The Bow porcelain works in East London was probably the first factory in England to make porcelain on a commercial scale. Its founder partners applied for patents for porcelain manufacture in 1744 (specifically for making blue-and-white wares) and in 1749; and it was certainly in production by the later 1740s. Although it made a great variety of functional and ornamental wares, the factory also manufactured huge quantities of blue-and-white porcelains made in imitation of those imported from China. This competitive stance was signalled by the factory adopting the name ‘New Canton’. This referred to the Chinese trading base of the English East India Company, the ships of which brought vast quantities of Chinese porcelain to Britain.

Six of these inkwells celebrating production at ‘New Canton’ survive, five dated 1750 and one dated 1751.They may have been made as gifts for special customers or as advertisements for the factory’s wares. Although the factory’s early, short-lived name clearly refers to China, the enamelled decoration on this inkwell is inspired by Japanese Kakiemon porcelains, which were greatly admired in late seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe. The most significant innovation of the Bow factory was the introduction of calcined bone ash, made by burning ox bones, as a strengthening and whitening ingredient in porcelain production.

This piece was originally in the Museum of Practical Geology, which was established to illustrate the practical applications of geology to daily life in 1835 and had formed a substantial collection of English ceramics as early as1855