Part 8
The first has the words “Salopian, Coalport,” in a scroll, which has within it the old mark of Caughley, a crescent with “A.D. 1750” beneath it, and in addition the letters “C. S. N.,” in scroll as before alluded to, and having the date, “A.D. 1790,” underneath. This is a very complicated mark, and is not generally known.
The second is a crown with the word “Coalport, A.D. 1750,” underneath. The third is the same with the addition of the word “England.”
In conclusion we may quote the fact, to give our readers some idea of the quality of the ware now being exported by the Coalport Company, that some of the dinner ware sent to America costs no less a sum than £5 per plate, while there are even more sumptuous and magnificent specimens of their manufacture which cost £15 each plate. One of these, amongst others, is a plate with a coloured design painted after Sir Joshua Reynolds’ celebrated portrait of Mrs. Robinson.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CAUGHLEY AND COALPORT CHINA.
_Caughley._—The early pieces, printed in under-glaze blue, resemble the early Worcester blue and white; but Caughley is whiter in appearance, and the blue has not the mellowness of old Worcester. Introduction of “Willow pattern,” and similar designs, and the “Broseley dragon.”
_Coalport._—“Chantilly sprig,” “Tournay sprig,” “Worm sprig,” introduced by Billingsley from Pinxton. A maroon ground, introduced by Walker from Nantgarw about 1822. The deep mazarine blue of Derby, reproduced at Coalport, is quite equal to Derby pieces in tone. The rich ground colours of old Sèvres porcelain were copied with great success at Coalport, particularly the turquoise blue and the _rose-du-Barri_.
SALE PRICES.
CAUGHLEY. £ s. d.
Tea and coffee service, fluted, flowers in blue and gold and dark blue and gold borders, 31 pieces. Christie, January 30, 1902 7 7 0
Vases, pair, 14 in., decorated with raised flowers and gilt, and choicely painted in birds and Watteau subjects. Gudgeon & Sons, Winchester, April 3, 1902 15 10 0
COALPORT.
Bowl and cover, two-handled, encrusted with branches of coloured flowers and foliage, 11 in. high. Christie, April 4, 1902 16 5 6
Coalport vase, with gilt decoration on turquoise ground, 10-1/2 in. high. Christie, July 5, 1920 17 17 0
Pair of Coalport vases and covers, painted with panels of flowers in gilt scroll borders on dark blue ground, the covers surmounted by figures of children with garlands of flowers, 17 in. high. Christie, July 20, 1920 40 19 0
VIII
SPODE AND HIS SUCCESSORS
VIII
SPODE AND HIS SUCCESSORS
The chain of potters is complete from the day on which Josiah Spode was apprenticed to Whieldon in 1749. The entry in the old account book runs: “1749, April 9th. Hired Siah Spode, to give him from this time to Martelmas next 2s. 3d., or 2s. 6d. if he deserves it, 2nd year 2s. 9d., 3rd year 3s. 3d.” The successors to Spode, Messrs. Copeland, have done much to develop the manufacture of English porcelain in the nineteenth century, and at the present day they are producing china of the highest excellence.
The first Josiah Spode established a factory at Stoke-upon-Trent about 1770. Some of his earliest productions bear the name “Spode” impressed in the paste. Those of my readers who have blue willow-pattern plates with this mark upon them are the possessors of some of the first plates of that pattern made. About 1780 the willow pattern was introduced by Turner at Caughley, and very shortly afterwards, in 1784, Josiah Spode was turning out at Stoke his blue printed plates. Some of his china is printed in black, and pieces of this black printing are much sought after by collectors, but they must bear the word “Spode” impressed on them.
The vase which we reproduce from the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum is a pastille-burner having perforated cover; it is mounted on tripod stand formed by three dolphins on triangular base; it is red in colour and ornamented in black in relief. It has the impressed mark “Spode,” and is earthenware, but we give it here on account of its fine form.
On the death of old Josiah Spode, in 1798, his son Josiah continued the business, and commenced the manufacture of porcelain, which he improved by the addition of bone-ash and of felspar. He died in 1827, and was succeeded by his cousin, Josiah Spode. This third Josiah Spode died a few years afterwards, at which date the name Spode practically disappears from the firm.
Josiah Spode the second was the most successful potter of his day. It is pleasing to be able to record that he acquired a considerable fortune—a lot not often within the reach of potters, successful or otherwise.
About the year 1805 he introduced a fine ware which he termed opaque porcelain. This ware became very popular and was of excellent manufacture. While Nelson was fighting the French at Trafalgar, and breaking their naval pretensions, Josiah Spode was inflicting a commercial blow upon that unhappy country. Spode—and in his wake came other Staffordshire manufacturers—inundated France and other countries on the Continent with this new stone china of his, which entirely superseded their fayence. This injury was a very real one to the poor potters of France, inasmuch as a great number of them had to abandon the manufacture.
