|
China and Glass Repairers |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Introduction An undated list (probably early 19th century) of Chinese porcelain owned by the Smyth family of Bristol shows that some of the pieces were repaired. This, together with the number of surviving repaired pieces shows the importance of repair in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hugh Owen, on page 239, says: 'This plateau (a Bristol porcelain sucrier) has been broken and very skilfully mended, by a method not often practised now. A frit or glaze fusing at a low, temperature, was employed as cement, and the piece fired in a muffle kiln. An inscription at the back, "Coombes China Mender, Queen Street, Bristol, 1780", is burned in; and this habit of marking his work in enamel colour has caused confusion; as Coombes sometimes styled himself as a "China Burner" - thus leading to an idea, that a china manufacturer of that name had worked in Bristol. He lived in Queen Street until 1805'. Pountney on pages 116-117 adds: 'From the middle of Joseph Ring's period until about 1820, or a little later, there were two men, named Coombes and Daniel, who went from one pottery to another firing the kilns for the pottery proprietors. They were styled "china burners," and their process was to ignite the six or eight fires surrounding the kiln, after the doorway had been built up with fire-bricks in fire-clay, and to tend these fires until the maximum heat had been acquired, which was estimated in a bricked-up trial hole which was opened for testing purposes, and bricked up again after the examination. In the Bristol Museum were two Oriental porcelain plates, and one saucer, until quite recently wrongly described as having been made at Bristol, marked on the back with the names of one or the other of these two men, and their trade and address below the name. Daniel as a rule called himself a "china burner," whereas Coombes generally used the words "china mender." Their process in mending was to dip the fragments of ware into a glaze and stick them together, probably supporting the articles on a mould of clay, so as to keep the edges together. These would be put into the "trial hole" and left to be fired with the rest of the ware. The result would be a good and invisible joint, unless the piece was held between the observer and the light, when a clear joint, like glass, would be apparent, otherwise the article would look as if it had never been broken. A writer in The Connoisseur of 1911 not only describes these pieces of ware as of Bristol make, but says these "china burners" were Richard Frank's two best decorators. Richard Frank, however, was as we have seen, only a delft ware potter, and never had any connection with a porcelain factory'. Pountney offers no evidence that they were kiln firemen, also I think it unlikely that repaired pieces were fired in this manner, they would have probably used a small kiln on their own premises. The process only appears to have worked on glass and hard paste porcelain. There are many surviving repairs to Chinese porcelain, but according to a leading dealer in early English porcelain they have only been seen on Plymouth and Bristol. Both these are hard paste, unlike other English porcelain of the period, which is soft paste. There are no known pieces of glass repaired in this manner, but they were probably unmarked. It is also possible that the repairs only appear on hard paste, as soft paste could be repaired by riveting. Hard paste being difficult to drill for the rivets. A china riveter, Joseph Coules, is rcorded at St Luke, Middlesex, on 21st January 1789, when he became a freeman of the City of Gloucester (Gloucester register of freemen). For more about the technique used in repairs see Eighteenth Century Glass Bonding Repairs to Porcelain, by Tomoka Suda, English Ceramic Circle Transactions, Voluem 19 Part 3 (2007). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Edward Coombes, plus his widow and Rebecca Inman Coombes does not appear in any trade directory until Mathews of 1793, although he was in business by 1778 (see below). The entry is "Edward Coombes, China Mender, Queen Street". Queen Street was in Castle Precincts, off Castle Street, and still exists. He is also listed in later editions, up to 1805. He paid rates on a property in Queen Street for 1785-1802, the entries for 1799-1802 record him as "poor" and no rates were paid for those years. There are no records of any rates paid in relation to later trade directory entries, or for the Rebecca Inman. This probably means they were sub-tenants. He also appears in the Evans directories of 1816-18, but with an address of St John's Bridge (this is probably a mistake). In 1820 Mathews lists him as a "china and glass mender, &c", in Queen Street, St Philips. The same description is given for his widow, Jane, in Mathews 1821-3, at the same address. Jane appears to have remarried, as the entries for 1825-7 are "Jane Dawkins (late Coombs), China Mender, Queen Street, St Philips". I am not sure where Queen Street, St Philips is, and it probably refers to Queen Street, Castle Precincts, which leads to St Philips. There was no family agreement for Jane to follow her husband, for in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal of 15th January 1820 the following appeared: "Rebecca Inman, daughter and administratrix to the estate of Edward Coombes, late of Queen Street, deceased, china and glass mender, no 18 Lewins Mead. Returns her sincere thanks to her friends and the public for favors already received, and begs to acquaint them, that she has succeeded her father in the above business, and most respectfully solicits a continuance of their support and patronage, which she will endeavour to meet by strict attention & punctuality". The earliest entry in Mathews trade directory is for 1826, and is as follows: Inman J (late Jameson), Printer, 30 King Street, Queen Square and Inman R (late Combes), China and Glass Mender, ditto. The entries continue, with some omissions, until 1839, when they are named Joseph and Rebecca. Joseph is listed, without Rebecca, from 1840 onwards, so presumably she was dead. There are no known marked repairs for Rebecca Inman, Jane Coombes or Jane Dawkins, but this is probably due to the fact that they were women. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Philip Daniel Daniel was in business by 1786. He is listed as a china mender, at Jacob Street, in Mathews' directory of 1793, and at David Street for 1795-8. Both streets were in St Philip & Jacob parish (the part within the city limits) and form an intersection, it is therefore likely that the 1793 entry is an error and both entries refer to the same property. Both these streets are close to Broad Plain - David Street no longer survives, but part of Jacob Street does. He was therefore in business by at least 1786 (see below). Daniel paid rates on a property in David Street, as a tenant, for 1785-1806, although the entry for 1806 records him as "poor". |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Other Possible Repairers Sketchley's directory of 1775 provides a third China mender, Isaac Nelson, whose address is given as 9 Black Fryars (off Lewins Mead in St James' parish). He does not appear in any other trade directories and did not pay rates. Another possible repairer is John Mates, because he was described as a China Mender, when his son William was apprenticed to a butcher in 1749. However he was also described as a Dealer in China when another son, also John, was apprenticed to himself in the same year. A John Mates paid rates on a property in Castle Street (Castle Precincts) between 1746 and 1774, it had a high rateable value. A John Mates, described a 'Dealer in China', voted from Castle Precincts in 1754. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Examples of Marked Repairs
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sources
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||