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.

Swansea china is frequently decorated with birds, butterflies, and shells, drawn from nature by W. W. Young. Much of it is of a glassy nature like Nantgarw; but later the Swansea ware was of a duller, heavier nature, and having a hard white appearance.

SALE PRICES.