Posts Tagged ‘neoclassical style’

Antiques: Furniture, Porcelain, Silver, Clocks Recently Featured at Antcollectors (1)

South African Furniture

SOUTH AFRICA
THE DISTINCTIVE FURNITURE of the
Cape of Good Hope reflected the styles of the two major colonial powers in the area: Britain and the Netherlands. The various struggles in Europe had also been played out in the colonies, but by 1800 British dominance was assured. In 1820, more British settlers established themselves further up the East coast. The Cape’s position at the mid-point of the trading routes between Europe and the Far East also gave rise to influences from such places as Batavia.
A wide range of furniture was made in the Cape both for the metropolitan homes of Cape Town and the famous white-painted and gabled homesteads of the vineyards. Their forms and motifs were often simplified versions of those in Europe. A slight delay is generally considered when dating colonial furniture. The Empire style, omnipresent in Europe, appears to have had little influence in the Cape, except maybe in an increased linearity of design. Its preference for highly polished timber and expensive gilt-bronze mounts did not suit the local traditions, life styles, or materials.
The most recognizable aspect of South African furniture is the use of local timbers, which unlike mahogany, do not tend to take a glass-like polish to their surfaces. Most characteristic is the combined and contrasting use of stinkwood and yellowwood.
COLONIAL CHAIRS
A wide variety of different chairs were made in the early 19th century. Some so-called “Adam” chairs from the early
Painting in oil on wood This shows typical wall decoration, curtains, and furniture styles of the early 19th century. All the furniture, with the exception of the writing bureau, was made according to the prevalent Neoclassical style. 1815. PRA
years of the century survive at Groot Constantin. With their upholstered, oval back-panels, this type is luxurious and rare. Far more common are
Sheraton and Neoclassical chairs —the latter with pierced vertical splats, caned or thonged (animal hide strips) seats, and tapering, square-section legs that were sometimes fluted. The Sheraton variety, introduced around 1810, had a wide top rail, generally above a second horizontal bar splat and square seat. Later the front leg was either turned or ring-turned. More provincial chairs, the tulbagh, of simplified box-like form, survived into this period. These shapes are also evident on the rusbank, a Cape type of settee-cum-settle with a chair-back.
TABLES AND CUPBOARDS
D-end dining tables and gateleg tables were also produced during these years. Different timbers were sometimes used for the top, frieze, and legs, which were often tapered and fluted like other chairs of the period. Chests of drawers in the Sheraton style, which were popular in Britain, seem to have been relatively rare in the Cape; South African cabinets tended to favour earlier serpentine lines. However, the monumental armoires, corner-cupboards, and wardrobes, so typical of high-production Cape furniture in the 18th century, seem to have been produced into the early years of the next century.

This round, stinkwood table has a moulded edge above a plain apron with a beaded edge. The table top is supported on four ring-turned, tapering legs terminating in turned feet. 1830-40.
Thonged seat
NORTH EASTERN CAPE CHAIR
The top rail of this stinkwood chair is inlaid in yellowwood with simple geometric motifs, which are repeated in the two additional back rails. The chair has simple, carved uprights and similarly carved legs joined by an H-stretcher. One of a pair. 1830-40.
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE CABINET
This low cabinet is made from amboyna, stinkwood, and satinwood. It has a rectangular top, shaped at the front above two bowed
doors, divided by a fluted pilaster. The canted corners of the cabinet are also fluted and are raised on claw-and-ball feet. Early 19th century.

SOUTH WESTERN CAPE HALF-MOON TABLES
These two half-moon tables, which can be placed together to make one round table, have table tops and aprons made from yellowwood, and square-section, tapering legs made from the darker stinkwood with yellowwood inlay. The aprons have a simple moulded edge with stinkwood beading. Сupboard is of simple rectilinear form and has a moulded rectangular top above two panelled doors. The panels have chamfered edges and are set within an additional, rectangular frame. The case has a shaped apron and stands on shaped, bracket feet. I820 30.
The two panelled doors
have chamfered edges set in a rectangular frame.
A shaped apron
rests above shaped bracket feel.
EASTERN CAPE CUPBOARD
CAPE TOWN TEA TABLE
The rectangular top of this satinwood and stinkwood tea table sits above a plain apron. The table is supported on square-section, tapering legs.

SOUTH AFRICA 227
WESTERN CAPE SETTEE
This stinkwood settee has a carved top rail above a seat back comprising a series of evenly spaced pierced panels – ten in total - and gently outswept arms with simple scroll terminals. The settee is supported on tapering, square-section legs joined by H-stretchers. c.1800.

