BOW PORCELAIN. 297
in former days and also having regard to the fact that Bow
Porcelain was a local product of eighteenth century date and
so worthy of special exhibit in a local museum, even one otherwise
mainly devoted to natural products. Mr. Crow hopes that his
generous act may be followed by private owners and by fellow-
dealers of his acquaintance, so as to increase the collection in
the future.
To accommodate this valuable accession, a special glazed
Table Case has been purchased by the West Ham authorities
and is in itself, apart from its contents, a handsome addition to
the museum.
With regard to the actual site of the works where Bow
Porcelain was produced there has been much diversity of opinion
due to an assumption by some (misled by the term "Bow"
porcelain) that this ware was made on the Middlesex side of
the River Lea. But it is quite certain that it was a truly Essex,
and withal a Stratford, product. This is a matter of considerable
interest to us Essex folk and is substantiated by the inscription
on Craft's bowl in the British Museum, which states :—
"This bowl was made at the Bow China Manufactory at
Stratford-le-Bow, Essex, about the year 1760, and painted
there by me, Thomas Craft : my cipher is in the bottom."
Craft adds that, in 1790, the building was a turpentine factory
and small tenements in a very dilapidated condition.
The late Mr. Frank Hurlbutt, in his magnificent volume on
"Bow Porcelain," 1926, sifts the available evidence on the
subject, and shows that a glass manufactory at Bow (Middlesex)
existed before the date when porcelain was being made at
Stratford (Essex), and he is of opinion that experimental specimens
of porcelain were produced at Bow ; that the Stratford and Bow
factories were doubtless carried on together : "but that Stratford
made porcelain and Bow made glass." It is known that Edward
Heylyn had a glass factory at Bow, that he and Thomas Frye
jointly took out a patent for a glassy frit porcelain in 1744-45,
and it was in conjunction with this that the factory at Stratford
("New Canton") was established in 1750 by Frye and his
financial backers, Weatherby and Crowther.
In 1867 broken sherds, moulds, saggers, etc. (all without
marks) were discovered by a Mr. Higgins during excavations
on the south-eastern side of the Stratford High Street, on premises
at that time in the occupation of Bell and Black, match makers,
and a generation later (in 1895-99) in that of Hogarth & Co.,
as a jam and pickle factory.