Mysterious Mauchline Ware

 

QUESTION: As I browse the booths of antique shows in my area, I’ve come upon small ochre-colored wooden boxes in various shapes with a black printed image of a historical landmark, most of which seem to be from America. The prices of these little boxes are through the roof. What are these items, and why are they so pricey?

ANSWER: What you’ve been seeing is known as Mauchline (pronounced Moch’lin) Ware, a form of souvenir ware made by the Smith family of Mauchline, Ayrshire, now Strathclyde, Scotland, and favored by affluent Victorians traveling abroad.

Adorned with transfer ware scenes of landmarks, this Scottish wooden ware dates from about 1880 to 1900. Though the Smiths sold it throughout the United Kingdom, they also exported to North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and elsewhere.

Mauchline, located 11 miles inland from the Scottish coastal resort of Ayr, was the center of the Mauchline Ware industry, which at its peak in the 1860s, employed over 400 people in the manufacture of small, but beautifully made and invariably useful wooden souvenirs and gift ware. Because of the contribution its originators, W. & A. Smith of Mauchline, the majority of souvenirs produced in southwest Scotland from the early 19th-century to the 1930s has come to be commonly known as "Mauchline Ware."

Mauchline Ware developed partly by accident and partly through necessity. Towards the end of the 18th century in the town of Alyth, Perthshire (now Tayside), a man named John Sandy invented the "hidden hinge" snuff box. His invention eventually spread to at least 50 other Scottish snuff box manufacturers in the early 1820s, most of them in Ayrshire, including William and Andrew Smith of Mauchline. 

With so many manufacturers, snuff box production continued at an all-time high, but the habit of taking snuff was on its way out. Although they made mostly snuff boxes, manufacturers like W.& A. Smith also produced other items, from postage stamp boxes to tea trays, all out of wood. The first of the new products were tea caddies utilizing the hidden hinge. In fact, they were so highly prized that when a female employee got married, the Smith’s Box Works gave her one of their tea caddies as a present.

Over the next century, the Smiths of Mauchline and their competitors produced tens of thousands of articles in hundreds of styles and in several different finishes. They generally used sycamore wood, which has a very close grain and a pleasing color. The precise date of the first transfer wares isn’t known, but companies manufactured them from the early 1850s until 1933.

Woodworkers created more items with transfer decoration than any other finish. These were true souvenir wares, since they decorated each piece with a view associated with the place of purchase.

Skilled craftsman applied transfers to the finished articles prior to coating them with several layers of slow drying copal varnish. This process took from 6 to 12 weeks to complete, although it seems that they must of developed an accelerated means of varnishing to cope with the sheer scale of production. However, this lengthy and careful process of manufacture accounted for the extreme durability of these products, many of which have survived in near mint condition.

As with earlier hand-decorated snuff boxes, manufacturers used sycamore wood, known as "plane" in Scotland, its pale color making an excellent background for the black transfers. While the majority of Mauchline Ware items were small, thus warranting only a single transfer, it was by no means unusual for craftsmen to apply six or more transfers to some of the larger pieces. Where they applied more than one transfer, the Smiths related views to one another, either by subject or geography.

Views of Scotland dominated the transfer ware. "Burnsian" views, by far, formed the largest single grouping and views associated with Sir Walter Scott probably the second. In addition to virtually every town and village, producers immortalized a great number of beauty spots, country houses, churches, schools, ruins and even cottage hospitals in transfer ware. Other views included seaside resorts and the inland spa towns of Malvern, Cheltenham, Chester, Bath and Harrogate, which became increasingly accessible to a growing number of people as a result of the rapidly expanding rail network. The Isle of Wight was particularly popular, probably due to Victoria's love of the place. And the popular south and east coast resorts--Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings, Margate and Scarborough--saw their share.

From the 1830s on, makers produced a steadily decreasing number of snuff boxes while producing an increasing array of needlework, stationery, domestic and cosmetic items as well as articles for personal decoration and amusement. In addition, companies created an incredible range of boxes in every conceivable size and shape and for limitless purposes.

