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Limehouse ware made by Joseph Wilson & Co. at 20 Fore Street (later Narrow Street) near Duke Shore Steps in the mid 18th century remained unidentified for centuries. Indeed, the very existence of the factory was entirely forgotten until 1888-9 when contemporary letters from Dr. Pococke were published, in which he identifies potters he had met at Limehouse now working at Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire and at Benjamin Lund's factory at Bristol. Then, in 1927, A.J.B. Kiddell uncovered a series of advertisements from the period for 'new-invented blue and white Limehouse ware'. The identification of this class of wares was a matter for speculation and was not confirmed until 1990 when the factory site was excavated by the Museum of London Department of Greater London Archaeology during the construction of the Limehouse Link Tunnel. This identification was thanks in no small part to Dr. Bernard Watney who had mooted that these wares were made at Limehouse over forty years previously.
When the Limehouse works were founded in early 1745 it was only Nicholas Sprimont's factory at Chelsea that was actually in production. Although Thomas Frye had taken out his first patent to make porcelain in 1744 it is unlikely that full production began at Bow until about 1748. In the Autumn of 1746 Mr. Wilson began advertising for staff, including 'Pot fan or Box Painters'. Advertisements appear in the Daily Advertiser throughout 1747 to promote the factory's wares, for example the advertisement of 4 April 1747 declared "To the Publick, the new invented blue and white Limehouse ware, which as to duration etc is no ways inferior to China consisting of a great variety of Sauce Boats Tea Pots and other useful and ornamental vessels...". However, these advertisements also acknowledge the "daily Improvements" made to the quality of the wares as well as a patriotic appeal to support a local enterprise above the imports of a "Foreign nation". It is probably this question of quality that led to the dissolution of the factory in 1748. Wares we disposed of through Underwood's of Pall Mall at a discount and a meeting of the factory's creditors at the Castle Tavern on Lombard Street on 3 June 1748 spells the end of this aspiring enterprise. The final notice of a disposal sale of Limehouse ware comes on 30 September 1748 at a shop in Berry Street, near King Street in St. James's.
TWO LIMEHOUSE PORCELAIN BLUE AND WHITE QUATREFOIL CUPS
1746-48
Details
TWO LIMEHOUSE PORCELAIN BLUE AND WHITE QUATREFOIL CUPS
1746-48
Each fluted and petal-moulded with a crabstock handle issuing flowering branches, the interior with a flowerhead below a border of flowers and entwined leaves and stems
2 3/8 in. (6.1 cm.) high (2)
1746-48
Each fluted and petal-moulded with a crabstock handle issuing flowering branches, the interior with a flowerhead below a border of flowers and entwined leaves and stems
2 3/8 in. (6.1 cm.) high (2)
Brought to you by
Mary O'Connell
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