Antiques Recently Found on Antcollectors (1)

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
THE FURNITURE OF THE IBERIAN
peninsular during the early 19th century was strongly influenced by prevailing styles in other European countries, mixed with the various tastes, techniques, and regional differences that reflect both Spain and Portugal’s cultural backgrounds.
The greatest foreign influence was the French Empire style. Spain was dominated by France for a period following the abdication of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII in 1808, when Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, introduced a taste for Empire furniture. A similar Francophile furniture style also developed in Portugal, which had come under French rule the previous year.
FERDINANDINO
However, the true flowering of the Empire style in Spain only occurred after Napoleon’s fall. It consequently bears the name Ferdinandino after Ferdinand VII, who reigned from 1814 to 1833. Less sophisticated and clumsier than French pieces, the Spanish variants are usually made of mahogany, with carved gilt decoration instead of gilt-bronze mounts. Classical motifs were preferred, especially figurative devices such as putti or swans. These are epitomized on the typical Gondola chairs, which had legs featuring swans or dolphins. Similarly, the king’s desk in the Royal Palace, Madrid, is made of mahogany supported on carved gilt swans.
The Spanish love of walnut, pine, cedar, and olive wood is also evident in pieces with relatively little decoration and few appliques. Overall, like contemporary Portuguese work, the pieces are heavier than true Empire furniture and often of slightly exaggerated proportions. Spanish pieces from the south also feature an occasional motif echoing Spain’s exotic Moorish past.
Although France was the predominant cultural dynamo, British, German, and Italian influences are all discernable in Spanish furniture of this period. The presence of British cabinet-makers on the island of Minorca helped to diffuse the principles of British Neoclassical design, while 18th-century ties with Naples generated Italianate forms.
With the accession of Isabella (1833-70), and the development of the so-called Isabellino style, a more romantic trend emerged in Spain, which revived many of its historical furniture types, particularly Baroque. As such, it corresponded to the style of the Second Empire in France.
PORTUGAL
In the opening years of the 19th century, British Neoclassical style reigned supreme in Portugal. The French occupation introduced a ponderous version of the Empire style, but when power returned to General Beresford in 1811, so too did a preference for Regency design. Trafalgar chairs were most popular, while the engravings of Sheraton continued to be influential.
Portuguese furniture production experienced a downturn from this time onwards: with the return of Dom Joao VI from Brazil, political and social instability was accompanied by general economic decline. This reached its peak with the civil strife under Maria II de Gloria (1828-53).
Portuguese furniture is characterized by the use of South American timbers, particularly those from the Brazilian forests, such as jacaranda and
pausanto. These woods are easy to carve and allow sharp details, so carving is more common on Portuguese furniture than its French or British prototypes. However, the furniture produced in Lisbon tends to be far heavier and altogether simpler than the examples that inspired them. Generally, some fine-quality furniture was produced, such as the mahogany and gilt-brass mounted suite supplied for one of the bedrooms at the Royal Palace of Queluz.
From the 1830s, when Maria
II’s consort, Ferdinand of SachsenCoburg-Saalfeld, began building the Pena Palace, the German Biedermeier style became popular.
Portugal’s strong colonial ties with India and the Far East ensured that much colonial furniture was also imported, particularly from Goa and the Malabar Coast. Often simplified versions of European styles carved in Eastern hardwoods, they tend to echo 18th-century styles rather than reflect the latest European trends.

PORTUGUESE COLONIAL CABINET
The cabriole legs are joined by a wave-shaped cross-stretcher with a central urn finial in the centre.
The cabinet terminates in claw-and-ball feet. Early 19th century.
NEOCLASSICAL SIDE CHAIRS
These side chairs are part of a set of four. They have mahogany frames with parcel gilt decoration. A scrolled top rail sits above a rectangular backrest. The seat rails are plain, but mounted with gilt rosettes. The chairs stand on circular, tapered legs. Early 19th century.

DINING CHAIRS
These Spanish chairs are made of walnut and form part of a set of ten dining chairs. Each chair is decorated with mask finials. The seat back comprises two vertical rows of turned spindles – the upper row is of widely spaced,
long spindles, and the lower forms a tightly spaced decorative border. The leather seats are attached to the frames with brass studs, and the seat rails are shaped and decorated. The chairs stand on ring-turned, reeded legs, which are joined by an H-stretcher. Early 19th century
MALLORCAN COMMODE
This marquetry commode, one of a pair, is made from mahogany, fruitwood, and rosewood. The rectangular, white marble top rests above a convex frieze drawer, which is inlaid with scrolling leaves, and three drawers, that are
inlaid sans traverse. The drawers are flanked by canted scrolled angles, which are also decorated with leaf inlay. At the base of the commode is an inlaid concave-fronted drawer above a banded rim and acanthus-carved feet.

