Chapter XXIII — The Export Wares. - Bells Glasgow Pottery

Chapter XXIII — The Export Wares. 

Chapter 23A 

One of the more surprising phenomena of this period is the design of the printed plates 

made by the Glasgow Pottery specifically for the market in South East Asia. At a time 

when the design and quality of the Pottery’s products are generally agreed to have 

declined, they were producing one of the most striking products ever made by any British 

pottery. 

Throughout the 1860s and 1870s there was certainly a large volume of exported-ware went out 

from this Pottery to many places in the world, as from most other Scottish potteries. Wares were 

carried by Donaldson Brothers ships, as well, no doubt, as others, for Bell’s to all parts of the 

world. Bell’s wares of this period can be found in Canada and the U.S.A.. There has been the 

occasional piece of relief-moulded white earthenware of hard body, resembling Cochran’s 

exports to the Americas and there has even been one jug destined for Denmark. Our most 

detailed information, however, is of the Asian and particularly the South East Asian market at the 

late date of the 1880s onward. 

Our first source of knowledge of this, as of much else, was Fleming’s “Scottish Pottery” and. 

although we must always be cautious of Fleming’s information, it is equally always worth our 

attention. His reference is very short: “The firm had an extensive trade in Rangoon, China, and 

the Far East, for which markets they engraved many beautiful patterns, some of which were 

specially designed by Chinese Artists.” (128) 

Three targets are mentioned for the export trade. Of these, Rangoon would partly result from 

John Bell’s ownership of Dunnidaw, though little information has come back to us: of China we 

know nothing; from the Far East we have had information back from most parts of the south and 

south east No mention is made by Fleming of India or Sri Lanka (Ceylon as it was then) or of 

Indonesia. 

The wares of which we have knowledge can be divided into several categories. 

I. The specially designed, transfer-printed soup plates and rice dishes of which Fleming was 

speaking. These first came to light from sherds found in Glasgow and from chance finds of Pegu 

bowls and plates but the realisation of the scope of the export industry came only when Mr. 

Edwin Robertson brought back several hundred pieces from Java and sold collections of them to 

the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh and the People’s Palace in Glasgow. Since 

then more pieces have come from various points 

in Indonesia and much information has come 

from Malaysia about the same, as well as new 

designs. Here is a list of the known pattern 

names from this type ot ware: 

a) patterns known from Scotland but bound for 

Burma or other markets — 

Pegu Reg. no. 12984 1889 Fig.23.1 

This pattern has so far been found only in 

Scotland, Myanmar and Malaysia where it is 

known on soup plates and bowls of various 

shapes in both red/green and green/red 

combinations of transfer prints. Since Pegu is 

now a district in Rangoon as well as a river we 

can assume that these were made for the export 

market in Myanmar (Burma). They show a battle 

being fought out from the backs of elephants. fig. No. 23.1 Pegu 

100 © Henry E. Kelly

) patterns brought back from South East Asia by various people— 

Johore 

Peacock and Lilies 

Kembang Bintang 

Burung Kupu 

Malayesque 

Tarlalu Bagus 

Kalantan 

Kalantan 

Buah Nanas 

Pekin 

Burong Supan 

Buah Buah 

Banda 

Dhurian and Nanus 

Ikan China 

Keelin Hong 

Makassar 

Borneo 

Celebes 

Kwantung 

Sumatra 

Ayam -Jantan 

Kapal Basar 

Kapal Basar 

Dragon 

Burong Merak 

Sarawak 

Malacca 

fig. No. 23.2 

fig. No. 23.3 

fig. No. 23.4 

fig. No. 23.5 

fig. No. 23.6 

fig. No. 23.7 

fig. No. 23.8 

fig. No. 23.9 

fig. No. 23.10 

fig. No. 23.11 

fig. No. 23.12 

fig. No. 23.13 

fig. No. 23.14 

fig. No. 23.15 

fig. No. 23.16 

fig. No. 23.17 

fig. No. 23.18 

fig. No. 23.19 

fig. No. 23.20 

fig. No. 23.21 

fig. No. 23.22 

fig. No. 23.23 

fig. No. 23.24 

fig. No.23.25 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Rag, No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