A great many cotton, thread and ribbon manufacturers—J & P Coates, Chadwicks, Clarks Glenfield, Kerr and Medlock—purchased Mauchline Ware containers for their products, their names clearly yet discreetly displayed either inside the lid or on the base. Thus, manufacturers transformed rather mundane accessories into attractive gifts.

Producers also turned out novelty inkwells, pens, pencils, pencil boxes and letter openers, as well as many designs of bookmarks including a patented combined bookmark and paper cutter.

And it’s because of Mauchline Ware’s uniqueness that prices for it have risen to such high levels.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Coffee--The Brew of Life" in the 2023 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The View is Blue

 

QUESTION: I’ve always liked the look of the Blue Willow ware dishes that my mom used to bring out for holiday dinners. Even though the scenes on them were all the same, I was still intrigued by the use of blue on a white background. When I became an adult, I started to look at other pieces of Chinese blue and white porcelain. Then one day while browsing a local antique show, I spotted a tea bowl and saucer, decorated in underglaze blue with two cartoonish Chinese fishermen unraveling their nets. At first, I thought the set was Chinese, but the dealer said it was made by Meissen in Germany in the 18th century. The set was way out of my price range, but I took a photo of it with my smartphone and decided I had to learn more. While I’ve learned a bit about these early handpainted porcelain wares, I’d like to know more. Can you help me?

ANSWER: While most people associate Meissen with 19th-century porcelain figurines, they were the first to produce hard-paste porcelain in Europe at the royal factory at Meissen, near Dresden, in 1710.

In 1717, King August the Strong of Dresden Saxony, announced a reward of 1,000 thalers to the first person who could come up with blue porcelain painting similar to that  of the Chinese imports. August called the white porcelain white gold. August had previously provided the funds to set up the royal factory in Meissen.

Johann Friedrich Boettger produced the first successful examples of European porcelain. He sent the King a letter on March 28, 1709, promising "porcelain with the finest glaze and all its attendant painting and decoration equal to that of the East Indian," by which he meant the Chinese. But despite his claims of having produced some preliminary pieces of blue underglaze painted porcelain, he was unsuccessful.

However, the sum of 1,000 thalers attracted many craftsmen, as well as charlatans. Notorious among them were a father and son team called the Mehlhorns, who in 1719 bragged to the local newspaper about possessing the secret of blue painting. However, they never produced consistent results. The real credit for developing the underglaze blue color goes to David Koehler and Samuel Stoeltzel, who accomplished it between 1721 and 1722. And although the King acknowledged their success, they never saw the 1,000 thalers.

One of the most talented early blue painters was Johann Caspar Ripp. He was already an accomplished faience painter trained in Delft when Johann Gregarious Hoeroldt brought him to Meissen late in 1720. But his creativity and independence made Hoeroldt jealous, so he fired him in 1723. 

Cobalt blue decoration began to be manufactured on an industrial scale in 1789, when Meissen began producing its most popular underglaze blue pattern—Blue Onion. 

While the popularity of the Blue Onion pattern exploded after1860, it was not the most common underglaze blue decoration during the 18th century. The earliest Meissen pieces depict imaginary Chinese scenes known as “chinoiserie” and Kakiemon-style decorations inspired by the Japanese Arita wares. As a set pattern, the most common one was actually the Strawflower decoration, later adapted and made world-famous by the Royal Copenhagen Factory.

Some of the rarest and most stunning underglaze blue wares were those that combined blue and overglaze polychrome painting in a single composition. Artists painted the background scenery in cobalt blue and the artist, visualizing the final painting, reserved areas prior to firing to which he would later apply an overglaze polychrome painting to complete the scene. Because artists handpainted each piece with unique designs, no two pieces are completely alike. 

In the 19th century, Meissen standardized the underglaze decoration, applying it with stencils to outline the pattern, a job often left to apprentices.

Therefore, single pieces from the mid-18th century today sell for high prices, their value coming more from their rarity and age. They represent a time in the history of European porcelain when the blue color was just being brought under control. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Ancients" in the 2021 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Just Who Was Josiah Spode?

