Welsh Journals

The rival Glamorgan Pottery, built alongside the Cambrian and operating from 1813 or so until 1839, also turned out certainly two ship subjects; and one, a brig appears on both sides of a jug in the Royal Institution with the name ED. JONES. Printed in underglaze black, this item has a distinctive border pattern incorporating Britannia with a cap of liberty, Neptune driving through the waves in a chariot, a flag and a lion. The jug is marked OPAQUE CHINA B.B. & I the later mark of the proprietors Baker, Bevans and Irwin and is further ornamented with slight floral sprigs painted over the glaze in red and green (Fig. 4 right). Despite the mark, the piece is not porcelain, but is made of a somewhat refined white earthenware. The other design used at the Glamorgan and known on plates, is of a three-masted sailing ship viewed from the stern quarter, which is quite different from that on the Cambrian plates. Complete services for table use decorated with ships, incorpo- rating tureens, cover dishes and the like, do not seem to have been made either at Swansea or any of the other potteries mentioned. The production was apparently limited to plates, bowls, mugs and jugs, probably sold in sets rather than as single items, although very occasionally one finds a beaker from Liverpool or a tobacco jar from Sunderland with a ship design. The potteries at the latter place were also famed for decorative wall plaques ornamented with rose- lustre borders and these frequently feature a ship. Nothing of this kind is known to have been made at Swansea where the ship motif was restricted to plates and, more rarely, jugs. Fresh Light on Dr. John Lane Co-founder of the Copper Industry at Swansea by F. V. EMERY IN THE FOURTH VOLUME OF Gower which appeared in 1951 there was an important article by R. O. Roberts entitled Dr John Lane and the foundation of the non-ferrous metal industries in the Swansea Valley'. There, in pages 18 to 24, we read the story of how Lane and his partner John Pollard first began smelting copper at Landore in 1717. Towards the end of his discussion Mr. Roberts said that