Ireland might not be the first stop on most people’s tour of historic tin-glazed pottery centers. But surprises await even on the byways of pottery history…
Irish delftware production began in Belfast around 1697. Coincidentally, a large deposit of particularly well suited high lime content clay was easily accessible at nearby Carrick Fergus. This Carrick Fergus clay was so well suited to the job that most English delftware potteries imported it for their own work. Delft potters (in Holland, that is) imported clay from Norwich, England and mixed it half and half with their own deposits. But Delft prohibited exportation of it’s own clay to other places.
Delftware potters of Lambeth, England saw an opportunity in the early 1700’s to cut into Belfast’s market. They hired John Bird to set up a delftware shop in Dublin. His first kiln load failed, by all accounts, in a particularly “spectacular” fashion. Given the history of kiln failures, this must have been quite a failure. John was immediately fired.
John Bird had developed a special firebox design for his kilns, using coal as fuel. John promised to freely share his coal firing technology as part of his original deal with his backers. John’s patent is the first recorded use of a coal fired kiln. The technology rapidly spread throughout England and beyond.
Irish delftware sales agents travelled with England’s mercenary armies, virtual mobile towns, operating in the North American colonies during the French and Indian War (aka the Seven Years War). A large number of Scottish and Irish mercenaries were drafted for the war effort. Once on American soil, these mercenaries were told to stay (England wanted them out of the way back home). The ex-pats turned to Ireland for their pottery needs when they settled into villages after the Treaties of Paris and Hubertusburg ended the war in 1763. What marketing!
The Scotch Irish mercenaries hated England as a result of their abandonment by the crown. Their presence in the colonies added considerable fuel to the growing revolutionary fervor. But that, as they say, is another story altogether…
Erin Go Bragh!
Reading:
English & Irish Delftware. 1570 – 1840. Aileen Dawson. British Museum Press/London. 2010.
This Day in Pottery History 