Memoir of William Cookworthy : formerly of Plymouth, Devonshire / by his grandson.

  • Harrison, George.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoir of William Cookworthy : formerly of Plymouth, Devonshire / by his grandson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    207/224 (page 199)
    No. V. [Referred to in pa. 48 of the Memoir. Without a date.] It is, now, near twenty years since I discovered that the Ingredients, used by the Chinese in the com- position of their Porcelain, were to he got, in immense quantities, in the county of Cornwall. And, as I have since that time, by abundance of exj)eriments, - clearly proved this to the entire satisfaction of many ingenious men, I was willing this Discovery might be preserved to posterity, if I should not live to carry it into a Manufacture: and, with this view, I have thought proper to put in writing, in a summary way, all I have discovered about this matter. The account of the materials used by the Chinese, is very justly given by the Jesuit Missionaries, as well as their manner of preparing and mixing them into the Chinaware paste. They obseiwe, the Chinese have two sorts of bodies for Porcelain; one prepared with Petunse and Caulin; the other, with Petunse and Wha She or Soapy Rock. The Petunse they describe to be prepared from a quarry stone of a par- ticular kind, by beating it in stamping-mills, and washing off and settling the parts which are beaten fine. This ingredient gives the ware transparency and mellowness, and is used for glazing it. The stone of this Petunse is a species of the granite, or, as we in the West call it, the Moor-stone. I first discovered it in the parish of Germo, in a