Antiques Recently Found on Antcollectors (2)  Russian Furniture

FROM THE 18TH CENTURY, Russia had
been turning her attention to the West for cultural inspiration, and this continued in the opening decades of the 19th century. However, unlike elsewhere in Europe, the Empire style did not make inroads through the imposition of a member of Bonaparte’s family or through French control.
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 had devastated the land, yet the period is marked by a flowering of the arts and economic recovery. Indeed, the Mikhailovsky, Winter, and Yelagin palaces were supplied with important Empire-style suites during the reign of Tsar Alexander I (1801-25).
FOREIGN INFLUENCE
Since the time of Catherine 11 (r.1762-96), furniture had been imported from Western Europe, particularly France, but also Britain and Germany. Architects, too, were brought over. By the time of Alexander I (r.1801-25), architects such as the Swiss, Thomas de Thomon, and the Italians, Carlo Rossi and Giacomo Antonio Domenico Quarenghi, were introducing the strict Neoclassical style prevalent elsewhere in Europe. They continued the work of Rastrelli, Rinaldi, and the Scot, Charles Cameron, in the urban development of St Petersburg and its outlying palaces.
They provided designs for local craftsmen, which were also taken up by local architects, such as Zacharov.
The furniture for the White Hall of the Mikhailovsky Palace was designed by Rossi and supplied by the Russian Bobkov brothers. Architectural in
detail and conception, the pieces epitomized French style and were covered in wreaths, rosettes, and other Empire motifs.
Pavlovsk Palace was rebuilt by the Russian architect, Andrei Voronikhin, after extensive damage
during the Napoleonic
wars. He was also a
consummate designer
of furniture. One particular chair –made for the Tsar’s summer residence, Tsarkoye Selo, in 1804 – is often associated with his name. It has sphinx monopodiae legs that rise, uninterrupted, into the winged arm supports. Not only does this chair demonstrate the vogue for Empire furniture and ancient Egyptian motifs, but it anticipates Biedermeier chairs, which conceal the link between the arm and the leg.

Russian furniture; England, especially the designs of Thomas Sheraton, also played an important part.
NATIVE TIMBERS
Much fine Russian furniture of this period, with its simplicity, symmetry, and love of boil clairs, is difficult to distinguish from Central European pieces. Mahogany was probably imported, but birch came from the forests near Karelia in Finland. Poplar, olive wood, and sandalwood were also fashionable, as were inlays in contrasting stones. The
marble was often Russian,
such as that from Siberia
or the famous green malachite, which could be cut into such thin veneers that it was used on curved surfaces.
METAL FURNITURE
Timber was frequently gilded and patinated to simulate metal, particularly bronze, but some furniture was also made in metal. A rich tradition of steel furniture was produced by the Arsenal at Tula, and some pieces were made entirely of gilt-bronze. Gueridons might be entirely metal, sometimes
with malachite tops and in-curved supports with eagles’ heads. One of the most lavish gilt-bronze items was the dressing table supplied to the
Mikhailovsky Palace. With a blue smalt (silica glass) table top, the piece is a riot of antique motifs, from sphinxes to cornucopiae
STYLISTICDIVERSITY
After the mid 1820s, the Neo-Gothic style became fashionable, along with a plethora of other revivalist styles,
including Rococo. Later, in the second quarter of the 19th century, furniture designers began to look back to Russia`s own traditions and folklore for
inspiration, designing pieces a la ruse. These modes were popularized by architects such as A. Staken-Schneider, and the Tour furniture shop. Typical chairs with pierced, rounded backs survive in the dining room at the Arkangelskoe, near Moscow. The design is thought to reflect traditional 17th-century Russian architecture.

GOTHIC SIDE TABLE
This Gothic-style side table is made of silver alloy and has a veined white marble top. The frieze is designed to look like a series of Gothic ogee arches: these are decorated with acanthus leaves and have a trefoil set
within each lunette. The corners of the frieze are embellished with foliate capitals set on slender quatrefoil column stems. The table stands on a rectangular base plinth decorated with an elaborate lattice of quatrefoils.
Lacquered brass decoration adds colour to an otherwise austere-looking piece. c.1820.
CENTRE TABLE
This centre table is made of birch. The circular marble top has a raised rim and reeded edge above a chamfered frieze. The table top is raised on a leaf-clasped column with three anthropomorphic legs and paw feet with sunken casters. Early 19th century.
NEOCLASSICAL CONSOLE TABLE
This Empire console table has a rectangular marble top above a richly carved frieze with a stylized rosette at each corner. Each of the four legs is a carved monopodia surmounted by a female head. Early 19th century.

