In transfer printing the pattern
or design is etched onto a metal plate. The plate is then inked and the
pattern is "transferred" to a special tissue. The inked tissue is then laid
onto the already bisque fired ceramic item, glazed, and fired again.
Often a pattern on a piece of
pottery ware would be made up of a number of transfers which were all printed on
a single tissue paper - each part had to be hand cut (close to the transfer)
ready to be placed on the ware. In Victorian times this work was often
carried out by children.
No. 263.
Thomas Wiltshire, aged 12.
[Who worked at Davenport's
pottery in Longport c.1840]
Note his families occupations: Father
prints the transfer,
sister cuts paper, which will be for the transfer printing and mother is a 'transferrer'.
"I am employed by
Mr. Davenport to sweep the cutting-shop, run on errands, break pummice-stone
- nothing else. I can read and write. I went to day-school before I came to
work. I go to Sunday-school now, at New Methodists. They teach me to read
the Bible and that. I come to work at half-past six, sometimes a little
before, and go into the hovel until the cutting-shop is open, to warm
myself. I go home to breakfast at nine o’clock, and always take my half
hour. I go in the other bank to dinner with my sister; she is a transferrer;
father is a printer; mother is dead; another sister cuts paper; a young
brother stops at neighbour Knowles’s between school-times.
Two of the other boys can read in the Bible. I don’t know much about the
others. I get plenty to eat and drink. I get holidays at wakes, and races,
and at Christmas."
No. 193. Mary Nixon, age 11
[Who worked at
Messrs. ALLCOCKS' Earthenware and China Factories, Burslem c.1840]
"I am
a paper cutter for Mary Sergeant; she is employed by Samuel Sergeant, the
printer, who is her husband. We have two pressmen, two girls, and four women
working with me in the same room. I have been to work three weeks next
Tuesday.
Can read, but cannot write. Went to day school at Mrs. Williams's; go every
Sunday to Baptist school. I come to work at half-past six ; get my dinner in
the same room in which I work ; never hear bad language there ; never hear
swearing I go home at six o'clock, or half-past. Work Mondays, when there is
work to do. Did not work last Monday.
Samuel Sergeant is a very good man. I get now 2s. a week; shall have 3s.
soon. I always take it home for my mother. My father is a slip-maker; mother
stops at home to look after the young ones. Have two sisters and one
brother; one of my sisters is older than I am; she is a transferer."
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