Note 106 — Chapter XII

It is worthy of note that Mr. Chaffers, speaking upon this, says (p. 619): “There is such a peculiarity in the form and quality of the Lowestoft porcelain, that we are surprised any one at all conversant with or accustomed to see collections of china could ever mistake it for Oriental;” and yet a few pages later on he says (p. 636), “a punch-bowl representing similar harvest scenes is in the collection of the Author, which has been in his (Mr. Chaffers’) family for nearly a century, painted evidently by the same artist; former possessors supposing it to be of Oriental manufacture.” How is it that, being in his own family for nearly a century, and he being assuredly “conversant with and accustomed to see collections of china,” Mr. Chaffers did not previously find out that it was Lowestoft, but should have allowed his family always to suppose it to be Oriental?

The same writer relies in great measure on a statement made by Mr. Abel Bly, in 1865, that “No Oriental porcelain ever came into it to be decorated.” The statement is as follows:—“From my Father working at the Factory I was in the habit of going daily to the premises, and can most positively affirm that no manufactured articles were brought there to be painted; but that every article painted in the Factory had been previously made there. I remember that the ware produced in the Factory was deemed far superior to anything to be obtained in the country.”

The statement is almost too ridiculous to notice, and how any careful writer could give credence to it is somewhat mysterious. Abel Bly begins his statement (which evidently was drawn up for him to sign) by saying, “I ... am now in the 84th year of my age.... My father’s name was Abel Bly, who was employed in various departments in the china factory at Lowestoft. He died when I was eleven years of age.” It will be seen that he says that, from his father working at the factory, he was in the habit of going there daily, and so can “positively affirm” as above, and yet his father died when he was only a little boy eleven years old! and he was only four years old when hard paste porcelain, according to Chaffers, began to be made there. I think one can judge pretty well what amount of weight can be attached to a statement made seventy-three years afterwards, of the internal and commercial arrangements of a manufactory where, till he was only eleven years old, a boy was in the habit of going daily, probably with his father’s dinner! The statement is just as ludicrous as the next, where he says, “I remember that the ware produced at the factory was deemed far superior to anything to be obtained in the country.” Where was the Chelsea? the Bow? the Derby? the Bristol? the Plymouth? and a host of others?