MAHOGANY-FRAMED SOFA
CONSOLE DESSERT
Scroll-carved terminal
This sofa has an ornately scrolled top rail carved with anthemion motifs and downswept solid arms with scroll-carved terminals. The seat and back are upholstered and are raised on sabre front and rear legs. Early 19th century.
This gilt-bronze and brass-mounted mahogany demi-lune console dessert has an upper section with three tiers, each with pierced galleries, and a frieze with brass fluted stiles. The columnar supports are joined by a tiered platform stretcher on block feet. Early 19th rentury.
EMPIRE ARMCHAIR
This mahogany and ormolu-mounted armchair has a rectangular panelled top rail above a pierced back splat with military motifs. The chair has distinctive sphinx-head monopodia legs, and the wings of the sphinxes form the arm supports. Early
19th century. Bk
MAHOGANY ARMCHAIRS
These mahogany chairs have carved top rails and leather-upholstered seats and backs. The armrests and arm supports are formed from one sweeping curve. The tapering seat is supported on a straight seat rail. The chairs are decorated with brass inlay throughout and supported on sabre legs.

Antiques Recently Found on Antcollectors (3) - Scandinavia

THE GREAT BRITISH VICTORIES of Abukir
(1798) and Trafalgar (1805), which opened up trade along the North Sea coastline, suggest that sympathy for Britain and British design could be evident in Scandinavian furniture. This was not always the case. Denmark and Sweden’s ambivalence to France encouraged the British Prime Minister, Pitt, to destroy the Danish fleet and bombard Copenhagen, creating much animosity towards the British. This affected trade and shipping and left the Danish-Norwegian economy at the point of bankruptcy in 1813.
So, although there are traces of British Neoclassicism in early 19th-century Scandinavian furniture, it was often due either to the residual effect of late 18th-century design, or it had filtered through the influence of north German cabinet-making.
The one positive outcome of these hostilities was that local craftsmen were protected from British competition and were encouraged to develop their own workshops and styles. As in the rest of Europe, the Empire style predominated, although it had marked local characteristics.
DANISH EMPIRE
A traditional preference for simplicity, and the need for frugality as a result of war and financial hardship, gave rise to a version of the prevailing French style called Danish Empire, which was taken up by three of the Scandinavian countries. Although mahogany was
favoured, and was used in the larger, wealthier cities, it was difficult to obtain due to war. As a result, the Danish Empire style made use of light local woods, such as alder, maple, ash, and birch, which could be polished to look like satinwood. Mahogany furniture did reappear after 1815, and was generally veneered on pine rather than oak pieces.
Danish furniture was often inlaid with contrasting woods, such as citrus, rather than having ormolu mounts. Inlaid lunettes and arched details were popular, as was the occasional pressed brass or giltwood detail.
One of the most distinctive chairs produced in Denmark was the klismos chair, designed by Nicolai Abilgaard in 1800 and now in the Copenhagen
Museum of Decorative Arts. Similar
to a chair later designed by the sculptor Hermann Freund (now in the Fredericksborg Castle), it mimics the ancient Greek original.
The Danish custom of using one room as a combined dining room, drawing room, and study at this time resulted in some unique types
of furniture. One of these, the Chatol, consisted of a cylinder bureau with a retractable writing slide, surmounted by cupboards for storing cutlery and glassware. Another was a divan, which had cupboards in the sides.
HETSCH STYLE
In Denmark, the Neoclassical style lasted into the 1840s, thanks to the late Empire style popularized by Gustav Friedrich Hetsch. Hetsch had studied with Charles Percier in Paris earlier in the century, returning to Copenhagen to direct the porcelain factory. He was also a designer and his works were often scholarly reproductions of antique prototypes. This style, which favoured the use of carved appliques and mouldings over mounts, is sometimes confusingly called Christian VIII after the Danish king who reigned from 1839 to 1848.
SWEDEN
Sweden was slightly more francophile in its tastes than Denmark, particularly in Court circles. The furniture in the Yellow Room at Rosendal Castle in Stockholm, created for the king in the 1820s, is closer to true French Empire style than any furniture produced in Scandinavia during the early 19th
century It was designed by Lorenz Wilhelm Lundelius, the leading craftsman in Stockholm.
A famous secretaire, made by Johan Pettey Berg in 1811, demonstrates how Swedish cabinet-makers absorbed German heaviness, combined it with Empire motifs (such as white marble pilasters), and added the occasional British reference, such as the Sheraton-inspired inlaid shell.
The Hetsch style eventually arrived in Sweden, but it did not become dominant because Neo-Gothic had taken hold there quite early Indeed, by 1828, there was already a room decorated in the Gothic style in the Royal palace in Stockholm.

