Posts Tagged ‘bone china’
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
19th Century Victorian English Busts and Statues
Parian, or “statuary porcelain”, was possibly the most significant ceramics development in Britain during the Victorian period. Named after the Greek island of Paros for its resemblance to the white marble quarried there, parian was a bone china that contained a high degree of feldspar, which meant that it did not need a separate glaze. Decorative wares could therefore be displayed without becoming dirty, unlike earlier biscuit, or unglazed, white porcelain, which was coarse and difficult to clean. First made in the 1840s, parian was capable of being moulded without losing any detail, with the result that contemporary sculptors could have their works successfully reproduced for the mass market. Parian was also made in the USA at the United States Pottery in Bennington, Vermont.
IMPORTANT MAKERS
There remains Uncertainty as to which factory invented parian. The firms of Minton & Co. (est. 1793) and Copeland (1833-1933), both in Stoke-on-Trent, claimed to have discovered the secret; both were making parianlike porcelain by the mid-1840x, and at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London they displayed an extensive range of parian subjects. Other famous makers included Royal Worcester (est. 1862), Coalport (est. c.1796), and Wedgwood (est. 1759), all of whom made a range of wares, figures, and busts, while Wedgwood also made impressive, large figure groups. Smaller portrait busts were the speciality of Robinson & Leadbeater (est. early 1860s), in Hanley, and others were made by the firm of Goss ( 1858-1940), in Stoke-on-Trent. Parian dominated English porcelain production for display objects for about 40 years, and a great deal survives.
PORCELAIN BUSTS AND STATUES
Models for parian were provided by eminent Victorian sculptors, whose full-sized statues could be reduced in size and reproduced in quantity for commercial sale without losing quality. The work of contemporary sculptors such as John Bell (1812-95), Raphaelle Monti (1818-81), and Sir Thomas Brock (1847-1922), together with famous Classical statues housed in museums, could be reproduced and sold to a wide public. A device known as “Cheverton’s
Reducing Machine”, patented by Benjamin Cheverton in 1844, was developed to allow subjects to be scaled down and cast in moulds for the ceramics factories. Busts were made of various subjects, including royalty, politicians, philanthropists, poets, composers, and
characters from antiquity. Figures ranged from meaningful allegories to barely disguised eroticism; for example, The Greek Slave, a controversial sculpture by the American sculptor Hiram Powers (1805-73), was displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and copied by Minton & Co. Many parian figures were made either for the Art Union of London or for the Ceramic and Crystal Palace Art Union, which were lotteries set up by philanthropic Victorians to raise funds for the arts; parian works were frequently offered as prizes. The manufacture of artistic parian gradually diminished in favour of the large-scale mass production of portrait busts, and little of any consequence was nude after c.1880.
• BODY fine, highly vitrified, generally pure white
• FINISH matt, semi-matt, or with a slight surface sheen
• PRODUCTION usually slip-cast, therefore quite light
• FORMS sentimental figures; figures Of politicians, royalty, and composers; literary, religious, and allegorical subjects; copies of famous Classical statues housed in museums; works by Victorian sculptors
• IMPORTANT MANUFACTURERS Minton & CO.,
Copeland, and Robinson & Leadbeater
Tags: 1840, 1840s, 1860s, 18th century furniture owned by lord burlington, 18th century german bookcase, 18th century german drinking glasses, 18th century king george red velvet arm chair value, 18th century knife boxes, 18th century knifebox, 18th century marquetry, 18th century marquetry commode with inlaid birds and f, 18th century marquetry bow front commode, 18th century marquetry bureau de dame, 18th century mass produced tableware, 18th century meissen porcelain, 18th century pennsylvania cabinet makers desk, 18th century portable writing desk, 18th century rococo copper candlesticks, 18th century salt glazed english stone ware, 18th century soup urn, 18th century style dining tables, 18th century table knife sheffield, 18th century table top french clocks, 18th century trestle table, 18th century victorian toilet in dining room, 18th century vintage wooden kitchen utensils, 18th century walnut-veneered and oak chest of seven dra, 18th century wardrobe, 19th century, allegorical subjects, antiqu, Art, bennington vermont, bone china, coalport, contemporary sculptors, decorative wares, English, english porcelain, example, feldspar, figure groups, great exhibition of 1851, greek island, john bell, leadbeater, manufacturer, marble, mass production, ny, Porcelain, portrait busts, raphaelle monti, Royal, royal worcester, sized statues, stamped, thomas brock, victorian period, wares, wedgwood
Posted in Porcelain | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Rockingham
During the 1820s all established pottery works at Swinton in South Yorkshire was moved to the Wentworth estate of Earl Fitzwilliam, Marquess of Rockingham, and expanded by the Brameld family to include a porcelain works, with financial support from the Marquess. Bone china was first made there c.1825, and the factory, known as “Rockingham”, soon developed a very individual style.
