THE
ANTIQUARY:
A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE STUDY
OF THE PAST
Instructed by the Antiquary times,
He must, he is, he cannot but be wise.
Troilus AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. sc. 3.
VOL. IV.
JULY DECEMBER.
London: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, Paternoster Row.
New York: J. W. BOUTON.
1881.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Barnard's Inn, Holborn r 6
The Kentish Garland 60
Hop-Picking in Kent 61
Westminster Abbey : Poets' Corner 138
Wooden Trough, Found in Crannog at Loch Lee . . . . .211
Oak Canoe and Paddle, ditto . . 211212
Carved Ash Wood, ditto. . . . , 212
Moss Fringe, ditto 213
Nailed Leather, ditto 213
Church of St. Regulus, St. Andrew's 249
Brechin Tower 249
Beehive Cell on St. Michael's Rock, Kerry 251
THE GETTY CENTER
ARMORIAL CHINA.
The Antiquary,
JULY, 1881.
armorial Cbina.
By George W. Marshall, LL.D.
AM not aesthetic enough to pose in
an attitude of admiration in front
of a plate or pot of the most
precious old blue ; the finest group
of Chelsea figures has no charm for me, and
I can see no more beauty in Wedgwood,
Spode, Worcester, and Japanese, than in the
common crockery which adorns my kitchen
dresser. I have no pretence to be sufficiently
learned to point out from the paste or paint-
ing the factory from which a teapot emanated,
or even to guess the date of a saucer out of
which Dr. Johnson might have imbibed his
tea. I neither know nor care about old
crockery, except in so far as the few speci-
mens of it to be obtained serve to illustrate
heraldry and genealogy, of which so-called
" gentle sciences " I have some knowledge.
Like most persons afflicted with a hobby, I
have a taste for collecting such things as
bear upon it, and hence I have formed a
rather extensive collection of old bowls,
cups, plates, mugs, and teapots, adorned
with the arms of their former possessors.
Having thus confessed my ignorance of
the history of pottery and porcelain, by way
of introducing myself to my readers, I pro-
ceed to point out my reason for -thinking
that a careful study of the armorial bearings
found on old china would not be an alto-
gether uninstructive pursuit to those who are
interested in ceramic art.
The custom of painting arms on china
probably arose about 1700, or a little later.
I am not acquainted with any specimens to
which an earlier date than 1720 can be
safely assigned. At this time the fashion
had, however, become popular among the
wealthy London citizens who traded with
VOL. IV.
the East Indies, and hence, no doubt, we
find that all the earliest specimens are of
oriental porcelain. The manufacture of
armorial china in this country does not
appear to have begun earlier than 1750.
From 1760 to 1800, there seems to have
been a rage for this method of marking the
ownership of all kinds of china in domestic
use. I have numerous articles, from a tea
cup to a punch bowl, emblazoned with
arms. After 1800 the drawing of the arms,
from a herald's point of view, became exe-
crably bad, and by 1820 the rage' had died
away.
The chief use of a collection of armorial
china is, that it enables us to fix approxi-
mately, and sometimes very nearly, the date
at which a particular piece of ware was
manufactured. This knowledge attained, I
imagine that those well acquainted with the
peculiarities of the paste, glaze, and paint-
ing, of different china- works, would be able
to tell, with much greater certainty, the par-
ticular factory at which the ware was made,
than they could without such an important
clue.
For example, it is a common notion that
a great proportion of china painted with
arms was made at Lowestoft, where a china
factory was established in 1756, and much
apparently oriental ware has the credit of
having been made there ; now, if from the
heraldic bearings upon a particular piece it
can be shown that it must have been made
previous to the year 1756, however like the
paste, glaze, or decoration, might be to
Lowestoft china, the arms would be conclusive
evidence that the china on which they were
painted was not made there. We learn the
date at which arms were painted in several
ways. If the arms of the owner are impaled
with those of his wife, or her arms are
placed on a shield of pretence, the ware
must have been made after the date at which
the marriage took place, and before that at
which either of the parties died. If the
coat be a quartered coat, the china must have
been made after the right of the bearer to
the quartering accrued ; if it bears the badge
of a baronet, or the coronet and supporters
of a peer, after the title was conferred ; or
it may be that some difference, such as a
knight's helmet, an order, a mark of cadency,
B
ARMORIAL CHINA.
or a knowledge of the date at which the
coat was granted, may enable us to identify
the particular individual for whom it was
made. Having ascertained when he was
born and when he died, it is easy to arrive
at the approximate date of the piece. But
more than this, the modes of tricking
changed so much between 1700 and 1800,
that there is very little difficulty in saying
from the tricking, or to speak less technically,
drawing of the arms, within twenty years, at
what date they must have been painted.