BIEDERMEIER LOVE SEAT
This mahogany, Biedermeier-style love seat has a solid, rectangular form with outswept arms. The back and sides of the seat have brass-moulded panels and fan spandrels. The arms have rosette terminals and mahogany
facings. The seat rail has brass mounts and is supported on verdigris brackets, carved in the shape of drapery. The piece terminates in massive gilt and verdigris claw-and-ball front feet. The love seat has an upholstered back, sides, and seat. Early 19th century.

SWEDISH SECRETAIRE
The tall, flame-veneered case of this Swedish Empire secretaire has tapering sides. The upper section of the case has a fall front positioned beneath a shallow drawer. The lower section consists of three graduated drawers; the bottom
drawer has a cut-away arched shape. The piece is raised on rectangular block feet. This secretaire is made in the style of furniture from towards the end of the period and is a move away from the Empire style. It was possibly made by J.C. Reher. 1841.

DANISH ARMCHAIR
The substantial hooped-back, upholstered backrest of this mahogany armchair is raised on curved supports. The upholstered seat has square, tapered legs at the front and sabre legs at the rear. Early 19th century.
EVE LATE GUSTAVIAN ARMCHAIR
This Swedish gilt-and-painted armchair has an upholstered seat and back, a curved top rail with lion’s head terminals, and carved, down-sweeping arms. The padded seat is supported on a carved seat rail and is raised on turned and fluted legs at the front and sabre legs at the rear. Early 19th century.
LADY’S WORKTABLE
This late Gustavian Swedish worktable has an oval, galleried top above a single frieze drawer. The table top is supported on tapering legs terminating in brass caps and casters and joined by a shaped cross-stretcher.

EARLY 19TH CENTURY REGENCY BRITAIN FURNITURE

THE REGENCY WAS a clearly defined
period in British history From 1811 to 1820, the Prince of Wales, who later became George IV, ruled instead of his father, who was suffering from porphyria – a form of madness. However, as a furniture style, Regency has come to embrace a wider time frame, from the 1790s to the third decade of the 19th century.
Reflecting the exuberant tastes of the Regent himself, the period begins with his commission of the Neoclassical architect Henry Holland for his London home, Carlton House, in the 1780s, and concludes with the exotic, Oriental confection that is John Nash’s
Brighton Pavilion, remodelled for the Prince of Wales between 1815 and 1823. George, the Prince Regent, came to dominate taste in the early 19th century. He and his circle drew on a diverse group of talented architects and artisans, often trained in France, many of whom had worked on Carlton House. These included the architect, Charles Heathcote Tatham, the decorators and cabinet-makers, Morel and Hughes, and the clock-maker, Benjamin Vulliamy.
FURNITURE STYLE
Regency furniture is often symmetrical with clean, rectilinear lines. As such, it was inspired by French Empire furniture and the simple late 18th-century furniture designs of Thomas Sheraton. Large surfaces were often veneered in highly figured rosewood and then decorated with gilt-brass mounts of ancient motifs, such as rosettes, paterae, laurels, and anthemia. The Liverpool cabinet-
maker George Bullock is best known for his use of patterned surfaces; he frequently balanced English timbers, especially oak, with a riot of border patterns featuring stylized flower-heads, lotus leaves, and dot motifs.
The strict Neoclassical taste found its most archaeological expression in the designs of Thomas Hope, which he published in 1807. Not only had he plundered ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome for decorative ideas, but he also attempted to recreate ancient furniture and interiors. Probably the most
typical furniture of this type is the rounded klismos chair – first known to have been produced in ancient Greece
– which has back stiles that rise from outswept sabre legs to support an almost semi-circular back.
During this period, a wide variety of side cabinets of diverse outlines came to dominate the wall space in drawing rooms, replacing the use of commodes. In the dining room, a similar role was performed by the popular sideboard and chiffonier.
ECLECTICISM
It would be a mistake, however, to see the Regency as simply a curvaceous and light Neoclassical style. It was characterized by endless variety, a freedom of forms, and an eclectic
ornamental vocabulary. George Smith, who published a pattern book the year after Hope, reinterpreted his cold, academic designs by applying Neoclassical motifs to French Empire models that also included Gothic-and Chinese-inspired furniture. Indeed, exotic forms and materials became the hallmark of Regency taste. Smith popularized Hope’s designs in his pattern book, introducing them to a wider public.
Smith inspired impressive-looking furniture, with boldly carved leopard’s masks or large lion’s-paw feet, which anticipated the slightly heavier furniture of the 1820s and 30s.