We have already alluded to the impressed mark =Spode= or SPODE. On some of the finer pieces the name is painted in red, and sometimes it is written in gold, as in our third mark in an angular hand, running upwards. The stamped mark usually in red, “Spode’s New Fayence” and “Spode Stone China,” appears on the ironstone ware. Oftentimes the mark is not stamped on the middle of the plate underneath, but at the side, while sometimes the name is both stamped and impressed. Besides the marks we give there are more than half a dozen other forms used by the factory, but all of them containing the word “Spode,” and therefore not presenting difficulties to the collector.
Of three marked Spode plates in possession of the writer, of typical Spode decoration, which was largely influenced by Japanese art, we give two as a headpiece. It will be observed that the left-hand plate in the headpiece, which has a vivid blue background, is fretted with a geometric pattern as a design. This is intended to represent ice, and the may-flowers of the covering decoration are intended to convey, by the Chinese artist who invented it, the symbolic meaning of young love being chilled by adversity. The other plate in the same illustration is of a brilliant canary-coloured ground, covered with a gossamer-like network of cobwebs, above which bird and flowers are painted.
The third plate shows very strongly the influence of the East in its method of decoration; but instead of pagoda and delicate curves, the English artist has almost brutally placed a piece of European architecture on the other half of the plate, which by its incongruity mars the remainder.
We must turn aside from Spode, and introduce our readers to his successors, the Copelands. One word in passing. Those who have specimens of Spode ware will do well to remember that his was a great factory, not so well known as Derby and Worcester, but a formidable rival of theirs. Not many months ago at Christie’s a pair of Spode vases, square shaped, decorated with landscapes, birds and flowers in the Chinese style, forty-two inches, brought £21.
The list of marks used by Messrs. Copeland will show at a glance the changes in the title of the firm. In 1833 the firm became Copeland, late Spode, and the china was marked accordingly.
There are a good many other marks besides those we give, but all are more or less similar, with slight variation to those we produce. A word of explanation is necessary as to the mark “C. and G.” This is frequently accompanied by the words, “New Blanche,” “Royal Opal,” “Saxon Blue,” or “New Japan Stone,” according to the composition or decoration of the ware.
About the date of the International Exhibition of 1861, many purely English novelties were attempted. Mistletoe, holly, and simple popular designs were then in favour and were produced. Nobody could possibly mistake the homely robin or the holly-wreath decoration for that of any other country than ours. There is a suggestion of roast beef and plum-pudding and Christmas fare. All purely English art is homely, whether it be the Staffordshire potter’s farmyard quadrupeds that adorn the cottage mantelshelf, or the old blue dinner services of our great grandmothers. It is a debatable point if that is the highest art, but there it is. Ruskin would have had some hard things to say about it, and maybe William Morris preferred the potsherd of an Italian shepherd. The fact remains that it is _our_ art, and whatever we may in our innermost hearts wish it to be, we have to take it and study it as we find it.
Before leaving the subject of these later and more modern chinas we may say, in passing, that the firm of Messrs. Copeland have done more than any other existing firm to maintain the traditions of a great factory. They have adhered to early designs, and all through the nineteenth century their record has been an exceedingly high one. It was Messrs. Copeland who first introduced, in 1845, their Parian ware, a very near approach to true porcelain. The writer has seen a Copeland and Garrett plate which in appearance was fully equal to Derby at its best period.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SPODE CHINA.
Spode ware is well potted, and feels to the touch like turned ivory. It can readily be distinguished from any of the glassy porcelains. It is light in weight. In design it follows Japanese more than Chinese models. The glaze is very even and smooth.
SALE PRICES.
SPODE.
