Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/413

 operation, opened a warehouse in Fore Street, Cripplegate, London. The trade steadily increased, and larger premises at 37 Lincoln's Inn Fields, the site of which was formerly occupied by the Duke's Theatre, were purchased by Spode and Copeland in 1779.

In 1796 the net profits of the firm exceeded 13,000l. On his father's death in the following year Josiah returned to Stoke, after making Copeland a partner and entrusting the London warehouse to his care. In 1800 Spode commenced to manufacture porcelain, and introduced bones into the paste as well as felspar, which increased the transparency and beauty of the ware. The present method of ornamenting porcelain in raised unburnished gold was first introduced by him in 1802. In 1805 he also made a fine ware called opaque porcelain. ‘He and other manufacturers inundated France with this description of ware under the name of ironstone china. It almost entirely superseded their fayence owing to its superior durability’. The Prince of Wales visited Spode's manufactory in 1806, and he was appointed potter to the king. In 1812 he erected a large steam engine on his works, and made many important improvements.

Spode built for himself a very fine house at Penkhull, Staffordshire, called The Mount, and thither he and his family removed in 1804. He died there on 16 July 1827, aged 73. At the age of nineteen he married Miss Barker, daughter of a pottery manufacturer, by whom he had a son Josiah. His partner, William Copeland, predeceased him in 1826, being succeeded by his son, William Taylor Copeland [q. v.], into whose hands the whole business eventually passed through the death of Spode's son Josiah, on 6 Oct. 1827. Spode was the most successful china manufacturer of his time, and left a large fortune.

[Chaffers's Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain, 7th ed. 1891; Jewitt's Ceramic Art of Great Britain, 1883; Annual Register for 1827; Prof. Church's English Earthenware, 1884; Gent. Mag. 1827 ii. 470, 1829 ii. 568.]

 SPOFFORTH, REGINALD (1770–1827), glee composer, the son of a currier, was born at Southwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1770. His uncle, Thomas Spofforth, organist of Southwell collegiate church, adopted him and taught him music, and he became a pupil of Dr. Benjamin Cooke [q. v.] He wrote his first glee, ‘Lightly o'er the village green,’ in 1797, and in 1793 obtained two prizes offered by the Nobleman's Catch Club for glees (‘See! smiling from the rosy east’ and ‘Where are those hours?’), which brought him into notice. In 1799 he published a ‘Set of Six Glees,’ which permanently established his reputation. One of these, ‘Hail! smiling morn,’ is probably the most popular glee ever written. Another, ‘Fill high the grape's exulting stream,’ gained a prize in 1810. As a member of the ‘Concentores Sodales’ he wrote a number of glees and canons, and some of these, left in a crude state and not intended for publication, were afterwards issued without authority by his pupil, William Hawes (1785–1846) [q. v.] He wrote some ephemeral music for the stage, and, being a good pianist, accompanied at Covent Garden, under William Shield [q. v.] He is best represented by his glees, about seventy in number, which are excellent and marked by a lively fancy and a chaste style. He died at Brompton on 8 Sept. 1827, and was buried at Kensington parish church. On the colonnade, near the bell tower, in Brompton cemetery, there is a tablet to his memory. A younger brother, Samuel (1780–1864), was organist successively of Peterborough and Lichfield cathedrals. He composed some once popular chants and other church music, and died at Lichfield on 6 June 1864.

[Barrett's English Glees and Part Songs; Baptie's English Glee Composers; Biogr. Dict. of Musicians, 1824; Grove's Dict.; Parr's Church of England Psalmody; Brown and Stratton's British Musical Biography, 1897.]

 SPOONER, CHARLES (d. 1767), mezzotint engraver, was born in co. Wexford, and became a pupil of John Brooks [q. v.] In Dublin he executed portraits of William Hogarth (1749), Anthony Malone, Samuel Madden (1752), and Thomas Prior (1752), all of which are extremely scarce. He came to London before 1756, and engraved some good portraits, two or three of which were from his own drawings; as well as genre subjects after Rembrandt, Teniers, Schalken, Mercier, and others. But he found his chief employment in making skilful copies of plates by other engravers for Sayer and Bowles, the printsellers. Spooner died in London on 5 Dec. 1767, his life being shortened by intemperance, and was buried beside his friend, James Macardell [q. v.], in Hampstead churchyard.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of Engravers in Brit. Mus. (Addit. MS. 33405).]

 SPOONER, CHARLES (1806–1871), veterinary surgeon, born 19 Oct. 1806, was youngest of the three sons of William Spooner of Fordham, Essex. His father at the time