THE ROCOCO REVIVAL
The Rockingham factory is synonymous with fancy shapes; indeed, the term “eccentric” is often used for the wares, with some justification. While certain Rockingham designs are plain and elegant, the makers became masters of the Rococo Revival, and specialized in lavish moulded decoration. Perhaps the most extravagant examples of this style are the two large “Rhinoceros” vases (c.1826) with rhinoceros-shaped finials, one of which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Tea-sets were made in the shape of plants with overlapping leaves, and handles were often in the form of gnarled branches. Many of the shapes have a rustic quality- even the most celebrated dessert service made for King William IV c.1830 included curiously shaped centrepieces. Fine painters, including Thomas Steel (1772-1850), famous for painting fruit, and George Speight, famous for figure Subjects, decorated plaques, vases, and dessert services. In competition with similarly styled wares made at the factories of Minton & Co. (est. 1793), in Staffordshire, and Coalport (est. c.17 96), in Shropshire, Rockingham porcelain encrusted with modelled flowers copied the style of contemporary wares made at the factory of Meissen in Germany.
THE ROCKINGHAM CONFUSION
Rockingham teawares competed with those produced by such factories as Ridgway (1792-1848) and Davenport (c.1793-1887), using coloured grounds and painted floral reserves. Rockingham figures were often exact copies of Derby, since all the principal English factories supplied the same
Englis
shops. The reason that Rockingham achieved greater fame than its contemporaries is that it marked so many of its
products. Unfortunately, unmarked tea-sets from factories such as Coalport, Ridgway, and Samuel Alcock & Co. (est. 1826) were mistakenly called “Rockingham” because they represented the same Rococo
Revival fashion and looked similar to
the marked Rockingham wares. Manv
Victorian homes owned such tea-sets,
and these have been passed on as
“Rockingham” china, although
very identify few were actually made by the
Yorkshire factory. To denrify such
sets correctly, it is important to learn the distinctive shapes made at the factory and its pattern numbers. In the same way,
Rockingham marks on small animals led to
the incorrect attribution of a great range of Staffordshire porcelain ornaments, especially
sheep, shaggy served as
shaggy poodles, and cottages, which served pastille burners. Because of such confusion, Rockingham became a household name for inexpensive ornaments.
Rockingham was also renowned for its lavish and ambitious dessert services, such as that commissioned for the coronation of William IV in 1831, which was ready in time for the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838. Partly because of the costs associated with such services, the factory was forced to close in 1842.
• BODY bone china, ivory toned, prone to crazing and discoloration
• STYLE Rococo Revival
• FORMS decorative wares, pot-pourri vases, lavish tea and dessert services
• DECORATION heavily encrusted with flowers
• COLLECTING output was very small; handle shapes on teawares, and the shapes of vases, must match known Rockingham examples
Tags: 19th century, 19th century maryland mahogany lyre-based card table, 19th century mirror makers, 19th century painted wardrobe, 19th century pennsylvania furniture prices, 19th century regency antique furniture, 19th century rococo revival old paris clocks, 19th century silversmiths, 19thc candle stand, 2009 chinese porcelain antique, 20th century furniture maker's marks gordon russell, 3 leaf antique extending dining table, 3 leg drum table with leather top, 3 legged rectangular table, 3 tiered dessert table mahogany antique rectangular, 4 foot drop leaf table, 4 section antique cutlery box, 54 pieces homer laughlin china dated 1954, 6' chestnut refectory table, 6ft sofa table, a & s smee finsbury, a 19th century mahogany square front chest, acanthus 16 century italian design, acanthus leaves rococo period furniture, adam pattern silver candlesticks, adam serpentine sideboard, adjustable silver candlesticks, after dark candelabras, aimone mfg co dresser, aimone mfg co furniture new york dresser, Art, bone china, coalport, coloured grounds, davenport, design, dessert service, earl fitzwilliam, English, english factories, fancy shapes, figure subjects, gnarled branches, king william iv, london tea, marquess, Meissen, ny, painted, pattern numbers, Porcelain, pottery works, Rococo, rococo revival, rustic quality, south yorkshire, staffordshire, tea sets, vases, victoria and albert, victoria and albert museum, victoria and albert museum in london, wares
Posted in Porcelain | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Swansea and Nantgarw
The high reputation enjoyed by Welsh porcelain is very much deserved, for the body is truly beautiful and the decoration usually most elegant. Credit for the porcelain and the (albeit short) success of the Welsh factories lies firmly with the painter William Billingsley (1758-1828) who in 1813 brought to Nantgarw, near Cardiff, a new formula he had developed at Barr, Flight & Barr in Worcester. In 1814, with his backer, William Weston Young, Billingsley moved production to the Cambrian Works at Swansea. In 1817 he returned to Nantgarw, and in 1820 left for Coalport.
