China Learn

Chelsea China

The first reliable information we have about the Chelsea porcelain works commences in 1745, though it is known that glass, and an inferior kind of porcelain like opaque glass, had been made since 1676, when some Venetians, under the auspices of the Duke of Buckingham, established a factory there.

Although the two well-known “Bee and Goat” milk jugs, marked with an impressed triangle and dated “Chelsea, 1745,” are the earliest dated pieces extant, they prove to us that the manufacture had by this time attained a high standard of excellence. An advertisement from the “Chelsea China Warehouse, St James’s Street,” dated 17th January 1750, refers to the productions of “Mr. Charles Gouyn, late proprietor and chief manager of the Chelsea House.” At this date the works were the property of Mr Nicholas Sprimont. Both Gouyn and Sprimont were of Flemish or French origin, and the latter had been a silversmith. (Professor Church thinks they were Flemish.)

The site of the works has never been clearly defined; but Faulkener, in his “History of Chelsea,” places it at the corner of Justice Walk and the upper end of Laurence Street. Some part of the works, however, must have been situated in Cheyne Row, as, in 1843, during excavations there, large quantities of broken vases and figures were found.

In 1769 Sprimont’s connection with the Chelsea works came to an end, and early in the following year they were purchased by William Duesburyof Derby. For some time the two businesses were carried on simultaneously, but in 1784 the Chelsea works were finally closed and the plant transferred to Derby. Sprimont died in 1771.

Professor Church considers that “the productions of the Chelsea factory may be grouped in two divisions: that which extended from the commencement of the works till the year 1757, during which period the porcelain was characterised by considerable translucency, much glassy frit being employed in the paste, the glaze being also very soft, and gold sparingly used in decoration. In the second period, from 1759 to 1769, the body contained bone ash, and the use of gold in the decoration became more frequent and lavish.”

One of the chief characteristics of early Chelsea is its very unctuous appearance and the thickness and heaviness of many of the pieces. If held to the light all early Chelsea china will show what I have heard described as II grease spots “-small discs, more translucent than the rest of the body, which look like floating grease spots, but which are evidently caused by small irregular accumulations of the glassy frit which was so largely used in the early body. This peculiarity was first pointed out by Dr W. H. Diamond. Mr Burton considers it to have been a device of the Chelsea workmen to strengthen the body and keep it in shape. Another characteristic is the extremely soft and glassy appearance of the glaze, which is very thickly applied, but is so clear that it looks almost as if the body had been encased in a thin covering of glass; it is often much cracked, and sometimes forms quite large lumps, which are generally cleverly hidden by a flower, leaf, insect, or other device painted on the spot. I know a plate which has a lump of glaze more than three-quarters of an inch in diameter; this is painted to represent an apple, the flaw being quite hidden by this skilful device. Three little wart-like blisters in the glaze, made by the tripod on which it was baked, are often found on the bottom ofa piece of Chelsea china, and figures are generally marked by three “thumb marks,” or dirty looking patches also made by the tripod. These “thumb marks” and blisters are often a help to identification, as, like the productions of many other early factories, much Chelsea china was unmarked.

Early catalogues of auctions and advertisements-of which many are still in existence, and some may be seen at the British Museumgive one an idea of the quantity and great variety of the productions of the Chelsea factory, and It IS possible to discover the approximate date of some specimens by means of these. Thus we learn that at the earliest sale in 1754 the china sold was “enameled on white.” In 1756, during March and April, a sale which lasted for” sixteen days” took place, in which “mazarine blue” china was sold. “In 1 7 59 pea-green color was introduced; in 1760 claret color and turquoise.”

The earliest period may sometimes be recognized by the dress and colors used on figures, and a curious example of a small detail, quoted by Professor Church, by which the period of manufacture can be identified, is supplied by two figures of Falstaff, both made in the same mould. “Falstaff’s inn-reckoning is given on the tablet beside him on one, doubtless the earlier of the two, as:

On the second, made during the Chelsea Derby period, when possibly , sack’ had become obsolete as a beverage-the reckoning is given as (Church):

The first period is distinguished by a simple form of decoration and very little gilding, which showed off the exquisite appearance of the beautiful soft body to perfection. Services were decorated with Chinese designs in colors, so beautifully painted and such faithful copies of the original that one who did not understand paste and glaze would find it difficult to believe they were made in England. This alone proves that from the beginning first class artists were engaged. Flowers and fruit in detached groups, with butterflies, insects, and caterpillars, were painted, and this latter style of decoration was also applied to Oriental china at Chelsea which had been imported in its white state from China. I have a small thin Oriental basin painted in this way, and the man who sold it to me refused to believe it was not English.

In one of the earliest sale catalogues-that of 17 56-we find more than forty varieties of figures and statuettes mentioned, some representing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America the Madonna and Child; Perseus and Andromeda; monkeys playing on musical instruments; and many others. “All these early figures were either without gilding or only very sparingly gilt; later on, in 1759, the more richly gilt and gorgeously colored figures were produced” (Church). In that year the catalogue mentions figures representing the four quarters of the globe; George IlL, in Vandyke dress, leaning on an altar; Una and the lion, twenty-seven inches high; and Britannia the same height. A set of dwarfs, another of dancing figures, and the Vauxhall singers are well known.

Some of the figures, noticeably shepherds and shepherdesses with sheep and dogs, had backgrounds formed of boskies of May-flowers and greenery, the base being often very elaborate in style; vases magnificent in color and decoration; leaf-shaped dessert services; vessels and dishes in the shape of fruit, flowers, and vegetables; crawfish salt-cellars, and boars’ head dishes were also made at Chelsea; but some of its chief productions were the beautiful scent-bottles and snuff-boxes in every variety of form and size, from the tiny, delicate Pompadour lady to the Chinese figure or Turk’s head. These scent-bottles had often French in scriptions, “sometimes incorrectly spelt, and were at one time mistaken for Sevres” (Church).

An anchor in relief in a raised embossed oval is the earliest regular Chelsea mark, but on a few pieces the word” Chelsea,” with an incised triangle, has been found; sometimes the raised anchor is relieved in color with a brown-red enamel on white, but this is a very rare mark.

The anchor in red, purple, or gold is the usual Chelsea mark; sometimes it is very roughly painted. Though it varies in size it must not be confounded with the anchor found on Venetian porcelain, which is much larger. I t is not al ways found on the bottom of a piece, but, as in the case of some figures, it may be anywhere on the base, or even upon the drapery -sometimes in a fold, in which case it is generally very small.