duction of
the Bristol works, but a considerable number of figures are known, in
many cases obviously copied from those of Meissen, and a few large
hexagonal vases similar in style to specimens produced at Chelsea and at
Worcester. The most distinctive pieces made at the Bristol factory are
certain small plaques or slabs in "biscuit" porcelain, usually bearing
in the centre a portrait medallion or armorial bearings surrounded by a
wreath of skilfully modelled flowers. Good examples of these choice
productions are to be seen in the British Museum.

[Illustration: Plymouth, Bristol, Champion and Swansea marks.]

The Plymouth factory is supposed to have adopted as its general mark the
alchemical symbol for tin. This mark was also used to a limited extent
at the Bristol factory, though the general Bristol mark was a cross or a
copy of the crossed swords of Meissen. The Staffordshire potters who
bought the rights of the Bristol porcelain factory from Champion
established a works at Shelton, near Stoke-upon-Trent, in Staffordshire,
under the name of New Hall Porcelain Co., but they never manufactured
anything of artistic account.

_Minor English Factories._--A number of other porcelain factories were
founded in England in the latter half of the 18th century, but none of
these produced ware of any particular merit. The porcelain made at
Longton Hall by William Littler (1752-1758), always clumsy and ugly in
form, is interesting for a splendid blue colour characteristic of the
factory. This small venture was ultimately absorbed by William
Duesbury.

The colony of potters established in Liverpool also made a certain
amount of porcelain, as well as "Delft" and other earthenwares, and
the Liverpool Museum contains some good examples of their productions.

A little factory at work at Lowestoft in the last quarter of the 18th
century has attracted much more attention than it deserves, because
certain writers foolishly attributed to it large quantities of
"Armorial" porcelain which had, undoubtedly, been made in China.
Recent excavations have established the fact that this factory was
only of minor importance, and was mainly occupied in producing cheap
wares in rivalry with, and even in imitation of, those of the more
important English factories.

Towards the end of the 18th century the manufacture of English
porcelain spread into the Staffordshire potteries, and the firms of
Spode, Dav