much, from a plain salt-cellar like cup to the more elaborately rimmed vase. Three examples (Figs. [68], [70], and [75]) have the very unusual appendage of a handle at one side; others have holes in their sides, as if for suspension, and I suspect this has been the case in the urn containing the ashes of the mother. Fig. [67] has four handles.

Holes for, as supposed, suspension, are shown in Figs. [58], [72], and [74]; these have each two of these small perforations in the side. Others, as in Figs. [64] and [67], have perforated loops at their sides. Fig. [65] is of unusual form, having a broad rim round its mouth; it is elaborately ornamented. Figs. [5], [18] and [20] are shown with the urns with which they were found.

Fig. 74.—Broad Down.

Other forms of these interesting little vessels, which generally range from an inch and a half to three inches in height, occur. They will be best understood from the engravings. One of these (Fig. [72]), for the purpose of showing its pattern more carefully, is engraved of its FULL SIZE. It is a remarkable example, and has its bottom ornamented as well as its sides and rim, which are shown on Figs. [73] and [74]. When found it was filled with burnt bones, probably of an infant. On one side were two perforations.

Fig. 75.—Denzell.

Among the unusual forms of Celtic pottery may be named the curious examples (Figs. [76] and [77]) one of which is a kind of drinking mug with a handle, and the other is supported on feet. Fig. [76], and another of somewhat similar kind in the Ely Museum, are the only two known examples of this form of vessel, and they will be seen to be very richly ornamented. Fig. [76] is in the Bateman collection, as is also Fig. [77]. It is one of the class of vessels hitherto called incense cups, and is, I believe, unique—no other example on feet having come under my notice.

Fig. 76.—Pickering.

Fig. 77.—Pickering.

CHAPTER II.

Romano-British Pottery—Upchurch Ware—Durobrivian Ware—Roman Potters’ Kilns—Pottery in London—Salopian Ware—New Forest Ware—Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, and other Wares—Varieties of Vessels: Amphoræ—Mortaria, &c.—Sepulchral Vessels—Tiles—Tile Tombs—Clay Coffins—Lamps—Penates—Coin Moulds, &c.

During the Romano-British period the fictile art was much practised in England, and not only was a large variety of wares produced, but an almost endless number of vessels were made. Potworks were established in many parts of the kingdom, some of which grew to very large dimensions, while others of a less important character and size still made wares of extremely good quality. The three principal potteries—at least so far as present researches have enabled us to judge—in England at this period were those on the Medway, in the Upchurch marshes, extending towards Sheerness, in Kent; the Durobrivian potteries on the river Nen, in Northamptonshire; and the Salopian potteries on the Severn, in Shropshire. Smaller pot works, however, being scattered over various parts of the kingdom.

With the well-known “Samian Ware,” the finest and most beautiful of the pottery of the Romans which is found in this country, I have, of course, nothing to do in my present work; for, although found so frequently and so abundantly in England, it was not manufactured here, and therefore does not come within its scope. I proceed, therefore, to speak of the various English seats of the manufacture.

Upchurch Ware.—The district wherein this pottery was made and is found so abundantly, is of five or six miles in length, and from one to two in breadth; and over the whole of this tract of country, at a distance of some few feet below the surface, a regular layer of remains of Roman fictile art occurs. To Mr. C. Roach Smith is due the greatest credit of bringing these under notice:—“There can be no doubt,” says Mr. Wright, “not only from the extent of ground covered by the potteries, but from the frequent occurrence of the sort of pottery made here, among Roman remains in Britain belonging to different periods, that these potteries were in full activity during the whole extent of the Roman period. The site of the kilns was moved as the clay was used up, and at the same time the refuse pottery was thrown on the ground behind them, so that, when at last abandoned, this extensive site presented a surface of ground covered almost entirely by a bed of refuse pottery.” Here, then, the Roman figuli exercised, more extensively than anywhere else in England their art, and continued its practice for a long series of years. In those days the ground would of course be firm and dry. Since then, as is usually the case in so long a number of years, the soil has accumulated to the thickness of about three feet—the inroads which the Medway is constantly making upon it forming the creeks, and continually disclosing the remains left by the potters.

Fig. 78.—Group of Upchurch Ware.