Reg. No 

83485 

83486 

87393 

87394 

88780 

102258 

112878 

118678 

115580 

118729 

128553 

131572 

131849 

136522 

138769 

139291 

147736 

149158 

158409 

162201 

164182 

174294 

184617 

192115 

331870 

413994 

455652 

1887 

1887 

1887 

1887 

1887 

1888 

1888 

1888 

1868 

1889 

1889 

1889 

1889 

1889 

1889 

1889 

1890 

1890 

1890 

1890 

1891 

1891 

1891 

1892 

1899 

1903 

1905 


— reported from Malaysia 

— the reg. no. may be 

137736 

— shares border with ‘Pegu’ 

— with checked border 

— with floral border 

Bangkok see Appendix\ 3 

Burmania fig. No. 23.26 (page 104 

Castile fig. No. 23.29 (page 107) 

Humming Bird fig. No. 23.27 (page 106) 

Keelung 

Maulmain fig. No. 23.28 Reg. No 490180 1906 (page 105) — for Burma 

Some export patterns designed for the east before 1881 in the Co. period are:— 

Agra Keelung — see Appendix 3 also known as Ld. 

Alhambra — see Appendix 3 Malaga — see Appendix 3 

Amboina — see Appendix 3 Oriental — see Appendix 3 

Australia Ning-po — see Ch. V 

Batavia Sexagon 

Chinese Sports Siam — see Appendix 3 

Chinese Villa Trentham 

Ching Woosung — also known as Ld. 

Chusan 

Delhi — page 111 

Japan — see Appendix 3 



All of these make stylistically an astonishingly consistent group aand all are marked with an 

impressed B in a bell as well as a garter mark. There are five colours of print used: red, blue, 

green, brown and yellow. Specimens are known in single colours and also in combinations of 

two colours. Red centres and blue borders or with these colours reversed; red centres with green 

borders or with these colours reversed. Blue and green do not occur together nor does brown 

occur with any other colour. A very few have yellow as one colour or in combination. Not all the 

patterns are known in all these combinations. This is possibly because of the chances of survival 

but it may well be that not all the possibilities were fulfilled. 

fig. no. 23.2 Johore 

Courtesy of Rodger/MacAulay 

fig 23.4 Kembang Bintang 


fig. no.23.3 Peacock & Lillies 


fig23.5 Burung Kupu 



fig. 23.6 Malayesque Courtesy of Werner Troesch 

fig. 23.8 Kalantan 

fig. 23.10 Pekin 

fig. 23.7 Tarlalu Bagus 

fig. 23.9 Buah Nanas 


fig. 23.11 Burong Supan. Courtesy of Werner Troesch 



Fleming does not say where the Chinese who designed these patterns were and it is assumed that 

they were somewhere in Asia and the designs were sent here, rather than that the Chinese were 

brought to Glasgow. There would surely be some trace of a group of Chinese living in Glasgow 

in the late l880s and 1890s. There are, however, certain European elements in the borders of the 

designs and it is quite possible that the borders were designed by Bell’s own workmen to go with 

the more oriental centres of the plates. The plates remain one of the greatest achievements of the 

British pottery industry at the turn of the century. 

fig. 23.12 Buah Buah fig 23.13 Banda 

fig. 23.14 Dhurian and Nanus 

fig. 23.15 Ikan China 


fig. 23.16 KeelinHong. Courtesy of Werner Troesch 

fig. 23.18 Borneo Courtesy of Werner Troesch 

fig. 23. 20 Kwantung 

fig. 23.17 Makassar 

fig. 23.19 Celebes 

fig 23.21 Ayam-Jantan 



fig. 23.22 Kapal Basar Courtesy of Werner Troesch 

fig. 23.24 Burong Merak 

fig. 23.26 Burmania 

fig.23.23 Dragon 


fig 23.25 Malacca Courtesy of Werner Troesch 

fig. 23.27 Humming Bird Courtesy of Rodger/McAulay 


fig 23.28 Mulmain Courtesy of Werner Troesch 


fig 23.29 Castile Courtesy of Rodger/MacAulay 

2. There are a number of other later transfer patterns known from Bell’s which have been 

found in Malaysia but not from Java. Prominent amongst these is Keelung which shows a vase of 

flowers on a ledge in blue and a blue border with C-scrolls. It was noted by Elizabeth McLean 

that the impressed mark showed the J to one side of the interior of the bell as if it had been an 

earlier JB in a bell with the J removed. Possibly 

we have here a purely Scottish design made 

use of in an attempt to capture a market in the 

area. Also from Malaysia comes Glasgow 

which is a very elegant overall pattern with 

fans In dark blue (fig. 23.30). This certainly is 

the Glasgow pattern since the name occurs 

both above and below the garter mark. The 

outer part of the design is almost identical with 

a plate illustrated in “Bo’ness Potteries” by 

Christine Roberts and Beverly Lyon and 

attributed there to Marshall of Bo’ness Pottery. 