Vase and cover, octagonal-shape, decorated £ s. d. with flowers in Oriental taste in colours and gold, 24 in. high. Christie, January 14, 1902 5 15 6
Vases, five, purple, crimson, and gilt decoration. Foster, January 9, 1902 9 5 0
Basket and cover, dark blue and gold ground, and painted with bouquets of flowers. Sotheby, February 24, 1902 6 2 6
Dishes, two, oblong shaped, decorated in the Japanese taste, blue, red, and gold. Hepper & Sons, Leeds, February 5, 1902 3 15 0
Spill-vases, pair, gold ground, painted in flowers. Hepper & Sons, Leeds, February 5, 1902 2 0 0
Cake-plates, three, gilt and painted landscapes, “The Church and Castle of Scurlogstown, Co. of East Meath,” “The Remains of Wolvesey Castle,” and “The Bridge and Priory, Newtown, Co. of East Meath” (marked “Spode”). Edwards, Son & Bigwood, Birmingham, May 13, 1902 10 10 0
Dessert service, apple-green border, gilt, each piece painted in flowers and fruit, consisting of one tall compôte, seven oval dishes, four leaf-shaped ditto, two sauce-tureens, covers and stands, and seventeen plates. Bennett & Son, Dublin, June 18, 1902 27 10 0
Dessert service, decorated in Oriental colourings, 37 pieces. Brady & Sons, Perth, September 1, 1902 16 16 0
Dinner set, decorated with sprays, leaves, and flowers, comprising 119 pieces. Brady & Sons, Perth, September 1, 1902 25 0 0
Dinner set, decorated in scarlet, blue, green, and gold, comprising 133 pieces. Brady & Sons, Perth, September 1, 1902 45 0 0
Tea service, gilt and decorated, 45 pieces. Jabez Jones & Sons, Preston, December 15, 1902 28 7 0
Vases and covers, pair, large square shaped, decorated with landscapes, birds and flowers in the Chinese taste in sunk panels on dark-blue ground, gilt with foliage, and with dragon handles in high relief and figures on the covers, 42 in. high, on wood pedestals, painted white. Christie, December 19, 1902 21 0 0
Pair of Spode pastille-burners and covers, painted with flowers in the Chinese taste on dark blue ground, supported by three gilt dolphins, on triangular bases, mark in red, 7 in. high. Puttick & Simpson, July 9, 1920 6 6 0
Set of three Spode vases, gilt with foliage scrolls on dark blue ground, and with scroll handles, outlined with gilt. Puttick & Simpson, July 9, 1920 5 15 6
COPELAND.
Vases, set of three, rich blue, gilt, white scroll handles, and painted in colours, with wild flowers, centre vase 15 in. high, side vases 13-1/2 in. high (marked “Copeland & Garrett, Felspar Porcelain, late Spode”). Edwards, Son & Bigwood, Birmingham, May 13, 1902 26 0 0
Dessert service of 24 pieces, pink ground, decorated with gold, the centres painted in panels of hunting and other sporting scenes, each different, marked “Copeland and Garrett,” centre compôte, two oblong, two oval, and four circular side dishes, and fifteen plates. De Rome & Son, Kendal, May 13, 1903 18 0 0
IX
NANTGARW AND SWANSEA
IX
NANTGARW AND SWANSEA
The history of these two factories in Wales is bound up together. Billingsley, the chief flower-painter of Derby, was the founder of the little factory at Nantgarw, a small village a few miles north of Cardiff.
His was a restless, roving career. In other “Chats” we have alluded to him. Apprenticed at Derby under Duesbury, he left there in 1796, to commence the manufacture of porcelain at Pinxton. In 1801 we find he had left Pinxton and was engaged upon the decoration of Staffordshire porcelain at Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire. He is next described as “of Torksey,” which is near Gainsborough. At Worcester he engaged himself under Messrs. Flight and Barr, and was employed on flower-painting from 1808 to 1811.
Billingsley was known as “Beeley” at this time. Monetary difficulties had compelled him to take precautions against his arrest for debt. About this time, too, together with his son-in-law, Samuel Walker, he appears to have visited the Coalport Factory and erected a new kiln, the invention of Walker.
Of late, a considerable interest has been shown in the porcelain of Nantgarw and Swansea. Collectors have ascribed to it artistic qualities greater than those of Worcester or Derby. The lovers of Nantgarw, and those connoisseurs who collect this and no other porcelain, will not admit that it is in any way inferior to the greatest factories that have existed in this country, and compare it to Sèvres.
Recently at Christie’s Auction Rooms a dessert service of Nantgarw manufacture brought £128 2s. Each piece was painted with a bouquet of flowers in the centre, the borders with raised white scrolls, painted with birds and flowers. This service consisted of centre dish, on feet, four square-shaped dishes, two-leaf shaped dishes, seventeen plates and two small plates. This works out at nearly £4 15s. each piece.
At another London auction room, seven Nantgarw plates, painted with birds and bouquets of flowers in border, all with impressed mark, in December last brought under the hammer, £97, which is nearly £14 each plate! After this it is useless to deny that Nantgarw is a factory which must be reckoned with from a collector’s point of view.
Great stress has been laid by those who affect the collecting of Nantgarw on its whiteness and transparency. By its detractors this is said to be its fault—that it is too white and too cold to compete with the older productions of the better-known factories. Of course only experts come to blows on this matter. Whether it is too glassy and too cold, and lacking the mellow warmth of the older glassy porcelains, matters little to the modest collector who desires to have Nantgarw represented in his or her scanty collection.
It may be observed in passing that the distinguishing feature of Nantgarw is the elaborate painting of flowers and fruit on the pieces manufactured there. We reproduce a beautiful Nantgarw dish, marked “NANTGARW. C. W.,” with pink ground, having garlands of raised white flowers bound with a knot, and encircled with richly gilded scrolls. The centre is white, with a handsome floral piece from the brush of Billingsley. The roses are exquisitely drawn, such as no other ceramic artist ever drew them; and the pear, of a warm, luscious brown, has all the bloom of the natural fruit upon it.