In order that my meaning may be made
perfectly clear I will illustrate it by describing
some specimens now before me.
Teapot. Oriental. Arms : Quarterly,
1 and 4, Azure a fess indented Ermine between
three lions' heads erased Or. Fellows.
2 and 3, Argent, two barbel haurient respec-
tant Sable. Coulton. On an escutcheon
the Ulster badge.
John Fellows, of Carshalton, sub-governor
of the South Sea Company, was created a
Baronet 20th of January, 17 18-19, an d died
26th of July, 1724, s.p., when the Baronetcy
became extinct. This teapot was therefore
made between these dates, and is the earliest
specimen to which I can attach so undis-
putable a date.
Mug. Oriental. Arms : Gules, on a
fess Argent between three boars' heads Or,
a lion passant Azure. Gough. Impaling,
Gules, a chevron between three hinds Or.
Hynde. Crest. A boar's head Argent
pierced by an arrow Gules.
Harry Gough, M.P. for Bramber, and
an East India Director, married in 17 19,
Elizabeth, daughter of Morgan Hynde. He
died in 1751, leaving issue, Richard
Gough, F.S.A. (the celebrated Antiquary),
to whom this mug belonged, together
with a large oriental service of the same,
some painted in colours, and some in blue
with similar arms. This service was made in
the East, and portions of it still remain
among the descendants of Mrs. (Richard)
Gough's family. From the tricking of the
arms, the date appears to be about 1720,
soon after Mr. Gough's marriage, which is
also more probable than nearer the period of
his death.
Plate. Oriental. Arms : Quarterly,
1 and 4, Gules, two chevrons Ermine between
three eagles displayed Or ; 2 and 3, Azure,
two chevrons Or between three goats' heads
erased Argent. Parsons. Impaling, Vert,
on a chevron Or, a star between two cinque-
foils Gules. Crowley.
Crest. A leopard's face Gules, sur-
mounted of an eagle's leg erased Or.
Humphrey Parsons, twice Lord Mayor of
London, married in 17 19, Sarah, daughter of
Sir Ambrose Crowley, Kt., and died March
2r, 174041.
Bowl. Lowestoft? Arms: Gules, a
bezant between three demi-lions rampant
Argent, with six quarterings. Bennet, Earl
of Tankerville. On a shield of pretence,
Gules, a lion rampant Argent, on a chief Or,
three martlets Azure. Colebrooke.
Crest. A double scaling ladder Or.
Supporters. Two lions Argent, crowned
Or, and charged on the shoulder with a
bezant.
Motto. De bon vouloir servir le Roy.
Charles, fourth Earl of Tankerville, married
October 7, 1771, Emma, daughter and co-
heir of Sir James Colebrooke, Bart. He died
in 1822. From the tricking of the coat,
which is finely painted, this bowl must have
been made about the date of Lord Tanker-
ville's marriage. It is of very similar character
to the well-known " Wilkes and Liberty "
bowls, mentioned by Mr. Chaffers as of
Lowestoft make.
Mr. Chaffers gives in his " Marks and
Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain,"
p. 636, a list of mottoes and inscriptions
on Lowestoft porcelain, mostly taken from
armorial specimens. His descriptions are,
however, so careless and inaccurate that
perhaps little reliance can be placed on
his assertions e.g., he describes a tea-ser-
vice painted with the arms of Wilson, and
motto Sincerity, as having a lion rampant in
the arms, and a demi-lion rampant for the
crest (it should be a wolf), and ascribes the
coat to Sir T. Maryon Wilson. Sir T.
Maryon Wilson succeeded to the Baronetcy
in 1798, and, putting aside the absence of
the Ulster hand in the coat, the design is
hardly of so late a date. The china with the
motto, Generoso genuine germo, is attributed
by Chaffers to "Wilton, a Suffolk family,"
whereas it bears the coat of Branthwaite.
What the following example of his heraldic
ARMORIAL CHINA.
talent may be intended to represent must
for ever remain a mystery. " Azure of two
boars' heads, or a helmet and bezant."
Arms were sometimes, but not often,
painted on delft. Argent, two chevrons Azure,
between three trefoils Vert, De Cardonnel.
Impaling, Argent, two bars Azure. Crest,
a goldfinch; occur on a delft plate in my
possession. This coat was granted in 1773
to the family of De Cardonnel, of Chirton, in
Northumberland. This shows that the plate
was made after 1773, and the tricking is rude
for that period ; but at what factory it was
made I am quite unable to hazard an opinion.