The ware made at Upchurch must have been in considerable repute, for it is found in Roman localities in most parts of the kingdom. On Roman sites in France and Germany and in Flanders, &c., wares of a precisely similar kind are found, and show that it is probable they were simultaneously made at different places. The prevailing colour of the ware is a bluish or greyish black, with a smooth and rather shining surface. A good deal, however, is of a dark drab colour. The black colour has been produced by the process of “firing” in “smother kilns”—a process well known to potters. The forms of the vessels, as well as the sizes, vary to a surprising extent, but they are all remarkable for the gracefulness and elegance of their outline, and, in many instances, for the simplicity and effective character of the patterns with which they are decorated. The decorations consist chiefly of circles or semi-circles; lines, vertical or otherwise; bands, and numbers of raised dots arranged in a variety of ways. The clay used is fine, and the vessels are light and thin, and remarkably well “potted.”

Figs. 79 to 83.—Upchurch Ware.

Figs. 84 to 88.—Upchurch Ware.

Figs. 89 to 93.—Upchurch Ware.

The instruments used in the ornamentation of this pottery appear to have been of a very rude description, and were, as it seems, chiefly mere sticks, some sharpened to a point, and others with a transverse section cut into notches. The former were used in tracing the lines already described; the latter had the section formed into a square or rhomboid, the surface of which was cut into parallel lines crossing each other so as to form a dotted figure, and this was stamped on the surface of the pottery in various combinations and arrangements. Sometimes these dots are arranged so as to form bands;[5] and in others simply “patch” ornaments. Other vessels were covered with reticulation, the lines being simply scratched into the surface of the clay; and others have bands of serrated lines.

The forms of some of the vessels from the Upchurch works will be seen on Fig. [78], and a series of other characteristic examples are given on Figs. [79 to 95].

Fig. 94.—Upchurch Ware.

One example (Fig. [80]) is ornamented with half-circles traced on the clay as with compasses, from which run downwards rows of incised lines. On Fig. [78] is an example of much the same character of ornamentation although different in form.

Figs. [81], [85], [86], 87, and [88] are of different form, and are ornamented with raised dots in bands and patches; while [83] and [84] are “engine turned.” They are of remarkably elegant form.

Fig. 95.—Upchurch Ware.

Figs. [91, 92, 93], and [95] are more bottle shaped—in fact, approaching somewhat to the form of the mediæval bellarmine. Many varieties of this general form have been found in the marshes and elsewhere. Fig. [89] is particularly simple and elegant in shape, as are also several shown in the groups on this and the preceding pages. Among these is an example of another variety of ornamentation common to the Upchurch ware. It is formed by diagonal intersecting lines, and in form is much the same as the ordinary kind of Roman cinerary urns. In the group, Fig. [94], are some examples of Upchurch and other wares.

No kilns have as yet been discovered in the Upchurch marshes, but doubtless further researches will yet bring them to light. Mr. Roach Smith, to whose incessant labours we owe the principal notices of these potteries, has discovered the remains of the extensive village of the potters, with traces of their habitations and of their graves, in the higher ground bordering on the marshes.

Castor Ware, or Durobrivian Ware, as it is variously called, is the production of the extensive Romano-British potteries on the river Nen, in Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire; near Castor and Chesterton, in those counties respectively. In this locality, as the names of Chesterton and Castor undeniably prove to have been the case, an important settlement of the Romans was made, and excavations have brought to light the remains of a considerable town, and in connection with it, of a settlement of potters with the remains of their works extending over a district many miles in extent.

The great interest attaching to this locality is in the fact that this was not the first, but the first well ascertained discovery of a Roman pot-manufactory in this kingdom, and that at this spot the first kilns of that period have been uncovered, and the processes adopted by the Roman figuli brought to light.

Fig. 96.—Castor Ware.

The situation of the potteries was well chosen for carrying on an extensive trade with distant parts of the kingdom, and from researches searches which were made, the late Mr. Artis, to whom the discovery is due, computed that probably two thousand people had been employed in the fabrication of fictile vessels. It is on the line of one of the most important of the Roman roads—the Ermyn street—and close to the navigable river Nen; and that the products of the manufactory were supplied to places throughout the kingdom is abundantly testified by the remains which are almost invariably found in course of excavations wherever Roman occupation is known. Mr. Artis unfortunately, although he published a fine folio volume of plates[6] of the more remarkable of the objects he discovered, never issued the descriptive and historical text which was intended to accompany it. The great bulk of the information he had gleaned he never committed to paper, and consequently it died with him. Mr. Artis, however, communicated some valuable particulars to Mr. C. Roach Smith, and these have been made public by him in the “Journal of the British Archæological Association”[7] and in the “Collectanea Antiqua.”[8] Mr. Artis in one of these says that during an examination of the pigments used by the Roman potters of Castor and its neighbourhood, he was “led to the conclusion that the blue and slate-coloured vessels met with here in such abundance were coloured by suffocating the fire of the kiln at the time when its contents had acquired a degree of heat sufficient to insure uniformity of colour. I had so firmly made up my mind on the process of manufacturing and firing this peculiar kind of earthenware, that I had denominated the kilns in which it had been fired “smother kilns.” The mode of manufacturing the bricks of which these kilns are made is worthy of notice. The clay was previously mixed with about one-third of rye in the chaff, which being consumed by the fire, left cavities in the room of the grains. This might have been intended to modify expansion and contraction, as well as to assist in the gradual distribution of the colouring vapour. The mouth of the furnace and the top of the kiln were no doubt stopped: thus we find every part of the kiln, from the inside wall to the mouth on the outside, and every part of the clay wrappers of the domes penetrated with the colouring exhalation.”

