We are currently building a Gazetteer about the engravers, printers, and makers of ceramics mentioned in this online exhibition. Click on the first letter of the surname you are looking for, if the name isn't in the list, check back again we will be updating this section regularly.

 

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Bow (Maker)

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Frye
Thomas Frye c.1760
Mezzotint self-portrait

An application for a patent to make porcelain was taken out in 1744 by Edward Heylyn and Thomas Frye, the latter was part of the first partnership that set up the Bow factory in about 1747.  Originally called “New Canton”, the porcelain works was sited in the village of Bow (the ancient parish of Stratford le Bow) then a rural area on the eastern edge of London.  The main products were useful wares with painted decoration made to compete with the fashionable imported Chinese porcelains, but occasional printed designs included classical scenes.

The porcelain they produced was an English soft-paste rather than an Asian hard-paste, and the recipe included a large percentage of bone- ash, perhaps making Bow porcelain the forerunner of English bone-china.  After the death of two of the original partners in 1762, the factory went into a decline, making thicker less translucent wares.  Bow finally ceased production in 1776.

to view Bow porcelain in this exhibit click here