I have one or two specimens of arms on delft
of an earlier date.
A Plate of oriental ware, with the arms of
Lowther, Earl of Lonsdale, shows that
the manufacture of china in the East went
on concurrently with its manufacture in this
country. The arms are : Or, six annulets,
three, two, and one, Sable. Crest. A dragon.
Supporters. Two horses Argent, each gorged
with a chaplet proper. Motto. Magistrates
indicat virum. The shield is surmounted by
a Viscount's coronet. The first earl was
created Baron and Viscount, 24th May, 1784,
and died 24th May, 1802. He was succeeded
by his cousin, Sir William Lowther, who was
created Earl of Lonsdale, 7th April, 1807.
The date of this plate is therefore between
1784 and 1807.
It is, I believe, a common opinion that
china was sometimes made in the East,
and sent over to be painted with arms in this
country. I very much doubt the correctness
of this opinion. If there be any ground for
it, a plate in my collection, which appears to
be of oriental ware, and to have been painted
on the glaze, may serve as an example, and is
more than ordinarily curious because of its
early date.
Arms : Sable, a fess chequy Or and
Azure, between three bezants. On a shield of
pretence, Sable, two wings conjoined Argent.
Crest. A stork argent. Supporters. Two
falcons, wings elevated, beaked, membered,
and belled Or, and gorged with a chaplet of
red-roses proper. Motto. Amitie.
The shield is surmounted of a baron's
coronet. These are the arms of Thomas
Pitt, with those of his wife, Frances Ridgway,
daughter and heir of the Earl of London-
derry, on a shield of pretence. He was created
baron in 1719, and in 1726 Earl of London-
derry. Trie date of this plate is, therefore,
between 17 19 and 1726. He was uncle to
William Pitt.
A dish, with blue border, coarsely made
(probably Lowestoft), has the arms of James,
third Duke of Chandos. Argent, on a cross
Sable a leopard's face Or, with quarterings,
supporters, crest, coronet, and motto
Maintien le droit ; and on a shield of pretence,
quarterly one and four, Argent, two chevrons
between three human legs Azure, two and
three, Gules,' three conies Argent. This is the
coat of his second wife, Ann Eliza, daughter of
Richard Gamon, to whom he was married,
June 21, 1777. He died September 29, 1789.
The date of this piece is therefore ascertained
within twelve years.
I could cite many other instances of arms
which enable us to fix the date when the
china on which they are painted was
made. I hope, however, I have said enough
to show that my case is made out. The
manufacture of armorial china was not con-
fined to the East or to Lowestoft it was
made at all our well-known potteries. As a
general rule it was not marked ; but I have
a sufficient number of marked specimens to
prove this assertion correct. I give a few as
examples.
Swansea. Marked, Swansea. This mark
was used circa 1815. I have it on an oval
dish, with the arms of Parker, Earl of Maccles-
field. Gules, a chevron Or between three
leopards' faces Argent, with crest, supporters,
and motto, Sapere aude. The fourth earl suc-
ceeded in 1795, and died in 1842. The arms,
&c, are in the worst style of heraldic art.
Wedgwood, so marked. Arms of
Ramsey. Argent, an eagle displayed Sable,
charged on the breast with a white rose
proper, in chief a fleur-de-lis of the second.
Impaling, Argent, three bends Gules, on a
canton Azure a spur Or. Knight. Motto :
Ora et labora. I have seen portions of an
oriental service of this pattern, and conclude
that this must have been made to match it.
Derby. Plate with Arms of Collinson
impaling Sowerby. Argent, on a fess Azure,
between a squirrel mordant in chief, and
three battle-axes in base proper two mullets
Or. Impaling, Barry of six Sable and Gules,
b 2
ARMORIAL CHINA.
on a chevron between three lions rampant.
Argent as many amulets of the second.
Crest. A squirrel, as in the arms. Mono.
Respice finem.
C. S. Collinson, of the Chauntry, near
Ipswich, married April 30, 1803, Maria,
daughter of John Sowerby.
This has the crown # and D used from
1 7 80- 1 830.
A small plate with the arms, and ten
quarterings of Sir Roger Gresley, Bart.,
impaling those of Coventry with four quarter-
ings, in right of his wife, Sophia Catherine,
daughter of the 7 th Earl of Coventry, to
whom he was married June 2, 182 1. He-
died in 1837. This is marked with Bloor's
mark (a crown within a circle, on which is
printed " Bloor Derby "), used about 1830.
