Once upon a time, when rooms were lit only by oil lamps and candles, people loved to have things about them which shone and glowed in this softlight. Wealthy sorts had their silver and glass, their burnished fire-dogs, their gilded furniture: but the less well-off had to do it in other ways. One of these was by having lustred pottery and china on their shelves and mantelpieces. So here is something to reflect light in that dark corner.

Now I must warn you that although most lustre ware was once rather a modest flower it is no longer so. Jugs in silver “resist” go for their forty pounds apiece in the auction rooms, and even a fairly ordinary Sunderland plaque, will set you back a fiver. Large jugs, with transfer- printed views of the Wearmouth Bridge and banded in silver or purple lustre, are in the expensive shops, to say nothing of those relief-moulded jugs where lustre is used to point up parts of the decoration.

But the varieties of lustre are endless, so I suggest that if you like it, and want to collect it, you choose a special kind and keep to it. Which one it is will depend upon the depth of your purse. If it is a question of the expensive kinds already mentioned, then you have only to go to the reputable dealers, and they will show you any amount. I recommend you to go to them because if you are buying this pricey range, then it is as well to know you are in safe hands. There are plenty of modern forgeries about.

You may well like to concentrate upon the silver “resist” already mentioned—the jug on the front cover in this style. The effect is got by a thin film, not of silver, but of platinum. The pattern is really in reverse, for it is first painted on with an oily substance which will “resist” or throw off anything applied to it; after the lustre is put on and has dried, the parts protected by the oily substance can be wiped clean, revealing the pattern in white, or whatever colour the ground might be. White is the most usual ground, but to judge by the prices, most people go after the canary and the blue. Pink and apricot also occur, but they are very rare.

There is another type of silver lustre which does not, I am afraid, appeal to me at all. The whole piece is covered with it, in a pathetic attempt to make it look like silver. It is a dreadful thing to do to pottery, but evidently many people like it, for it is still being made and sold.

Copper lustre is another general field which many people like to concentrate on. It varies a good deal in quality, but the best has some fine flower and fruit painting, or landscapes. Often you find jugs which have relief decoration, such as a mask spout. Points to look out for here are the quality of the potting, and the standard of workmanship in the painting: there is a great deal of inferior work, and if you buy this and afterwards put good things alongside it, you will greatly regret your earlier purchase.

In the field of jugs, mugs, etc., perhaps the largest class is where only a little lustre has been applied, either to point up figures, as in the well-known hunting jugs, with hounds and horsemen, or in the form of bands of silver or purple. To this latter group, of course, belong all those entertaining items, transfer-printed with pictures and mottoes or rhymes—generally called “Sunderland” though they were made in many other places as well. Perhaps the most all-embracing hope is expressed by this, on a plate in the Sunderland Museum:

Success to the Fleece

To the plough and the sail,

May our taxes grow less

And our Commerce ne’er fail.

The rim of this plate is painted with that “bubbly” mottled sort of pink lustre, again usually attributed to Sunderland, but made elsewhere too. This effect is got by blowing oil on to the painting through a pipe with a gauze end, thus creating all those bubbles.

“The Farmers Arms” is seen a good deal, with the well. known rhyme, “Success to the Farmer,” while our age-old preoccupation with the sea also shows itself. The sailor bids farewell to his girl in heart-rending lines like these:

Distress me with those tears no more,

One kiss, my girl, and then adieu!

The last boat, destined for the shore

Waits, dearest girl, alone for you.

Soon, soon before the light winds borne

Shall I be severed from your sight;

You left the lonely hours to mourn

And weep through many a stormy night.

The scene shifts significantly when we read on another jug:

Any port in a storm, my old Boy—only let

us have lots of grog and a comfortable ‘turn in’

and I’ll make you Capt. of the fore-top.

But evidently Jack came home sometimes, for we also read:

My ship is moored

My wages paid

So let me haste

Unto my maid.

Back to sea again, however, and you had this:

From rocks and sands And barren lands

Kind fortune keep me free;

And from great guns And women’s tongues

Good Lord deliver me.

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