METHOD OF MAKING A CERTAIN WARE, WHICH IS NOT INFERIOR IN BEAUTY AND FINENESS, AND IS RATHER SUPERIOR IN STRENGTH, THAN THE EARTHENWARE THAT IS BROUGHT FROM THE EAST INDIES, AND IS COMONLY KNOWN BY THE NAME OF CHINA, JAPAN, OR PORCELAIN WARE
Year: 1749

page_text: FRYE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
FRYE, of the Parish of West Ham, in the County of Essex, Painter, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Second, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Seventeenth day of November, in the twenty-third year of His reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas Frye, His especial licence that I, the
said Thomas Frye, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my "NEW METHOD OF MAKING
A CERTAIN WARE, WHICH IS NOT INFERIOR IN BEAUTY AND FINENESS, AND IS RATHER
SUPERIOR IN STRENGTH, THAN THE EARTHENWARE THAT IS BROUGHT FROM THE EAST
INDIES, AND IS COMONLY KNOWN BY THE NAME OF CHINA, JAPAN, OR PORCELAIN
WARE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Thomas Frye, by a writing under my hand and seal, to cause
a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within four kalendar months after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had)
may more at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in complyance with the said provisoe, I, the said
Thomas Frye, do hereby declare that the said Invention is to be performed
in the manner following (that is to say):-
As there is nothing in nature but by calcination, grinding, and washing
will produce a fixed indissoluble matter, distinguished by the name of virgin
earth, the properties of which is strictly the same whether produced from

page_text: animals, vegetables, or fossills, no other difference arising from the process
but that some bodys produce it in greater quantities than others, as all animal
substances, all fossils of the calcarious kind, such as chalk, limestone, &c.;
take therefore any of these classes, calcino it till it smokes no more, which
is an indication that all the volatile sulpherous parts are dissipated, and that
the saline are sett loose; then grind and wash in many waters to discharge
the salts and filth, reiterate the process twice more, when tho ashes or virgin
earth will be fit for use; then take of these ashes two parts, one part of flint,
or white peble, or clear sand, either producing the same effect, which mix
together with water and make into balls or bricks, and burn them in a feirce
fire, then grind it fine, and it is ready to be mixed with one third part of its
weight of pipeclay, and temper it well, when it is fit to be thrown on
the wheel, which, when finished and dry, is to be burned as all other
pottery ware till it is transparent and of a fine colour, then to be painted
with smalt or zaffer, as it is required to be deeper or paler, and it is ready
to be glazed with the following preparation:-Take saltpetre one part, red
lead two parts, sand, flint, or other white stones, three parts. To make a glass,
melt it well and grind it, to every twenty pounds of which add six pounds
of white lead, adding a small portion of smalt to clean the colour; mix it well
and glaze the ware, which is done by dipping in the vessell and setting it to
dry, when it must be put in cases and burned as above with wood, till the
surface of the ware is clear and shining, and it is finished.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Frye, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of March, One thousand seven