Mr. Dillwyn, of the Swansea works, has left us an interesting memorandum concerning the proprietors of Nantgarw. He says:—
“My friend Sir Joseph Banks informed me that two persons, named Walker and Beeley, had sent to Government, from a small manufactory at Nantgarw (ten or twelve miles north of Cardiff), a specimen of beautiful china, with a petition for their patronage, and that, as one of the Board of Trade, he requested me to examine and report upon that manufactory. Upon witnessing the firing of a kiln at Nantgarw, I found much reason for considering that the body used was too nearly allied to glass to bear the necessary heat, and observed that nine-tenths of the articles were either shivered, or more or less injured in shape by the firing. The parties, however, succeeded in making me believe that the defects in their porcelain arose entirely from imperfections in their small trial-kiln, and I agreed with them for a removal to the Cambrian Pottery, at which two new kilns under their direction were prepared. While endeavouring to strengthen and improve this beautiful body, I was surprised at receiving a notice from Messrs. Flight & Barr, of Worcester, charging the parties calling themselves Walker and Beeley with having clandestinely left an engagement at their works, and forbidding me to employ them.” This was in 1814, and it was in the same year that Billingsley and Walker entered the service of Mr. Dillwyn at Swansea and commenced to make the beautiful china, highly decorated and of exquisite finish.
In concluding our remarks on Nantgarw we may observe that this factory was not finally abandoned till 1820. From 1812 to 1814 is its first period, when Billingsley and Walker and Young (of whom we shall have more to say later) were all at Nantgarw. Its second period is when the trio appear there again from 1817 to 1819. Billingsley and Walker then left for Coalport, and Young carried on the works till their close.
The only marks that appear on the china are the word “Nantgarw” with the letters “C. W.” underneath, which in all probability meant China Works, but which by some collectors are said to denote the name of the artist. This is impressed in the china. Sometimes the word “Nantgarw” is found in red, but this must be regarded with suspicion, as a great many forgeries have been perpetrated in this china owing to its rarity and the favour which it finds with collectors.
Swansea has a more extended history. In the middle of the eighteenth century a small manufactory of earthenware existed here. This gradually grew into the “Cambrian Pottery,” which, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, passed into the hands of Mr. Lewis Weston Dillwyn, a Fellow of the Linnæan Society and author of works on botany.
Before Mr. Dillwyn’s day a fine opaque china was produced at Swansea, but under his management and guidance the china assumed a more artistic appearance.
W. W. Young, whom we spoke of as having come over from Nantgarw, was especially skilful at painting flowers and birds, butterflies and insects, and sometimes shells. Some of the pieces of Swansea bear his name upon them. Young was also employed by Mr. Dillwyn to illustrate his works on botany and natural history.
Besides Young and the two Nantgarw flower painters and decorators, there was at Swansea Baxter, who was considered one of the cleverest painters on china of his day. He came originally from Worcester and eventually returned there. Some of the subjects from the canvases of Sir Joshua Reynolds were successfully copied by him. Baxter was at Swansea for three years, and while there decorated a service with garden scenery in the style peculiarly his own. There was Morris, a clever fruit painter, and Beddoes, a noted heraldic painter, and, above all, Billingsley, the first flower painter of his day.
About the year 1820 the Swansea factory was discontinued and the whole of the moulds and appliances were transferred by Mr. John Rose to Coalport. Since that date no china has been made at Swansea. Some of the marks that we give are of a later date than 1820, and are upon earthenware.
Among the marks of Swansea will be seen the oblong mark stamped on “Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware.” This ware was introduced in 1848, and was of a fine rich red body. On this was printed, in black outline, Etruscan figures, borders, and other details. The general surface was then painted over, with the exception of the figures and designs within the black outlines. The result was that the figures were left the original red of the body and the effect was extremely good. The illustration we give is of a specimen in Mr. W. G. Honey’s collection, late at the Cork Exhibition.
The older pieces stamped with the above-mentioned mark are sought after. Later the name and title of the firm changed and passed into the hands of Messrs. Evans & Co. Besides the manufacture of white, and blue and white china, they supplied Ireland and the West of England with agate earthenware, and a good deal of it found its way to America. No trade-mark was used by them.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NANTGARW AND SWANSEA CHINA.
_Nantgarw_ porcelain is of very fine texture; it has a glassy appearance, and when held up to a strong light, such as an incandescent electric globe, it exhibits a number of small bubbles, like pin-holes, in the body. It is inclined to have the glaze cracked in parts with a network almost like Chinese crackle ware. Some of the thinner pieces will be found to be not quite true, being slightly warped or bent, owing to its uncertainty in the kiln.