The front rail and highly scrolled ends are inlaid with trailing foliage and flowers, terminating in floral paterae.
The seat rail is inlaid with a trailing brass foliate motif.
The design of the chaise longue is influenced by the contemporary French form, the meridjenne - a type of sofa with scrolled ends, one higher than the other.
Brass inlay detail
CHAISE LONGUE
This elegant Regency chaise longue is made of rosewood and is profusely inlaid throughout with brass inlay in a foliate design. The frame has a sweeping back rail which is centred with a scrolled hand grip, and has highly decorative
scrolled end supports. The generously padded seat and arms are supported on a rectilinear front rail decorated with a foliate motif. The piece stands on outswept sabre legs which terminate in lion’s-paw feet on casters.
Sabre legs terminate in lion’s paw feet and casters.
SMALL CENTRE TABLE
The surface of this tilt-top table has a painted scene within a laburnum veneer border. It is supported on a rosewood-veneered stem, on a base with scrolled, ribbed feet on brass casters. Early 19th century
MAHOGANY STOOL
This Regency mahogany stool has a gently shaped rectangular seat with scrolled ends and light carving on the surface. It is supported on an X-frame base with simple, carved decoration and stretchers. c.1810.
This mahogany writing table has a three-quarter brass gallery and a central, pull-out insert. There are six drawers behind a lift-up flap, two drawers on either side, and two in the frieze, supported on slender, turned legs. c.1800.
LIBRARY TABLE
The rectangular top of this rosewood library table is inlaid with a Greek-key border in satinwood and ebony. The frieze has a central pierced ormolu palmette and two drawers. The bowed legs are headed by gilt lion’s heads and
terminate in lion’s-paw feet, joined by a shaped stretcher. c.1810.

Chelsea
The first successful British porcelain factory was founded c.1744 at Chelsea, then a village on the outskirts of London, by the Huguenot silversmith Nicholas Sprimont (c.1716-71). Unsurprisingly, the Shapes of British silverwares were to have a considerable influence on the porcelain made at Chelsea. Production at the factory falls into five periods, four of which are named after marks used at the time.
THE TRIANGLE PERIOD
During the “Triangle” period (c.1744-9), Chelsea porcelain was of a beautiful white glassy body, and the shapes were mostly copied directly from British Rococo silver. Early Chelsea porcelain was difficult to control during firing; wares were small-scale and included cream-jugs, beakers, and teapots. The factory was proud of the pure white appearance of its porcelain, and painted decoration was therefore kept to a minimum.
THE RAISED ANCHOR AND THE RED ANCHOR PERIODS
Changes were made to the body and glaze in the second phase (c.1749-52), known as the “Raised Anchor”
iraised from the mark of a tiny anchor embossed on a sed pad. The body was now more robust, and tin Oxide was added to the glaze to opacity it, which alsogave
it a silky feel. Popular decoration included copies Of 17th-century Japanese Kakiemon porcelain, and landscapes painted in the style of imported European wares from the factories of Meissen in Germany and Vincennes in France. Scenes from Aesop’s Fables, painted in rich colours, became a Chelsea speciality. A few figures and models of birds were also produced at this time, but these are rare.
During the “Red Anchor” period (1752-6) original forms of decoration were introduced, as well as others copied from Meissen. This period is famous for its dessert table settings, especially covered tureens in the forms of fruit, vegetables, animals, birds, and fish. painted botanical decoration, a Chelsea invention, was used on “Hans Sloane” wares, named after Sir Hans Sloane, an eminent scientist and patron of the Physic Garden, a botanical garden in Chelsea. Chelsea also made small “toys” – tiny scent bottles and seals in the form of fruit, animals, and people.
Figures became an important part of the factory’s production, owing to the skills of the Flemish modeller Josef Willems (c.1715–66). When held up to a strong light, Red Anchor porcelain should exhibit the famous Chelsea “moons” – bubbles trapped in the paste, which appear as lighter spots in the body.
GOLD ANCHOR PERIOD
The coloured grounds and Rococo shapes of the French factories of Vincennes and Sevres were the dominant influences in the subsequent “Gold Anchor” period (c.1756-69), when the factory’s anchor mark was neatly applied in gold rather than red. The use of gilding was significantly increased. Figures, designed for display on mantelpieces or in cabinets and intended to be viewed only from the front, became more elaborate, with masses of bocage (small modelled trees and flowers). Although at the end of the 19th century Gold Anchor wares were extremely valuable, their popularity has decreased throughout the 20th century.
Economic problems coupled with the ill health of the founder led to the closure of the Chelsea factory in 1769. John Heath and William Duesbury, the owners of the Derby porcelain factory (est. c.1748), bought the works in 1770 and ran the two premises in London and
Derby in tandem. This period of production
is known as the “Chelsea-Derby”
period. The factory finally
closed in 1784.
Triangle period (c.1744-9)
• BODY white, glassy, and translucent
• FORMS based on British silverware shapes
• DECORATION often left uncoloured
• COLLECTING wares arc rare and valuable
Raised Anchor period (c.1749-52)
• BODY milky white and silky; contains impurity specks
• GLAZE tin oxide added to glaze to opacify it; silky feel
• FOOT-RIMS ground flat
• DECORATION based on Japanese porcelain, Vincennes, and Meissen
Red Anchor period (c.1752-6)
• BODY creamy white with dribbling glaze; “moons” appear in paste-firing support marks (”spur marks”)
• DECORATION Meissen-style flowers
Gold Anchor period (c.1756-69)
• BODY creamy, prone to staining; bone-ash was added
• GLAZE clear, thickly applied; pools and tends to craze
• STYLE Rococo; influenced by Sevres
• FAKES beware of 19th-century fakes, usually made in French hard-paste porcelain, the body of which is too white and glassy; they are often marked with gold anchors far bigger than those on genuine pieces
Marks
c.1744–c.1749: usually incised or painted in underglaze blue
c.1749-52: anchor embossed on a raised pad 1752-6: the mark of a very small anchor in red enamel appears on the backs of figures and on the bases of plates and cups
c.1756-69: anchor painted in gold
c.1769-84: Chelsea–Derby mark

