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During the Stuart period, the refinements of table appointments and kitchen ware had assumed a new importance. Elegance was the fashion rather than ostentatious display, and such items as glass and china were of the utmost value in the gentleman's house. The heavy glitter of gold and silver plate typical of the courts of Elizabeth and James I-and the wealthy merchants and squires of their time-had disappeared except for court functions. New requirements in table manners and habits had introduced the glass rather than the tankard and the spoon and fork rather than the fingers and knife-pewter was, however, still in use and continued in favour until the mid-eighteenth century.
English pottery or stone ware was being produced at the Staffordshire potteries before the Restoration, for we find in 1661 that an Act of Parliament was passed to prohibit the weight of stoneware butter-pots exceeding six pounds so that they might . . . `contain at least fourteen pounds of butter.'
Fulham ware, both stone and salt-glazed ware, was produced by John Dwight as early as 1671, and half a dozen or more potteries were in production before the close of the century.
The majority of these early pieces were, however, fairly cumbersome and found their place amongst the larger dishes and such things as posset-pots and tygs (many-handled cups made for a hot drink).
Designs for embroideries to decorate chairs, beds and curtains took on new colours and shapes; many of such designs were copies from Eastern and Oriental imported goods; many were taken from the design books which were becoming more and more common. The large designs with flowers, birds and fruits of brilliant colours worked on white or neutral materials in wool-and now irritatingly referred to as 'Jacobean'-were commonly to be found in every home. The fine twill employed for bed curtains and appointments has lasted through the ensuing centuries with little harm, and where the embroideries were executed in silk and metal thread such works have defied the hand of time and the work of moths.
Generally speaking such designs followed the imagined shape of tropical flowers; pomegranates, pineapples, birds of paradise and the glamorous and brilliant denizens of other countries. Such shapes of necessity became formalized because there was no actual fruit or flower available for the artist to copy, his or her ideas were inspired only by another's knowledge of such things helped by a colourful imagination. Hence we find purple or scarlet pomegranates with orange or green seed-pods, blue pineapples with magenta leaves and other improbable combinations of colour that add to the charm and general effect of the delightful designs.
BRADLEY MANOR, NEWTON ABBOT
