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 305 WOMAN'S HOME This will be one of the most important sections of Every Woman's Encvclop^:dia. It will be written by the leading authorities, and will deal, among other things, with : The Choosing a House Building a Hoiise Improving a House Wallpapers Lighting House Heating, Plumbing, etc. The Rent-purchase System How to Plan a House Tests for Dampness Tests for Sanitation, etc. Furniture Glass Dining-foom China Hall Silver Kitchen Home-made Furniture Bedroom Drawing-rooju Nursery, etc. Housekeeping Cleaning Household Recipes How to Clean Silver How to Clean Marble Labour-saving Suggest 'ons, etc. Servants M^ages Registry Offices Giving Characters Lady Helps Servants' Duties, etc. Laundry Plain Laundrywork Fine Laundrywork Flannels Laces Lroning, etc. OLD PI^YMOUTH CHIHA By Mrs. WILLOUGHBY HODGSON Author of "How to Identify Old China" and "How to Identify Old Chinese Porcelain" The Manufacture of Plymouth China was an Art borrowed from the Chinese — The Founder of the Plymouth Factoryt His Career, and the Establishment of His Works — Characteristics and Peculiarities of the China— Its Value — How to Identify it — The Marks on Plymouth China PEARLY in the eighteenth century ^-^ there Uved in China a French Jesuit priest, Pere d'Entrecolles by name. This man was deeply interested in the Chinese, their arts and industries, about which he wrote long letters to the Pro- cureur of the order in Paris. Two of these letters — the first written in 171 2 and the second from King-te-Chen (the seat of the imperial china factory) in 1722 — described minutely the manufac- ture of porcelain. These letters were published by Du Halde, and were eagerly read by European chemists, potters, and men of science. The Father was a man of keen observation, with a true appreciation of art and the picturesque. His descriptions of life and scenery in China are vivid and realistic, and it is to his word pictures that Longfellow's poem " Keramos " in part owes its origin. We can well understand how the poet's fancy would be roused D 32 A Plymouth pepper-pot in red and blue. On this pot those spiral ridges, caused by impcr' feet "throwing" on the lathe. by the description of King-te-Chon, with its long street, its magnifi- cent temple dedicated to the Queen of Heaven, and built by a merchant prince who had amassed a large fortune in " the Indies," and above all by the weird scene at night when the glow of three thousand furnaces would seem to change it into a veritable " burn- ing town." William Cookworthy was born at Kingsbridge, in Devonshire, in 1705. He was descended from the ancient Devonshire family of Cookworthy, one of his ancestors, the Rev. John Cookworthy, being vicar of St. Andrew's, Plymouth, in 1427. Left fatherless at the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a firm of London chemists named Bevan (a firm which still flourishes as Allen, Hanbury & Co.). This poor little apprentice, it is which are a characteristic of said, walked from Kingsbridgc to this china, are notably con- t i t ,-, i° S , spicuous London, and there he suffered