Experimental porcelain
A great deal remains to be learned about the early years of British porcelain, although much is being revealed through research. The first attempts to produce porcelain in England can be traced back to
John Dwight ( 1635-1703), a
potter based in Fulham, London, who succeeded only in producing a fine stoneware. An itinerant chemist, Thomas Briand Id. 1747), is likely to have made some kind of porcelain in London in the early 1740s, and, although none has been identified, his experimental pieces may have contributed to the success of Chelsea from c.1744, since it is believed that it
was from him that the formula was acquired.
THE LONDON FACTORIES
During the 17th and 18th centuries Chinese porcelain found a ready market in London, and manufacturers were aware that the production of viable British substitutes would be extremely profitable. The founders of the factory at Bow on the city’s eastern outskirts received their first patent c.1744, although the works was probably not active until 1747. Joseph Wilson had established a factory at nearby Limehouse by 1746, when blue-and-white Limehouse porcelain was advertised for sale. No examples of Limehouse were identified until 1989, when archeologists discovered the site and dug up shards that had been discarded during manufacture. acture. These matched exactly a type of porcelain previously believed to have been made at the Liverpool factory of William Reid, which is now ascribed to Limehouse. Wares included shell-shaped pickle dishes, sauceboats, and teapots, with blue-and-white chinoiserie decoration. However, Limehouse porcelain clearly proved too difficult to manufacture, and the works closed in 1748.
Charles Gouyn, a jeweller and china retailer, operated a porcelain factory in St James’s from c.1749 to 1759, but to date no excavations have been possible to confirm the identity of the items produced. However, it is believed that Gouyn made the porcelain figures, scent bottles, and other miniature “toys” (small novelties) referred to as “Girl-in-a-Swing” wares (after the first such figures to be identified), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
About 1752 Nicholas Crisp set up a small factory in Vauxhall on the south bank of the river Thames, making distinctive blue-and-white porcelain, the forms and decoration of which were influenced by Chinese export wares and British and Dutch Delftware. Vauxhall also made rare and very beautiful, brightly painted wares decorated with flowers executed in the style of
Meissen. In addition, the factory experimented with polyglaze printing – a form of overglaze printing using several colours at once – but very few of these wares survive. Vauxhall products, like those of Limehouse, were only recently identified, following the discovery of broken porcelain shards on the site of the original factory. The factory closed in 1764.
LUND’S BRISTOL
One of the proprietors of Limehouse moved to Bristol to join Benjamin Lund, and together they produced blu and-white porcelain from c.1749. Lund’s Bristol porcelain was not unlike that of Limehouse, but it was more durable owing to its secret ingredient: Cornish soapstone, a substitute for the petuntse (china clay) required to make true porcelain. At Worcester, Dr John Wall and William Davis realized the potential of soapstone and purchased Fund’s factory – together with its secret formula for porcelain – in 1752. Worcester became the most successful 18th-century British porcelain factory, and its proprietors went to great pains to protect their secret formula. However, a Worcester employee stole the formula and sold it in 1756 to Richard Chaffers, who made porcelain in Liverpool during the 1750s and I760s.
• BODY all the early factories made soft-paste porcelainGLAZE
• Vauxhall: glaze may be “peppered”
• DECORATION Vauxhall: underglaze blue may be inky, wet-looking, and rather smudged; polychrome painting and transfer-printing; designs inspired by Chinese export porcelain and Meissen; Limehouse: wares may resemble Chinese export porcelain unevenly fired
• COLLECTING early porcelain is very rare, and there is a great deal of interest especially in Vauxhall, Limehouse, and the earliest Worcester
Marks
Factory marks were very seldom used by the early porcelain manufacturers, which makes identification a challenge for new collectors; any marks that do appear must be treated with suspicion