SWANSEA
Swansea made soft-paste porcelain, closer to the paste produced at Sevres than to Staffordshire bone china. Swansea paste is a glass-like, highly translucent body; three types were made, known as ‘: glassy”, “duck egg”, and “trident”. However, attempts to perfect the high-quality porcelain led to numerous firing problems; a very large proportion of wares were tlierefore lost in the kiln, and the factory struggled to make a profit.
Billingsley looked to France for inspiration, and most shapes and forms of decoration were in the French style – the height of fashion in the London market. The
delicate white porcelain was an ideal ground for flower-painting, and, in addition to Billingsley himself, many talented flower-painters were engaged at Swansea, including David Evans, Thomas Pardue (1770-1823), Henry Morris 1799-1880), and William Pollard (1803-54). Thomas Baxter (1782-1821), who later worked at Worcester, painted
atmospheric landscapes, figure subjects, and birds. Simple but elegant formal patterns were painted at Swansea, as well as rich “Japan” patterns; other rich decoration was added in London.
NANTGARW
By 1817 the Swansea venture was failing because of
continued firing problems, and Billingsley, striving to succeed on his own, moved back to Nantgarw where he erected new kilns. Nantgarw porcelain was still difficult to control, a problem that resulted most notably in a scarcity of teawares. Instead, plates could be fired with some success, and for a few years Nantgarw plates were made in reasonable quantity, although output was never large. A few wares were decorated in Wales, but most were sent to London to independent decorators, where the finest decoration, in the French style, was added; this included richly coloured grounds and ornate painting. Attempts to attribute painting to London artists as opposed to Welsh artists are always controversial, although it is likely that London painting was generally far superior to anything carried out at Nantgarw.
Although Nantgarw made extremely fine, beautiful porcelain, it was unable to make a profit. As a result the Venture failed, and in 1820 Billingsley retired to live near Coalport. Many unfinished pieces were left at Nantgarw, and some were decorated up to ten or even twenty years later by local artists such as Pardoc. Auctions held in 1821 and 1822 sold off the last of the wares.
• BODY both soft-paste porcelain; Swansea: types known as “glassy”, “duck egg”, and `trident”; Nantgarw: extremely fine and translucent
• FORMS teawares, flatwares, cabinet cups, ice pails, tea, dinner, and dessert services
• DECORATION superb flower-painting
• DECORATORS Baxter, Billingsley, Pollard, Pardoc,Morris; study can identify the characteristics of different Swansea flower-painters
• PATRONAGE Nantgarw received important commissions
from the aristocracy and local dignitaries
• BEWARE French porcelain was painted in London by the same artists who decorated Swansea and Nantgarw blanks; this can lead to a great deal of confusion
• COLLECTING Swansea shapes are well documented, and specimens must correspond exactly before a Welsh attribution can be claimed; correct identification of body and glaze is important, as Coalport took over some Nantgarw moulds and imitations are plentiful; Wares are often in good condition
Tags: 19th century, antique calamander, antique campaign dresser, antique candlestick queen anne tripod legs, antique canterbury rack, antique captain's chest top drawer folds out to desk, antique card table 1920 fold over top, antique card table claw feet, antique card table kent, antique card table turned legs, antique card table with one flap, antique card table withe one flap, antique carved gateleg end table, antique carved trestle table, antique cassone for sale, antique center drum tables, antique center tables, antique central table legs, antique centre table with caryatid legs, antique centres selling dressing tables, antique ceramic dish in silver stand, antique ceramic indian elephant end table, antique chair style commode with chamber pot, antique chamber cabinets, antique chamber pot, antique chamber pot chest, antique chamber pot commode, antique chamber pot makers, antique chamber pot with commode, antique chamber pots, antique chamber sets, antique cherry drop leaf table claw foot, aristocracy, billingsley, bone china, coalport, david evans, DECORATION, duck egg, figure subjects, flatware, flower painters, flower painting, formal patterns, french porcelain, french style, height of fashion, henry morris, london market, ny, painted, paste porcelain, Porcelain, quality porcelain, rich decoration, soft paste, staffordshire, thomas baxter, translucent body, william pollard, william weston
Posted in Porcelain | No Comments »