The elegance of the Bell’s version is not, 

however, achieved in the Bo’ness plate. 

Fig. 23.30 Glasgow 


fig. 23.31 Oppenheimer rice dish 


3. Another type of plate is decorated with hand-painted elements and sponge-printed 

elements combined. The best knonwn of these are the Oppenheimer plates with the ‘Garden’ 

pattern on them and a black rubber stamp on the back with the legend “S. OPPENHEIMER & 

CO. LTD. RANGOON”. These have been attributed to Bell’s by G. Quail on the basis of sherds 

found on a Bell’s dump (figs. 23.31 & 32). (130) A good replica is known from Malaysia with 

the mark of Petrus Regout of Maastricht on the 

back. Other similar plates have been known 

for some time in Scotland. These have a 

painted centre with flowers or fruit or with a 

hexagon and floral decoration (fig.23.33). The 

range of colour is restricted to crimson, purple, 

green and blue. They usually have a border 

carefully sponge-printed with a purple motif 

and lined in crimson. The range of these 

patterns reported from Malaysia, India and Sri 

Lanka is much greater than that known in 

Scotland. 

fig.23.32 

4. A number of purely sponge-printed 

plates of very high quality has also been 

reported from Malaysia which bear an 

impressed B in a bell (fig.23. 34). Very little 

has been seen of this quality at home, though 

fig. 23.33 

one plate of the type has been illustrated in 

Graeme Cruickshank’s book on spongeware (131) and one, in the collection of Huntly House 

Museum in Edinburgh, was illustrated on the cover of the present author’s book ‘Scottish 

Sponge-Printed Pottery’ . (132) The range of colour in these plates includes crimson, blue, green. 

yellow and grey. It should be emphasised that they are very different products from the 

spongeware that was made for the home market or for export to Canada. This latter was a very 

basic product intended to cost as little as possible. The Asiatic plates are of a very much higher 

quality in both design and execution (fig. 23.35). 


fig 23.34 


5. A very small number of purely hand-painted plates has also been reported trom Malaysia. 

Curiously these include the use of amber lustre, the famous iron lustre which had been so 

popular in Britain and particularly in Scotland in the 1860s and l870s. It is possible that many of 

the humble products painted in this colour and now attributed to an early period could date from 

rather later than was thought. 

c) A magnificent collection of spongeware has been brought back to Britain from Sri Lanka. 

(133) This Sri Lanka material displays a wide source of origin. The most commonly represented 

potteries are Bells’ (figs 23.36 & 37) , Methven’s and the Societe Ceramique of Maastricht but 

Cochran’s Britannia and Verreville potterles are both represented as well as the Sphinx Pottery of 

Petrus Regout and Adams of Stoke. The style and colouring of all of these makers are 

Indistinguishable apart from the backstamps and the vast majority of the pieces are unmarked, 

fig. 23.36 Bells- Sponged & painted from Sri Lanka 

fig 23.35 

fig.23.37 Bells spongeware from Sri Lanka 



d) Wares have now begun to come back to Scotland from India where Bells’ obviously had a 

large export trade along with other firms from Scotland. and England. So far what we have seen 

from Bells’ is sponge-printed wares of high quality only and combinations of sponge-printing 

and hand-painting in well known types of pattern (fig.nos. 23.38/39/40). No doubt there are other 

wares waiting to be reported. 

fig. 23.38 Sponged & painted rice bowl 

fig.23.40 Spongeware rice dish 

fig.23.39 Sponged & painted rice bowl 


See page 100 for relevant text on Sexagon. 

fig. no 23.39 Sexagon in green & brown 

Courtesy of Werner Troesch 

fig.23.38 Sexagon in blue(see also ch. 16 p. 75) 


Delhi Courtesy of Werner Troesch

Chapter XXIII — The Export Wares. - Bells Glasgow Pottery

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