Vincennes and early Sevres
The Meissen factory went into decline following the Seven Years War ( 1756-63) and was supplanted in terms of importance by the factory of Vincennes, later moved to Sevres near Paris. This factory was taken under royal control, and its commercial interests were protected by royal edicts. Employing the finest artists of the day, the factory became the leading producer of porcelain in the Rococo style and, from the 1770s the more severe Neoclassical style.
VINCENNES
The Vincennes factory was established c.1740 at the chateau of Vincennes, with the help of runaway Workers from Chantilly. The first director was Claude-Humbert Gerin ( 1705-50), who discovered the secret of producing a soft paste that was much whiter and finer than that used by earlier French factories.
In 1745 Louis XV granted the factory a 20-year exclusive privilege to produce porcelain. The earliest wares, primarily influenced by Meissen, are heavy in form and painted with small flower sprays, often combined with gilt trellis and scrollwork borders, or landscape and figure scenes.
The painting can be distinguished from that of Meissen by its freer brushwork and a softer palette.
Among the more distinctive early products were porcelain flower-heads, which were bought by marchands-merciers (dealers in luxury products) and mounted on metal stems. These flower arrangements were placed in vases or used to embellish such items as lamps, clocks, and chandeliers. Figures were made on a limited scale in the 1740s and were usually simply glazed. Popular subjects included birds, animals, nymphs, hunters, and children or putti.In
1748 the goldsmith Jean Claude Chambellan Duplessis ( 1690-1774) was hired to create new forms in the Rococo taste. He designed lighter and more elegant shapes that show the influence of contemporary silver. In 1752 the painter Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724-1806) was hired as artistic director; he introduced lighthearted, designs of children in the style of the Rococo painter Francois Boucher, and fanciful birds. In 1753
the King granted a new privilege to Vincennes and issued an edict restricting rival factories in their use of subjects, colours, and gilding. In 1751-2 the factory pioneered the fashion for biscuit, or unglazed, porcelain in Europe. Bachelier abandoned the production of small, freely modelled figures in favour of three-dimensional, sculptural pieces designed by such artists as Boucher.
EARLY SEVRESIn
1756 the factory moved to the chateau of Sevres, near Paris. The quality of the paste and gilding was strictly controlled, and the King issued sumptuary laws banning the use of gilding by any other French porcelain factory in order to protect the commercial interests of Sevres. In 1768 deposits of kaolin were discovered in the Limoges region, enabling the factory to produce hard-paste porcelain.
A Cuvette a fleurs by Sevres
This basin was intended for holding flowers. It is possible that it was designed by Duplessis, who is credited as being responsible for many of the forms made at Sevres at this time.
(c.1757, ht 32.5crr/12Yin; value H)
During the late 1750s and the 1760s
Sculptors, goldsmiths, and designers created
larger and more ambitious pieces, such as the purely decorative vases a teted`elephants
(vases modelled with elephant
heads supporting candlesticks), and other
decorative items, such as pear-shaped ewers
with flat covers. In addition to coloured
grounds, the factory introduced several
patterned grounds in the late 1760s: oeil de
perdrix (”partridge eye”), cailloute (”pebbled”), and verinicule (”worm-cast”). The reserve panels are often filled in, with little of the white porcelain left showing, contrasting with the more spare decoration employed at Vincennes. However, large, functional services, tend to have less elaborate painting – typically, small scattered flowers, which are more stylized than those used at Vincennes. Biscuit was the most popular medium for figures and the sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconer (1716-91), chief modeller between 1757 and 1766, continued the tradition of charming, if sometimes rather sentimental groups of children, lovers, and allegorical subjects.
Vincennes
• BODY Soft-paste porcelain
• STYLE copies of Meissen; later, Rococo wares
• unglazed with tree stump, rockwork, or vase supports in the 1740s; after 17-51 three-dimensional, crisply modelled biscuit figures
Early Sevres
• BODY soft-paste porcelain
• STYLE delicate and elegant Rococo
• DECORATION patterned as well as plain, coloured grounds reserved with typically Rococo themes within fine gilt frames
• FIGURES sentimental biscuit figures and groups of . lovers and children, inspired by Boucher’s paintings Marks
Vincennes: interlaced “L”s without a date
letter were used from c.1740
1740 to 1752
Sevres: the first date letter was introduced in
17-53 the letter “H” is for 1760