A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



allow any longer the importation of china clay 

 into this country as ballast. Thornhill could 

 not have designed for the Chelsea works, for 

 he died in 1734, several years before their 

 establishment ; and the plates spoken of by 

 Betew were of blue and white delf painted 

 by Thornhill with the twelve signs of the 

 zodiac in August 1711. 



The Chelsea ware, as far as regards the 

 composition of its body or paste, groups itself 

 naturally into two divisions. The first in- 

 cludes the earliest productions down to 1756 

 or 1 7 5 7. These are generally characterized 2I 

 by an ivory-white or wax-white hue, and by 

 considerable translucency, much glassy frit 

 being employed in the paste, both glaze and 

 body being very soft. The pieces, owing to 

 this softness, were of ten distorted in firing, and 

 resemble the porcelain of St. Cloud in the 

 richness of their texture and tone. These 

 early specimens were frequently left white, and 

 their decoration consists almost exclusively of 

 sprays of flowers and leaves, butterflies and other 

 insects, with portions of the modelled ornament 

 very simply lined in colours, and occasionally in 

 gold. The decoration was not always executed 

 at the Chelsea factory. Parcels of white ware, 

 glazed but not decorated, were frequently sold 

 to artists who painted them in enamel colours 

 to suit the requirements of dealers. William 

 Duesbury, as appears from his work-book 

 already mentioned, 22 decorated in this way 

 pieces of ware from Chelsea, Bow, and other 

 factories. Burton 23 has classified the produc- 

 tions of the early period under eight heads : 



1. White pieces, of which the goat and bee 

 cream-jug and the craw-fish salts are examples. 



2. Pieces with Oriental decoration : 

 square and hexagonal cups, saucers, plates, 

 and dishes in the Japanese style. The decora- 

 tion is often in blue under-glaze in imitation 

 of the Chinese pieces, or in red and gold 

 on the glaze after the style of Japan. 



3. Leaf dishes. These are generally decorated 

 with a brown or pink-lined edge, and have the 

 veins of the leaves touched in with the same 

 colour. Little sprays of flowers, leaves and 

 insects are scattered over the surface. 



4. Vessels, for table use or ornament, of 

 fantastic shape : tureens, dishes, sauce-boats, 

 &c., modelled and coloured to represent 

 animals, fruit, vegetables, birds, and fish. 



5. Handles for knives and forks. These 

 were produced in great variety. 



" Church, op. cit. 24. 



* W. Bemrose, op. cit., has published in facsimile 

 several pages of the worlc-boolc of William Dues- 

 bury, dated 1751-3. 



* Hut. Engl. Porcelain, 40-3. 



6. Porcelain trinkets and toys. The famous 

 Chelsea trinkets comprised a charming series of 

 small, delicately-modelled figures, bouquets, 

 animals,groups and single heads, intended to be 

 mounted in gold, and worn on chains. These 

 made their appearance in the first period, but 

 continuing in great demand were produced 

 down to the close of the factory. 



7. Statuettes and groups of figures. Chel- 

 sea was famous for these from an early period. 

 The simpler groups and figures, slightly 

 decorated and with very little gold, were prob- 

 ably produced first. These early figures in- 

 clude the bust of the Duke of Cumberland, 

 figures emblematical of the Continents, the 

 Seasons, the Senses, and the monkey orchestra. 

 With these must be classed the birds perched 

 on stumps and enamelled in naturalistic 

 colours, of which there are many fine ex- 

 amples in the Schreiber bequest. 



8. Green enamel decoration. Pieces of 

 this class were produced during the early 

 years, but at a later date also. On a perfectly 

 white ground, landscapes, often with ruins, 

 were finely outlined in purple, and then a 

 very glossy green enamel was thickly 

 washed over the scene. Dishes, plates, and 

 particularly toilet sets, were frequently decor- 

 ated in this way. The exquisite scent-bottles 

 which appear in the sale catalogues of 1754 

 and 1756 frequently bear French inscriptions 

 (sometimes incorrectly spelt), and were long 

 mistaken for productions of the Sevres manu- 

 factory. 



The productions of the latter period of the 

 works have two important characteristics, the 

 presence of bone-ash in the paste, and the 

 extensive use of rich coloured grounds with 

 lavish gold decoration. In 1759 the works 

 took a new development in striking contrast to 

 the two preceding years, when through Spri- 

 mont's illness the output first slackened and 

 then almost ceased. New experiments were 

 now made, and the use of bone-ash produced 

 a body mixture which was more manageable 

 and therefore less costly in practice. The 

 first departure from the simplicity of the early 

 style is the introduction of a rich mazarine- 

 blue ground, a few examples of which appear 

 in the sale catalogue of 1756. Other ground 

 colours soon appeared, and were often em- 

 ployed to cover the main body of the vase or 

 dish, a space being left white to receive 

 painted floral or figure subjects. Pea-green 

 and turquoise-blue were invented at Chelsea 

 in 1758 or 1759, and the claret for which 

 the factory became so famous in 1759 also. 

 This colour was imitated at Dresden and at 

 Sevres ; the Rose-Pompadour, which was the 



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