QUESTION: My mother collected English Staffordshire transferware dinnerware. She passed away recently and now I have her collection which consists of plates, cups and saucers, gravy boats, sugars and creamers, and assorted other items. On the bottoms of some of these are marks saying “Spode and a number,” “Spode Stone-China,” and “Copeland Spode England.” I realize they refer to the pottery that made them, but who was Spode and what did he have to do with Copeland?

Spode Stone China

ANSWER: The name Spode on your pottery pieces refers to English potter Josiah Spode while the name Copeland refers to William Copeland, who was in the tea trade.

Josiah Spode

While English transferware is a common antique/collectible, coming in a wide variety of forms and styles, it was Josiah Spode who started it all by perfecting two techniques that made this form of pottery such a worldwide success—the technique of transfer printing in 1783 and the formula for fine bone china around 1790.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the cluster of towns in North Staffordshire, now know as the Potteries, was a series of villages, hamlets and farms. Forty or so potteries, concentrated around Burslem produced all the Staffordshire wares.

On April 9, 1749, Thomas Whieldon, a potter who was already producing early Staffordshire wares, including agate wares in variegated colors, tortoiseshell table-wares, creamwares, black basaltes and black-glazed wares, hired Josiah Spode at age 16. Spode stayed with Whieldon as a journeyman potter until about 1762, when he took the job of manager of a pottery at Stoke which produced mostly creamware and white stoneware.

Spode Creamware

By 1776 Spode had purchased his own pottery works. His first produced pottery, then porcelain, and finally a superior kind of ironstone china which was almost porcelain, which Spode invented in 1805. After some early trials, he perfected a stoneware that came closer to porcelain than any previously and introduced his "Stone-China" in 1813. It was light in body, greyish-white and gritty where it wasnt glazed and approached translucence in the early wares. Later stoneware became opaque.

Spode plate from Indian Sporting Series

By 1785 Spode had a London warehouse and showroom_He met William Copeland who was in the tea trade. Copeland opened a warehouse where the Spode wares could be displayed and offered for sale to the London "China men."

Spode’s mastery of the transfer printing process contributed to the firm’s success in the early years of the 19th century. The process, which appears to have been invented by an Irish engraver named Brooks, involved first, engraving a copper plate, then inking it and applying to it a thin tissue of paper, the impression on the paper could then he transferred to articles of any shape.

Spode Oriental Field Sports Wolf Trap

Contemporary book illustrations often inspired the decorations Spode used on his pottery. China experts consider one of Spode’s  most interesting patterns, the Indian Sporting Series, to be one of the most original in its use as a design for tableware.

In June 1805, there appeared the first of 20 monthly issues of a publication called Oriental Field Sports, Wild Sports of the East. Each included a printed story and two large aquatint prints engraved from drawings by Samuel Howitt, a distinguished animal painter. Spode adapted the engravings to his dinnerware, which depicted hunting scenes with animals and birds. Some views showed mounted hunters carrying spears with native bearers on foot.

Another popular series formed a travelogue of views in the Eastern Mediterranean. Spode based these on engravings in Mayer’s Views in Asia Minor; Mainly in Caramania, published in 1803.

Spode platter "City of Corinth" from Eastern Mediterranean Series

Spode also used illustrations from “The Castle of Boudron;" "The City of Corinth" and "Antique fragments at Lissima" in this series. He based another series on views in Italy, usually of ruins or classical landscapes, from Merigot's Views of Rome and its Vicinity,  published in 1798.

Spode's most popular series, Blue Italian

The most famous pattern was the "Blue Italian," described as Spode's masterpiece in his Blue and White series. Spode took his inspiration for this from the painting of ruins and quiet pastoral scenery by 18th-century Italian artist H.P. Pannini.

From 1800 to 1827 the mark consisted of the name Spode in printed letters, impressed, and the name of the pattern in blue, purple or red. On the stoneware the mark was "Spode, Feldspar Porcelain" or "Spode, Stone China." After this date, if the name Spode was used, it appeared as "Late Spode."

In addition to tea wares, Spode produced a variety of useful and ornamental pieces in bone china, from miniature ewers and basins and toy tea sets to richly decorated, sometimes flower-encrusted vases.

