Bow porcelain

Bow porcelain, English soft-paste porcelain made at a factory in Stratford-le-Bow, Essex, from about 1744 to 1776. From 1750 bone ash, or calcined bones, was used in considerable proportions in Bow porcelain; this was an invention of Thomas Frye, a gifted Irish engraver who, with his partner, Edward Heylyn, had founded the factory.

The Bow factory expanded rapidly, and over some 30 years the total output was enormous. Bow porcelain varies considerably in appearance and quality; a soft, creamy-white tone with a smooth glaze is perhaps its best achievement. Bow at first imitated Chinese blue-and-white and Japanese polychrome porcelain, in rivalry with East India Company imports, some of the designs being free adaptations that continued to be used for most of the factory’s tableware. Underglaze blue and overglaze colours, brilliant at first and softening by the mid-1750s, were used, followed by a general trend to heavily gilded, elaborate, richly coloured patterns. Unpainted tableware also was made, in imitation of Chinese blanc de chine, which is ornamented with prunus blossoms in relief. About 1755, Bow tablewares were among the first English porcelain to be ornamented with transfer-printed decorations, many from the copperplates of Simon-François Ravenet and Robert Hancock. Bow produced figures in great quantity, some of considerable originality—for example, those representing statesmen, generals, and, in particular, actors and actresses in favourite roles. Bird and animal models, some copied from Chelsea or Meissen, were produced—all in the old Rococo idiom. The fact that the old Rococo style was superseded elsewhere by the Louis XVI style probably helped to bring about the end of Bow in 1776.