|
Bow porcelain was a soft-paste bone china dating from around 1745 under the direction of Thomas Frye and partner Edward Heylyn in Stratford-le-Bow, Essex, England.
Thomas Frye, an Irishman by descent, was previously known as a painter and engraver. The Bow factory along with that at Chelsea produced only soft-paste china, because as yet the English had not perfected the hard-paste porcelain first produced centuries earlier in China and only recently at Meissen in Saxony. In fact, early Bow porcelain works mimicked the Chinese designs from Meissen. To view Bow porcelain marks, click here.
At its peak, the Bow Porcelain Factory employed 300 workers around 1758, producing both dinnerware and figural items. The famous George Michael Moser, co-founder of the Royal Academy and modeller of English Rococo, worked for Bow. The company then had warehouses and a retail operation not far from The Tower of London.
As was so often the case, the Bow Porcelain Manufactory was listed as bankrupt around 1763 and its effects sold to various parties. Many of its moulds and tools found their way to Derby.
The bone-ash china from Bow, a London suburb, were important early exponents of English soft-paste china that tended in color toward ivory. Many examples still exist today - not only of Asian themes, but also of the theatrical, such as those of Kitty Clive.
|