Worcester. A mug with the arms of the
Earl of Essex, the painting of which is un-
finished, is marked O, I presume a Wor-
cester mark. I have also a bowl, with a
square Chinese mark very similar in character
to some given by Chaffers as Worcester
marks. Specimens of arms painted on what
I believe to be Leeds, Chelsea, and Bow are
among my collection, but being unmarked I
do not feel competent to express an opinion
about them.
The armorial china fashion was not
peculiar to England ; plenty of specimens of
foreign manufacture may be picked up in the
antiquity dealers' shops in Paris, and other
continental towns. Some of them closely re-
semble the ware made in this country, and
perhaps they were so made ; but in others
the difference in the style of painting, for
instance those decorated with a peculiar
pink shell border, are clearly the production of
some foreign pottery. Many foreign pieces
are of fine egg shell, apparently Japanese.
English arms are rare on this kind of china.
A few years ago when some half-dozen
persons were known by the London dealers
to be collecting specimens of armorial china
(I speak advisedly, for I do not believe there
are more than half a dozen, if so many,
collections of this class of china), it entered
into the mind of some person or persons,
that specimens might be advantageously
forged. The dealers were so ignorant of
heraldry that they would not be likely to
detect the fraud, and so were, in my
opinion, the collectors. In the course of
a few months the dealers' shops were flooded
with the fictitious articles, all, I believe, the
work of the same man. Unfortunately for
him he was entirely ignorant of the laws of
heraldry, and consequently exposed his trick
at once to those who knew good blazon from
bad. Having apparently found out that
designing original coats was beyond his
capability, he took to reproducing those
already well known. His method was ingeni-
ous ; having taken an old piece of china, he
erased with acid sufficient of the design to
admit of painting on it the fictitious device, a
plan well calculated to mislead the unwary pur-
chaser. Having apparently succeeded by
this means in deceiving some of the dealers,
he next tried painting the whole thing, de-
coration and all, on new porcelain. The
plate known as the ** Pompadour Plate " was
one of the most successful forgeries per-
petrated. This is a plate of foreign make, with
pretty pink shell border, and has the Arms :
Azure, two fishes between three estoiles
Or. Crest. A demi-otter proper, collared Or.
The whole service was, I believe, a few years
since in the hands of a London dealer. Some
of it fell into the hands of the Paris
marchands d'atitiquites, and one of them,
more learned than the rest, knowing that
Madame de Pompadour was a Madlle.Poisson,
and seeing that the arms werethose of Poisson,
asserted that the coat was that of Madame de
Pompadour, and that consequently the service
must have belonged to that distinguished
lady. Unfortunately for this ingenious theory
the arms are those of a man. Had the service
been made for Madlle. Poisson, the spinster's
lozenge would have contained the coat, and
not the warrior's shield ! High prices were
soon obtained for plates, as much, and more
I am told, as 120 francs, the actual value
being about 10 francs. It is some years since
I have seen any new forgeries, and I hope
that form of the art of armorial china painting
is dormant, if not extinct.
Arms painting on china has ceased to be
in fashion, and the few modern specimens we
meet with, chiefly of Worcester manufacture,
are sad parodies on the carefully executed
trickings of the last century. They are not
likely to be of any interest to the heralds or
china collectors of the century to come.
BARNARD'S INN, HOLBORN.
Bamarto 3nn t ibolborn.
HIS veritable relic of Old London,
which, in part, escaped the Great
Fire, has lately been sold, and will
shortly be demolished. Known
originally as Mackworth's Inn, from having
been the residence of Dr. John Mackworth,
who was Dean of Lincoln in the reign of
King Henry VI., it was afterwards leased by
his successor and the Chapter (as an endow-
ment for the services which were to be
celebrated over his grave in the Cathedral)
to a gentleman named Lionel Barnard, from
Liberties." In more recent years it became
celebrated as the last abode of Peter
Woulfe, who, surviving Dr. Price, of Guild-
ford, may fitly be termed the last of the
Alchemists.* That singular being singular
in each sense of the word lived into the
beginning of the present century. Sir Hum-
phry Davy has left us a description of
the home, the personal appearance, and
eccentricities of the philosopher, whose
seclusion and researches were unbrightened
by any of the cheerfulness which, as Ed-
wards, his old schoolfellow, naively told
Dr. Johnson, he had found to effectually
discourage all continuance in the one or
whom it received the name it now bears.
The repose and solitude that invest its three
courts are typical of the mystery which hangs
over its fortunes. The history of Barnard's
Inn is involved more or less in obscurity.