Early Spode blue and white serving platter

The factory pattern books which still exist show that Spode introduced new patterns at the average rate of about 150 year. By 1833 the pottery’s patterns numbered in the 4,000 range. Over its lifetime, the Spode Pottery produced about 75,000 patterns. Most Spode wares carry a pattern number along with the name Spode.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  world's fairs in the 2020 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Beauty of Ceramic Wall Art

QUESTION: At a recent antique show I saw a framed ceramic wall plaque that, according to the dealer, Rookwood Pottery had made. I know about Rookwood art pottery and own a couple of pieces, but I never knew the company made plaques. This particular one depicted a snow scene and came in a simple wooden frame. It seemed rather expensive to me, so I passed on it for now. What can you tell me about Rookwood plaques? Were they only produced for a limited time? And did they come framed or did people frame them?

ANSWER: Rookwood scenic plaques aren’t as well known as their art pottery. They were more artistic and more expensive than their art pottery pieces, so the average person didn’t usually buy them.

Rookwood Pottery perfected the production of ceramic tiles based on an ancient form of pottery craftsmanship. Many consider it to be America's finest pottery, beginning in the early 1900s and continuing through the 1930s.

Shortly after the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, American ceramic artists began making utilitarian wares. But unlike utilitarian objects, Rookwood produced tiles for architectural and utilitarian reasons, while its plaques were purely decorative. The company produced plaques depicting landscapes, seascapes, and the occasional figural paintings from 1910 to 1930.

Primarily, Rookwood produced these plaques using slip decoration, finishing them in a vellum glaze. Most featured landscapes, and many took on a tonalist quality. Plaques displayed a variety of pastel colors, a few had snow scenes, and the majority had a bit of crazing resulting when the outer glaze contracts at a different rate than the underglaze painting or the ceramic body, rendering a lightly checked outer surface. Most early plaques had crazing. In later years, Rookwood learned how to make uncrazed plaques.

Rookwood produced many more ceramic vases and such than plaques, thus fewer people know about them. The original price hand-written on the back of an uncrazed plaque was usually higher in comparison to the price shown on the reverse of a crazed plaque.

Though the production of a plaque was simpler than that of a vase because an artist had a flat tile "canvas" on which to work, they did warp, but in spite of this, the value of plaques today exceeds that of their vase counterparts from the same time period.

Plaques are also more expensive because they’re classified as fine art. Rookwood made fewer of them than vases. A typical plaque originally cost around $175. Very few scenic vases with a vellum glaze would have been that expensive. Usually, the original price workers wrote the original price on the backs of tiles in pencil in the upper right-hand corner.

Artists who painted Rookwood plaques took their inspiration from local landscapes, with the exception of the Venetian scenes, painted by Carl Schmidt and Ed Diers. Though a plaque may have depicted a scene of snow-capped mountains, that certainly wasn’t part of the surrounding landscape, but more likely taken from a painting viewed at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Art Museum. located near the Rookwood pottery works. Early standard-glaze plaques, produced between 1900 and 1905, often feature Dutch or English gentlemen, as well as American Indians. The images of the European gentlemen came from famous paintings while those of the Indians probably came from photographs.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Rookwood produced faience plaques or tiles, usually made for installation into homes or commercial buildings. They almost always  covered these in a matt glaze, occasionally made with a painted and carved design, but primarily in a cloisonne fashion.

Rookwood plaques come in a variety of sizes, the smallest usually being 4 by 8 inches, and the largest, 14 by 16 inches. Most of the time, these plaques are uncrazed and unaffected by warpage. Because of their impressive size and fine decoration, they  bring a premium price today.

While artists who painted with oil on canvas could view the colors and brushstrokes as they produced them, those who painted Rookwood plaques with clay slip, couldn’t be sure how a color would look after firing. They may have applied the slip heavily, thus rendering “crawling” to the glaze. Perhaps the green trees would appear more blue, the pink sky too pale, or blue water some other shade.

Artists such as E.T. Hurley, Fred Rothenbusch, Ed Diers, Lenore Asbury, Sara Sax and Sallie did some of the best quality and most artistic work for Rookwood. Hurley was among the best at producing quality tonalist plaques, from nocturnal scenes to beautifully painted beech trees to landscapes with a vivid pink sky and exquisite mountain ranges.

