INDUSTRIES 



Exhibition room, Spring Gardens, in July 1 766, 

 Chelsea dessert services were priced at from 

 17 to .150 the set. 



M. P. J. Groslet, 14 who visited London in 

 April 1765, speaks of the Chelsea manufactory 

 as having just then fallen, and says he had 

 heard that the county of Cornwall furnished 

 the clay proper for making the porcelain. 



The output from the factory now dwindled 

 down to very small dimensions, but had not 

 ceased in March 1768, when a dealer named 

 Jones announced 16 for disposal porcelain 4 even 

 still brought from that noble manufactory.' 

 Writing in April 1769 to Bentley, who was 

 then at Liverpool, Josiah Wedgwood tells 

 him ' the Chelsea moulds, models, &c., are to 

 be sold . . . there's an immense amount of 

 fine things.' From a later letter in July it 

 appears that Wedgwood wished to purchase 

 some of the plant, but was not prepared to 

 buy the whole. 17 In May 1769 Sprimont 

 announced a further sale of Chelsea porcelain, 

 4 he having entirely left off making the same,' 

 and made another unsuccessful effort to dispose 

 by auction of the plant of his factory. In 

 the following autumn Sprknont's connexion 

 with the works ceased, and a hurried sale of 

 the remaining stock took place in February 

 1770. In the catalogue of the sale of his 

 pictures in March 1771 Sprimont is described 

 as 4 the late proprietor of the Chelsea porcelain 

 manufactory who is retired into the country.' 

 The business was bought by William Duesbury, 

 probably early in 1770. Bemrose gives par- 

 ticulars 18 of the various leases of the site of the 

 works in Lawrence Street, from which it 

 appears that Sprimont held a lease for fourteen 

 years, dated 3 March 1759, and on 15 August 

 1769 re-leased it to James Cox, who again 

 leased the property on 9 February 1770 to 

 William Duesbury and John Heath. Dues- 

 bury obtained a further lease on 25 March 

 1773 for seven years, being then no longer 

 in partnership with Heath. On the expiration 

 of his new lease in 1780 he took a lease for 

 a single year, after which he leased the pre- 

 mises for three years more. In 1784 he gave 

 up the property and finally closed the works. 

 On Sprimont's retirement the first pur- 

 chaser of the works was James Cox, who on 

 17 August 1769 gave j6oo for the mills, 

 kilns, shops, warehouses, and all their contents 

 in the premises at Lawrence Street. Cox 

 being unable to carry on the business sold it 

 within a few months, at a trifling profit, to 



14 Londres (1770), iii, 37-8. 



16 J. E. Nightingale, op. cit. 26. 



17 Eliza Meteyard, Life of Wedgwood, ii, 1 20. 



18 Boat, Chelsea, and Derby Porcelain, 20-31. 



Duesbury. Sprimont's managing foreman 

 was Francis Thomas, who died just after his 

 master's retirement. A lawsuit then arose 

 between Duesbury and Burnsall the auctioneer, 

 Thomas's executor, it being alleged that 

 Thomas had concealed 4 a great quantity of 

 finished and unfinished porcelain to the amount 

 of several hundred pounds.' The list of this 

 porcelain is of value, as it shows the nature of 

 the ware made prior to I769- 19 Sprimont 

 seems to have contemplated, or actually entered 

 into, a partnership with Matthew Boulton for 

 the sale of porcelain vases mounted with 

 ormolu, but did not regain his health, and died 

 in 1771. His artistic tastes are shown in his 

 gallery of pictures which was sold by Mr. 

 Christie in the same year. 



William Duesbury was born on 7 Septem- 

 ber 1725, and as his work-book shows was 

 working as an enameller in London in 1751. 

 He afterwards worked at Longton Hall, and 

 settled at Derby in 1755-6, when with the 

 financial help of the Heaths, the Derby 

 bankers, he purchased the site of the Derby 

 Porcelain Works. By his ability, integrity, 

 and indefatigable diligence, he became the 

 proprietor of four factories, Bow, Chelsea, 

 Longton Hall, and Derby, and at his death in 

 1786 was probably the largest manufacturer 

 of porcelain of his time in England. 



When the Chelsea business passed into 

 Duesbury's hands the auction sales were re- 

 sumed. The first was on 17 April 1771 and 

 the three following days, the next in 1773, 

 and then after an interval of four years they 

 continued annually until 1785. The ware was 

 announced sometimes as Derby and Chelsea, 

 and sometimes as Chelsea alone ; and speci- 

 mens of the various wares were on permanent 

 view at the warehouse in Bedford Street, 

 Covent Garden. 



Some particulars of the Chelsea factory are 

 given in a conversation between Nollekens 

 the sculptor and P. Betew, an art dealer : 20 



Betew. Chelsea was another place for china. 



Nollekens. Do you know where that factory 

 stood ? 



Betetv. Why, it stood upon the site of Lord 

 Dartery's house, just beyond the bridge. 



Nollekens. My father worked for them at one time. 



Betetv. Yes, and Sir James Thornhill designed 

 for them. Mr. Walpole at Strawberry Hill has a 

 dozen plates by Sir James which he purchased at 

 Mrs. Hogarth's sale in Leicester Square. Paul 

 Ferg painted for them. 



Betew proceeded to ascribe the failure of 

 these works to the refusal of the Chinese to 



19 Ibid. 45-8. 



M J. T. Smith, Nollekens and his Times (1894), 

 177- 

 153 20 



