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Early patents applied for by Thomas Frye and his silent partner Edward Heylyn Heylin, a merchant of the parish of Bow and the freeholder of the land on which the "china works" were built, appears to have dropped out of active involvement in the venture at an early stage. in December 1744 (enrolled 1745) and a totally different patent of 1 November 1748 (enrolled March 1749), both apparently intended broadly to cover the uses of china clay,The first discovery of "china stone" ( Petuntse ) and "china clay" ( Kaolin ) in Great Britain were made by William Cookworthy of Plymouth, and appeared in Cookworthy's Plymouth Porcelain and Bristol . do not seem to have resulted in any actual manufacture before about 1749, though Frye's published epitaph claimed that he was 'the inventor and first manufacturer of porcelain in England.' "Heylyn and Frye do not appear to have had a factory of their own, but probably carried on their experiments at a factory already existing at Bow, having first secured the services of a well-skilled workman whose name has not been preserved, and who may have been the real inventor of English porcelain," a writer noted in 1911.'Industries: Pottery: Bow porcelain', ''A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General; Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Feltham, Hampton with Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton'' (1911), pp. 146-50. Date accessed: 17 May 2007. The earliest Bow porcelains are of soft-paste incorporating bone-ash, forming a phosphatic paste that was a precursor of English " for painters and a modeller. Sources for the early history of the Bow manufactory were collected by Lady Charlotte Guest in memoranda, diaries, and notebooks, including a diary of John Bowcocke, who was employed in the works as a commercial manager and traveller. The works, designated 'New Canton,'Inkstands at the British Museum and at the Worcester museum bear the year 1750 and the inscription "Made at New Canton", according to Bernard Rackham, "The Chronology of Bow Porcelain" ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'' 25 No. 133 (April 1914, pp. 33-35+38-40), p 33. were sited on the Essex side of the River Lea , close to Bow Bridge. About 1758, the manufactory's high point, three hundred person were employed, ninety of whom were painters, all under one roof. "An account of the business returns for a period of five years shows that the cash receipts, which were £6,573 in 1750-1, increased steadily from year to year, and had reached £11,229 in 1755. The total amount of sales in 1754 realized £18,115."''A History..." 1911 The firm had a retail shop in . The chaser and enamellist George Michael Moser , a key figure in the English Rococo and a founder of the Royal Academy , modelled for Bow, the sculptor Joseph Nollekens was told years later;J.T. Smith, ''Nollekens and his Times'' 1828. the sculptor John Bacon also modelled for Bow in his youth. The large white figure of the ''Farnese Flora'', a high point in the Bow production, was taken, it has been suggested, from a terracotta by Michael Rysbrack . A pair of Bow figures of Duesbury's London account book, noted by Mallet 1983. Some Bow figures were imitated from Chelsea models. Bow porcelain adopted the newly-invented technique of transfer-printing from Battersea Enamel s in the 1750s. NOTES REFERENCES
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