One or two facts, however, are definitely
ascertained. Rebuilt in 1510, soon after the
accession of Henry VIII. to the throne, it
was constituted an Inn of Chancery, being
attached to Gray's Inn. During the reign of
Queen Elizabeth as many as fourteen de-
pendent Inns had gathered around the great
Inns of Court, like Colleges around a Uni-
versity, and Barnard's then formed one of
" the houses of the Chancery within the
prosecution of the other. Here he died as
he had lived solitary; whatever secrets he
may have discovered remained secrets to
all the world besides. Desolate and other-
* .See, however, the account given in A Personal
Tour through the United Kingdom, by Sir Richard
Phillips, of a visit made by him in the year 1828, to a
Mr. Kellerman, at Lilley, a village midway between
Luton and Hitchin. Kellerman claimed to have dis-
covered the art of making gold, and the sublime alkahest
(or universal solvent), the " fixing" of mercury, and
the " blacker than black" of Apollonius Tyanus. He
laboured under the delusion that every Government
in Europe was in league to obtain possession of his
secret by force. In the course of the interview he
quoted Woulfe, amongst other authorities, in justifi-
cation of his pursuits.
BARNARD'S INN, HOLBORN.
wise forgotten has been this little Inn for
generations past, but it was a brave place in its
day. Tradition still lingers, with whispering
voice, around its isolated quadrangles of the
once youthful Ancients, of their nine Com-
panions with the Principal at their head.
The Companions, elected by the Principal
and the Ancients, enjoyed the privilege of
countless dinners in the Hall. The Ancients
had an additional title to the receipt of
certain " little fees," whilst the Principal, as
master of the revels, had no graver respon-
sibilities cast upon him than lay in keeping
his small society within the easy limits of a
moderate de-
corum.
The Royal
Commission
which sat in
1854 on an in-
quiry into our
Inns of Court
and Chancery,
failed to elicit
any evidence
of material im-
portance in re-
spect of the an-
tecedents of
Barnard's Inn
or its posses-
sors. No
students, it was
stated, had ever
belonged here ;
but this does
not agree with
what Stow tells
us, or, indeed,
with the subsequent admission that during the
latter portion of the seventeenth century a
reader in Law would occasionally come over
from Gray's Inn. But the library was afterwards
sold, as consisting of u a few old books which
were of no use ;" and all traces of earlier con-
dition or constitution of the Inn rapidly dis-
appeared. A treasurer and a secretary, it is
true, responded to the call to go before the
Commission. But they had little story to
tell other than that the account books of the
Inn covered a period dating from more than
three hundred years ago ; and that the pro-
perty was held under a lease renewable every
fourteen years at a fine of ^1400. Their
rent-roll then brought in an income of the
annual value of about ^iooo.
Turning out of Holborn opposite Furnival's
Inn, through an insignificant though substan-
tially built gateway, over which appear the
date and letters 1758, P.R.W., we walk along
a narrow passage into the first and outer court,
with a brick archway at its south-eastern
corner. This court has for its southern side
the archway and diminutive Hall of red brick
which are shown in my sketch. The Hall,
as will be observed, has a very plain eleva-
tion, and is unusually well lighted with side-
latticed win-
dows,andacen-
tral lanthorn.
Though not es-
pecially re-
markable in any
other way, the
Hall forms an
interesting fea-
ture in a district'
which, includ-
ing its more at-
tractive neigh-
bour, Staple
Inn where
Johnson wrote
his " little story
book," as he
termed his
Eastern tale
is yet untouch-
ed by the Apol-
lyon of utility
and improve-
ment. It has,
interior, fitted and
manner, and
King Charles
Verulam, the
Lord Chief
do not ex-
feet by
The
however, a pleasing
decorated in the customary
adorned with portraits of
II., Lord Burghley, Lord
Lord-Keeper Coventry, and
Justice Holt. Its dimensions
ceed a plan of about thirty-six
twenty feet, with a height of thirty feet,
coats of arms of past Principals, in
stained glass, ornament the side windows.
But a high wall, which shuts off its northern
side, and a hideous yellow brick structure
forming its entrance from the south, greatly
disfigure the exterior of the Hall. Beyond
BARNARD'S INN, HOLBORN.
the middle and smallest quadrangle, which is
almost wholly occupied by the yellow brick
entrance to the Hall, is a larger court, having
at its south-eastern corner the Jacobean
buildings represented in my other drawing.
The Alchemist lived in the second floor
chambers of the staircase No. 2. The
mullions above the windows, with the over-
hanging upper story and two bays on the
right are very picturesque. A large tree
stands equidistant from the three entrance
doorways. There are buildings of a more
modern age on the western side of this, the
furthest court from Holborn, and they also
have trees planted before their doors. Charles
Dickens, in Great Expectations, indulges in
a few characteristic strokes of humour at the
expense of Barnard's Inn, but his pleasantry
is applicable to scores of places that have