Figs. 97, 98, 99.—Castor Ware.

The researches further proved that the colour could not be attributed to any metallic oxide (although it must be confessed that in many instances the surface has a strongly developed metallic appearance) either in the clay itself or applied externally, and this conclusion is confirmed by the appearance of the clay wrappers of the dome of the kilns; and it may be added, the colour is so fugitive that it is expelled entirely, by submitting the pottery to an open fire. During the examination of the Upchurch pottery, Mr. Artis remarked that he thought a coarse kind of sedge had been used in the manufactory. His practical eye alone guided him to this conclusion, for he had never visited the site, and was quite unaware that below the strata of broken vessels, a layer of sedge peat is in several places visible. The same kind of arrangement probably obtained pretty generally with the Roman potters.

Fig. 100.—Potter’s Kiln, Normangate Field, Castor.

Fig. 101.—Potter’s Kiln, Normangate Field, Castor.

The kilns for firing the Castor ware, discovered by Mr. Artis, are among the most interesting of all the remains of Roman arts which have been brought to light. The kilns which were removed in the course of the investigations were “all constituted on the same principle: a circular hole was dug from three to four feet deep, and four in diameter, and walled round to the height of two feet. A furnace, one-third of the kiln in length, communicated with the side. In the centre of the circle so formed was an oval pedestal, the height of the sides, with the end pointing to the mouth of the furnace. Upon this pedestal and side walls the floor of the kiln rests. It was formed of perforated angular bricks, meeting at one point in the centre; the furnace was arched with bricks, moulded for the purpose; the side of the kiln was constructed with curved bricks set edgeways (see Fig. [100]) in a thick slip (the same material made into a thin mortar) to the height of two feet. The process of packing the vessels and securing uniform heat in firing the ware was the same in the two different kinds of kilns—namely, that before described, called ‘smother kiln,’ and that for various other kinds of pottery. They were first carefully loose-packed with the articles to be fired, up to the height of the side walls. The circumference of the bulk was then gradually diminished, and finished in the shape of a dome. As this arrangement progressed, an attendant seems to have followed the packer, and thinly covered a layer of pots with coarse hay or grass. He then took some thin clay, the size of his hand, and laid it flat over the grass upon the vessels: he then placed more grass on the edge of the clay just laid on—then more clay—and so on until he had completed the circle. By this time the packer would have raised another tier of pots, the plasterer following as before, hanging the grass over the top edge of the last layer of plasters, until he had reached the top, in which a small aperture was left, and the clay nipped round the edge; another coating would then be laid on as before described. Directly after, gravel or loam was thrown up against the side wall where the clay wrappers were commenced—probably to secure the bricks and the clay coating. The kiln was then fired with wood.[9] In consequence of the care taken to place grass between the edges of the wrappers, they could be unpacked in the same size pieces as when laid on in a plastic state; and thus the danger in breaking the coat to obtain the contents of the kiln could be obviated. In the course of my excavations I discovered a curiously constructed furnace, of which I have never before or since met an example. Over it had been placed two circular vessels; the next above the furnace was a third less than the other, which would hold about eight gallons; the fire passed partly under both of them, the smoke escaping by a smoothly-plastered flue, from seven to eight inches wide. The vessels were suspended by the rims fitting into a circular groove or rabbet, formed for the purpose. They contained pottery, both perfect and fragmentary. It is probable they had covers, and I am inclined to think were used for glazing peculiar kinds of the immense quantities of ornamented ware made in this district. Its contiguity to one of the workshops in which the glaze (oxide of iron) and other pigments were found confirms this opinion.”

