"She could not bear to see my joy; For with my father's life 'twas bought, And made me her poor orphan boy."
It is undoubtedly such human touches as these on the domestic crude ware which stir the heart's blood quicker than all the gods and goddesses ever turned out in Staffordshire.
The age of steam and steel and its inventions did not come unheralded. We illustrate a plate of one of the earliest steam carriages (p. 463). The plate is of Staffordshire origin and evidently was intended to be sold in Germany as a "present from London," as the inscription runs, "Dampf Wagen von London nach Bristol. Ein Geschenk für meinen Lieben Jungen" ("Steam Coach from London to Bristol. A Present for my dear boy"). In date this is about 1827 as the accompanying engraving, entitled the "New Steam Carriage," is from a periodical publication of that date.
TRANSFER-PRINTED PLATE IN COLOURS. Inscription--"Dampf Wagen von London nach Bristol. Ein Geschenk für meinen Lieben Jungen." (Staffordshire, about 1830.)
[Illustration: "NEW STEAM COACH." From an old print dated 1827.]
Equally interesting is the Staffordshire blue-printed _Jug_ marked at back "Liverpool and Manchester Railway" showing the famous _Rocket_ steam-engine invented by George Stephenson. The date of this is 1830. A fine _Cyder Mug_ printed in black with touches of colour shows an early passenger train. The luggage, as will be seen, is on the roofs of the carriages. The aristocratic company at the rear are seated in their own carriage, the ladies of the party are noticeable by their old-fashioned poke bonnets. There is something very interesting in these old railway mugs and jugs. They are modern, that is in regard to technique and artistic beauty, but the subjects are of sufficient interest to make the ware important enough to find a treasured place of honour in the collector's cabinet.
=Lambeth Stoneware.=--Mention should be made of the revival of artistic stoneware at Lambeth about 1850 by Henry Doulton, of the Lambeth pottery. An attempt was made to make vessels for ordinary use as ornamental in character as the old Flemish stoneware. Some of the early pieces are in brown stoneware with incised decoration filled with blue-glaze. Tankards and vases and jugs were made of very pleasing character. Under Sir Henry Doulton great advances were made, and mugs with hunting subjects and many grotesque brandy bottles of stoneware were made. Light brown stoneware flasks modelled to represent Lord Brougham, and impressed "The True Spirit of Reform," and "Brougham's Reform Cordial," are often of Lambeth origin. In date these are about 1830, other factories made similar ware, including the Derbyshire potteries.