Posts Tagged ‘thomas baxter’

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

Coalport
Today the quiet banks of the River Severn at Coalport, Shropshire, seem an unlikely location for two important porcelain factories: Coalport and Caughley. However, Coalport is close to Ironbridge in an area that once lay at the heart of the 18th-century Industrial Revolution. At the end of the century, the iron furnaces of Coalport were replaced by china works that produced a large amount of good everyday porcelain, especially tea-sets and dinner services. The Coalport factory succeeded by keeping abreast of popular tastes and fashions, and still exists today (although relocated to Stoke-on-Trent).
WHITE COALPORT
John Rose began porcelain production in Coalport c.1796. In 1799 he bought the nearby factory of - Caughley, where he continued to make blue-printed teawares. Early Coalport mostly followed New Hall in manufacturing inexpensive enamelled copies of Chinese patterns, and such teawares sold well at a time when popular Chinese tea-sets were no longer being imported in any quantity. Instead of trying to compete with the rich porcelain of Worcester or Derby, Rose realized that there were many skilled British china-painters working independently, all of whom required a regular supply of
plain white porcelain to decorate. Studios such as those managed by Thomas Baxter in London and George Sparks in Worcester bought white Coalport porcelain and added their own wonderful painting and rich gilding. This accounts for the great variety of decoration found on Coalport porcelain, which causes confusion for collectors. The situation is further complicated by the very similar shapes and designs made by another china factory, located next door to Rose’s and owned partly by his brother Thomas Rose. This operated from c.1800 and was bought by Rose in 1814. Rose is also believed to have acquired some moulds and designs following the closure
following
of the Nantgarw and Swansea factories in South Wales.
CONTINENTAL INFLUENCES
Coalport’s popular Neo-classical and “Japan” patterns gave way c.1815 to the latest French fashion for pretty floral wares using the white porcelain as a ground for delicate gilding. Colourful grounds were introduced
during the 1820s, followed in the 1830s by the creation of frivolous Rococo Revival-style wares inspired by the production of the German Meissen factory near Dresden, and therefore known as “English Dresden”. This style was epitomized by Coalport’s ornamental wares including vases, jardinieres, baskets, inkstands, and pastille burners, typically encrusted with brightly coloured modelled flowers. The term “Coalbrookdale”, applied to this type of porcelain (also known as “English Dresden”), originally referred only to Coalport wares, but today is used more loosely to describe encrusted china made by English manufacturers such as Minton Co. and Samuel Alcock & Co., who based their wares on the same Meissen originals. By the mid-19th Century Coalport many many fine in-house decorators and no longer relied on sending work out to independent artists. The exremely fine work of the bird-painter John Randall (1810-1910), and of William Cook (active 1843-76) who specialized in painting flowers, is unmistakable, and their designs are especially fine when combined with a characteristic turquoise ground.
KEY FACTSBODY
• hybrid hard-paste porcelain until c.1820, when bone china was introduced
• FORMS teawares, dinner services, flower-encrusted ornamental waresDECORATION
Chinese-style enamel patterns; French-style floral designs (c. 18 15); Rococo Revival wares inspired by Meissen encrusted with floral decoration, known as “Coalbrookdale” or “English Dresden” (,-.1830); fine painting and gilding; excellent work by independent decorators including Baxter and Sparks
• COLLECTING it is important to examine the shapes of wares as other factories copied Coalport designs