Fig. 102.—Potter’s Kiln, Castor.

Fig. [102] is a kiln of a different construction. “In it, instead of modelling or moulding bricks for the kiln, the potters, after forming a tolerably round shaft, commenced plastering it three inches thick with clay, prepared for that purpose, leaving a flange twenty inches above the furnace floor to receive the floor of the kiln; a mode of construction unnoticed by me before in these kilns. In the centre was placed an oval pedestal, for the double purpose of dividing the fire and of giving support to the centre of the floor. To attach the pedestal to the back of the kiln, and to shut out the cold air which would lodge in the angle formed by the pedestal being so placed, the angle was filled with coarse materials, which were stopped up with clay, so as to draw the flame more towards the centre, and induce a union with the flame and heat entering the front part of the kiln.” The more usual plan with the potters of this district in packing their kilns was, when the contents had reached the surface of the earth, to form a dome by covering the urns and vases lightly with dry grass, sedge, or the like, and plastering it over with patches of prepared clay, divided by strewing a small quantity of hay between each portion to facilitate removal. In place of this usual process, in this kiln bricks were used of an oblong shape, four inches by two and a half inches, wedge-shaped at one end, with a sufficient curve to traverse the circumference when set edgeways, with the wedge ends lapped over each other. The sides would be thus raised for three or four courses or more, as circumstances might require, and probably be afterwards backed up with loose earth. These bricks were modelled and kneaded with chaff and grain.”[10] The numbers indicate as follows:—1, front of the pedestal supporting the floor of the kiln; 2 2, slopes, probably intended to produce a more uniform heat; 3 3, part of the kiln floor; 4, bricks, before used; 5, area of the furnace; 6, mouth of furnace; 7, wall of kiln; 8, top of the pedestal. The mouth of the furnace, No. 6, was arched over.

The ware of the Durobrivian potteries was superior both in style of art and in form and material to that of Upchurch, and has an especial interest over it in the fact that it bears figures and various ornaments in relief, in the same manner as on the Samian ware. The ornament, especially the scrolls, &c., were laid on “in slip.” The vessel, after having been thrown on the wheel, would be allowed to become somewhat firm, but only sufficiently so for the purpose of the lathe. In the indented ware, the indenting would have to be performed with the vessel in as pliable a state as it could be taken from the lathe. A thick slip of the same body would then be procured, and the ornamentation would proceed.

Fig. 103.

Fig. 104.

Fig. 105.

Figs. 106 and 107.

Fig. 108.

Fig. 109.

Fig. 110.

Representations of Field Sports on Castor Ware.

“The vessels—on which are displayed a variety of hunting subjects, representations of fishes, scrolls, and human figures—were all glazed after the figures were laid on; where, however, the decorations are white, the vessels were glazed before the ornaments were added. Ornamenting with figures of animals was effected by means of sharp and blunt skewer instruments and a slip of suitable consistency. These instruments seem to have been of two kinds—one thick enough to carry sufficient slip for the nose, neck, body, and front thigh; the other of a more delicate kind, for a thinner slip, for the tongue, lower jaws, eye, fore and hind legs, and tail. There seems to have been no retouching, after the slip trailed from the instrument. Field sports seem to have been favourite subjects with our Romano-British artists. The representations of deer and hare hunts are good and spirited; the courage and energy of the hounds, and the distress of the hunted animals are given with great skill and fidelity, especially when the simple and off-handed process by which they must have been executed is taken into consideration.”[11]

Fig. 111.—The Colchester Vase.

Fig. 112.—Castor Ware.

Figs. 113 to 115.—Castor Ware.

Figs. 116 and 117.

Fig. 118.

Fig. 119.

Fig. 120.

Figs. 121 and 122.

Fig. 123.

Fig. 124.

Foliated patterns on Castor Ware.

Two vessels with these hunting subjects are given in Figs. [108] and [110]; and other designs of this character, exhibiting stag and hare hunts, are shown on Figs. [103 to 109].

Gladiatorial combats are also frequent subjects for representation on the Castor vases. One of these is given on Fig. [111], which represents one side of the celebrated “Colchester vase;” Fig. [103] being the design of another of its sides. The next engraving (Fig. [112]) shows the chariot race in the Roman racecourse or stadium—the quadriga being well, although rudely, fashioned, and the position both of the horses and charioteer boldly conceived. Mythological subjects were also common. One of these, of the indented form, restored from fragments, is given in the accompanying engraving (Fig. [113]).

Fig. 125.