Fred Rothenbusch produced some of the best large plaques. His color palette leaned towards deep purples, dark blues, and light rose. Ed Diers painted great landscapes and was one of the best at painting trees. Some of his plaques included forest interior scenes with bold tree trunks and an almost three-dimensional quality. Lenore Asbury also painted distinctive trees and employed a wonderful range of colors and was one of the best at painting tonalist landscapes. Carl Schmidt was famous for his Venetian scene plaques.

Some collectors seek plaques by a certain artist. Others go by theme or other criteria.  For instance, some want snow scenes while others prefer harbor scenes. Some want only uncrazed examples, and some want colorful ones.


To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about Colonial America in the Spring 2018 Edition, "Early Americana," online now.

Art on a Plate

QUESTION: Recently, I purchased a beautiful large plate with what looks like a hand-painted picture on it. The mark on the back says “Limoges, France.” I don’t know how old the plate is or anything about this company. Can you help me?

ANSWER: What you purchased is called a charger. It’s actually the large plate used as the base plate for elegant French dining service. In this type of service, the space in front of each person is never supposed to be without a plate. In the beginning and in between courses, a servant would place a charger—a large ornately decorated plate—in front of each guest. Factories in the town of Limoges, France made chargers like the one you bought, marked as yours is, from 1891 to 1914.

Limoges is the center of hard paste porcelain. It is to France as Stoke-on-Trent is to England—the center of the ceramic industry. The town of Limoges is about 200 miles southwest of Paris and owes its prominence in the field of hard paste porcelain production to the abundance of natural resources. The soil in the area is rich in deposits of kaolin and feldspar, the essential ingredients for hard paste porcelain. The region also has forests to supply necessary fuel for the kilns and rivers to provide transportation for the finished goods.

Limoges’ golden age extended from the mid to the late 19th century. Production became industrialized, and manufacturers introduced mass-production techniques and new methods of decoration. Makers exported about 75 percent of their wares, the largest percentage to the U.S. In 1900, 10,000 barrels of decorated and blank porcelain were shipped from the Limoges factories to the U.S. The number of companies making it increased from 32 in the late 19th century to 48 in the 1920s.

Paintings on porcelains have been popular from the middle of the 18th century to the present. Chargers present an excellent background for ceramic painters to off their skills. Porcelain is more difficult to work on than canvas with oils because ceramic paints, which are basically oxides of various metals, don’t attain their final color until they’re fired at the correct temperature. Many ceramic colors have to be fired at different temperatures and will fuse out if heated above that temperature. It’s necessary for ceramic artists to apply and then fire the high-temperature colors first and then work down in stages to the low-fire ones.

The advantages of painting on a porcelain charger is the surface is so flat and smooth that artists can achieve extremely detailed results. Once fired, the colors are permanent. A porcelain charger painted in 1854 will look exactly the same today. Oil painting tends to darken with age, and watercolors fade.

While exquisite examples of paintings on porcelain have been made by top European porcelain companies, such as Berlin, Vienna, Meissen and Sevres, and many are quite expensive, Limoges chargers are affordable and readily available.

With the tremendous amount of porcelain produced, the market couldn't absorb all the wares. World War I and the economic depressions of the 1920s and 1930s forced many older companies out of business. With revitalization after World War II, many of the factories in Limoges continued to produce decorated chargers and do so even today.

Figural themes, both portrait and allegorical, as well as scenic decor are less common subjects on Limoges porcelain and are favorites of collectors. Portrait ware was popular during the mid 19"' century. Male subjects included important historical figures, such as Napoleons and Louis KW. Most portraits featured beautiful women, however, ranging from the French Empress Josephine to unknown Victorian women. Some of the most highly prized Limoges decorated chargers` are those having Art Nouveau-style ladies with grape clusters in their flowing heir and elaborate gowns. Sometimes a sleek tiger or greyhound dog completed the portrait. Each one was truly a work of art.

A Limoges charger that carries a decorator's mark and additionally an artist's signature is the most desirable. Next in demand are those hand painted but without an artist’s signature.

NOTE: I'm taking a week off from my blog for July 4. Have a patriotic Fourth of July! My blog will be back the week after next.