Beneath our feet in East London, between the Lea and Thames rivers, you may dig up an extraordinary piece of ceramic history. Fragments of mugs (handles attached!) and objects like this saggar, used as part of ceramic manufacturing and decorating processes, bely the area’s heritage of making, creativity and commerce.
You can see some of these archaeological finds alongside other pieces of Bow and Limehouse china in our new Storehouse display, East London Potteries, which builds on the ongoing research and engagement work of the Making London Porcelain project.
Many of these treasures were uncovered by the indefatigable ceramic collector Lady Charlotte Schreiber during excavations of the Bow porcelain works in 1868. A towering figure in ceramics history, Lady Schreiber and her husband Charles had a particular passion for 18th-century English porcelain. Their expansive collection was brought into the V&A’s care in 1885 and the fragments which Lady Schreiber unearthed at Bow are now stored a stone’s throw away from where they were buried at V&A East Storehouse.
Locally made yet globally inspired, the 18th-century porcelain factories at Bow and Limehouse produced a diverse range of ware affordable to a wider customer base than the porcelain produced at rival contemporary factories such as Chelsea which specialised in luxury goods.
In the Storehouse display, objects such as a small ‘blanc de chine’ (meaning in the style of ‘white from China’, the highly-prized white porcelain made in Dehua on China’s southeast coast) Bow cup and a blue-and-white Limehouse pickle tray encapsulate east London’s aspiration to replicate Chinese techniques and decorations. Indeed, the Bow factory styled itself ‘New Canton’ from 1749, in recognition of its strong Chinese influence.
Bow was the first ceramic factory in England built specifically for porcelain manufacture. According to ceramic historians Elizabeth Adams and David Redstone in Bow Porcelain (1981), Bow was ‘an initiator of new ideas, new standards, and the precursor of the modern porcelain industry’ and quickly brought in other popular forms and decorations from across the globe to appeal to the widest possible market.
Japanese wares had been imported into Europe since the 1600s, and the Japanese ‘Kakiemon’ decorative style, which balanced the plain white porcelain surface with colourful yet simple designs, was imitated extensively among European factories. In our Storehouse display, a tall Bow beaker is paired with a Japanese beaker vase, clearly demonstrating east London’s stylistic proximity to east Asian art imports.
Meissen, based in today’s Germany, had led the fashion for luxury porcelain since its founding in 1710, and by the 1740s its wares in the Rococo style were sold all over Europe. This had a significant impact on emerging English factories like Bow, who strove to enter the market.
The sweetmeat dish in the Storehouse display, shaped like oyster shell, echoes the intricate curves typical of this rococo style whilst simultaneously showcasing Japanese Kakiemon patterns. A pair of Bow tureens, shaped like partridges, have a similar rococo trompe l’oeil or ‘trick of the eye’ form to a Meissen watermelon-shaped tureen in the display, though sadly these could not be shown due to space constraints (curating a small display can present some challenges over what to include!).
Despite Bow’s success, porcelain manufacture in the 18th century remained a precarious business. A factory established at 20 Fore Street, Limehouse (now Narrow Street, near the Limehouse Link Tunnel) survived only three years: its experimentation with ware design and production technology failed to generate profit. However, examples such as the blue and white coffee pot and cover in the Storehouse display demonstrate Limehouse’s own connections with fashionable Chinese designs.
In an advertisement from The Daily Advertiser in 1747, the factory declared:
‘To the PUBLICK. THE NEW-INVENTED LIMEHOUSE WARE, consisting of a great Variety of useful and ornamental Vessels, which as to Duration etc. is in no way inferior to China, being now greatly improved…’
Clearly, being ‘in no way inferior to China’ was a strong marketing hook. Chinese porcelain was known for its strength and resistance to thermal shock, physical properties the Limehouse factory aspired to emulate, as well as the characteristically Chinese blue-and-white designs.
The factory called in the creditors a year later, its experimentation in translucent porcelain failing to live up to the ambitions professed in the 1747 advertisement.
Nevertheless, ceramic specialist Jacquie Pearce (2025) suggests key workers from Limehouse probably moved across England to other factories at Bristol and Newcastle-under-Lyme after the factory’s closure. This conveys how their globally inspired experiments in porcelain manufacture had national impact.
The wares of Bow and Limehouse and the fragments of pottery left behind are ultimately symbolic of 18th-century trading networks of ceramics and manufacturing knowledge from east Asia to western Europe. While distinctively made in East London, these porcelain objects reveal an otherwise hidden national and international story of commercial and creative discovery.
The ‘East London Potteries’ display can be found on Level 3 at V&A East Storehouse and is curated by Dr Simon Spier (Curator, Ceramics & Glass 1600 – 1800) and Olivia Tracey (Assistant Curator, Ceramics & Glass).
