Bonhams
Lot 258
A fascinating pattern book from a British earthenware manufactory, circa 1805-15Manuscript notebook containing circa 150 hand-painted designs for teaware, showing patterns for full plates and borders, numbered and coded for use within a factory, some with further annotations, manuscript list of prices at rear, 53 leaves, circa 19 blank, pen and watercolour, partial watermarks for Ruse & Turners 1805, reused marbled endpapers, original calf, 8vo (18mm x 120mm)Footnotes:This charming yet tantalising pattern book will have been used within a British pottery manufactory at the start of the 19th century. It records tableware patterns, drawn by hand either as a section of the border of a plate, or as the complete design used on a plate or saucer. These are identified by a sequence of pattern numbers ranging from 6 to 154 with some gaps. Some of the earlier patterns have been re-numbered, indicating perhaps a new partnership or change of factory ownership. This might have coincided with the decision to record the factory's patterns within this book. A watermark of 1805 within its pages gives us the earliest possible date for when this illustrated record was compiled, although the first patterns are incomplete and may have been copied from an earlier volume or unbound sheets of individual patterns.The earliest patterns suggest this began as a manufactory of creamware at the turn of the 19th century. Many appear to be copies of patterns used by major manufactories such as Wedgwood, Spode and Davenport. Subsequently pearlware or 'whiteware' was probably made, with a slight possibility that some patterns were intended for bone china. Stylistically, all of the patterns would appear to predate 1815. Two sections within the book bear the headings 'Painted Tea Ware' and 'Enamelled Tea Ware'. The former probably refers to underglaze painting (now known as Pratt Ware), while the latter indicates the use of overglaze enamel colours. Significantly, many patterns refer to the use of 'luster', which will have been painted in silver (or Platinum) lustre.This small pattern book begins with a few drawings showing pottery shapes that were popular in the period around 1800-10. Tables at the end of the book link some of the pattern numbers with a cost price per dozen, presumably to be used when pricing a complete tea service. Alongside each drawn pattern, a letter and number code gives a different price in shillings and pence. This code probably helped the pottery determine the wages paid to the decorating departments responsible for completing each pattern.The lustreware patterns that appear within the pages of the present lot may provide clues to the maker responsible. The future study of this pattern book may benefit from comparison with the Leeds Pottery pattern books which have been published almost in their entirety by John Griffin in 2005. Leeds was a creamware manufactory that subsequently made other ceramic bodies and some painted decoration included the use of lustre. Many other lustre-decorated tablewares and their makers are discussed by Geoffrey Godden and Michael Gibson in their book Collecting Lustreware (1991). On page 42 the authors note '...The Stoke-on-Trent City Museum contains several hundred lustred articles closely packed on twenty-two deep shelves, yet, we believe, only six of these pieces bear a maker's mark.' Little wonder that the maker of this pattern book has so far proved elusive.There are presently two mystery groups known to British porcelain collectors as 'The Pattern Book Factory' or 'Pattern Book class'. A pattern book by an unknown china maker working in Staffordshire in the period 1800-09 is preserved in the Victoria & Albert Museum and interestingly, this maker used 'metalic' decoration (or in other words platinum lustre) on some of its porcelains. See Godden's Encyclopaedia of British Porcelain Manufacturers (1988), pp.579-585. This fascinating notebook maybe gives us a new Pattern Book Factory and its discovery starts a search for missing links to any of the numbered patterns within its pages.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •• Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
