Porcelain -- Collectors and collecting; Porcelain, English; Pottery -- Collectors and collecting; Pottery, English -- History
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.
[Illustration: Swansea Marks.]
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.
[Illustration: Swansea Marks.]
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.
[Illustration: SWANSEA PLATE (8 IN. HIGH).
Marked “SWANSEA,” in red.
(White ground, finely decorated with red roses.)]
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.
[Illustration: SWANSEA VASE.
Stamped “Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware.”
_In Collection of Mr. W. G. Honey._]
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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