From London to Liverpool: Evidence for a Limehouse–Reid porcelain connection based on the analysis of sherds from the Brownlow Hill (ca. 1755–1767) factory site

The diversity of Brownlow Hill porcelains of the W^m Reid & Co. era is due to the remarkably wide range in the composition of their pastes and glazes and inferred firing conditions relative to the initial vitrification temperature. Sixteen of 21 analyzed sherds from the factory site are bone‐ash wares that display large variations in their bulk chemical composition. The remaining samples have silicious‐aluminous (akin to “stone china” sensu Richard Pococke in 1750) and silicious‐aluminous‐calcic (“S‐A‐C”) compositions that resemble Limehouse (London) and Pomona (Staffordshire) porcelains produced during the 1740s. The mineralogy of the Brownlow Hill S‐A‐C sherds suggests firing at a relatively high temperature (T_max approaching 1400°C, based on relations on the SiO₂‐Al₂O₃‐CaO phase diagram), thereby obscuring the identity of some of the ingredients (e.g., the source of CaO) used in their manufacture. Limehouse and Brownlow Hill may have been linked through the activities of William Ball, who is mentioned in connection with both factories, or indirectly via former Limehouse staff later employed at the Pomona factory, located not far from a W^m Reid & Co. branch factory in Shelton, Stoke‐on‐Trent. In terms of a time line, knowledge of these pastes appears to have spread first from London to Staffordshire, and then to Liverpool. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.