Welsh Armorial Porcelain : Nantgarw and Swansea Crested China

Armorial porcelains comprised the output of most European ceramics factories in the 18 th and 19 th Centuries in response to the large quantity of armorial porcelain services that were being imported from China bearing the coats of arms and crests of aristocratic families. Whereas these armorial services have been identified and covered for most porcelain manufactories the information relevant to their production by the two relatively short-lived Nantgarw and Swansea China Works has not been addressed as a theme until now. As an integral component of the holistic forensic appraisal of porcelain, a functional and decorative artwork manifestly part of our cultural heritage and its ongoing preservation , the recording and identification of such artefacts is material for the future establishment of a database of factory production . The Nantgarw and Swansea factories only operated for a limited period in the second decade of the 19 th Century and their porcelains were much appreciated for their high quality and desirability by Georgian households. Today, examples are to be found in many museums and ceramics collections and continue to excite the interest of specialists and the general public . This text provides the first comprehensive assessment of armorial porcelains from these two factories and the methodology and procedure for the identification of unknown armorial bearings and crests is illustrated; individual bearings are discussed in detail and existing incorrect assignments in the literature are re-appraised. The difficulties in attribution of armorial heraldic achievements that are only minimally depicted are considered and directions for further studies using historical documentation are invoked. This book therefore fills a currently existing gap in the ceramics literature of the 19 th Century. Preface Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures List of Tables About the Author Chapter 1: The Birth of the Porcelain Trade with China 1.1 Chinese Armorial Porcelain – The Catalyst for the European Armorials 1.1.1 The Portuguese and China 1.1.2 The First Porcelains 1.2 The Honourable East India Company 1.3 Early European Armorial Porcelains 1.3.1 Early English Armorial Porcelains 1.4 Named Porcelain Services 1.5 Pseudo-Armorial Services 1.5.1 A Special Type of “Armorial” China 1.6 Swansea and Nantgarw References Chapter 2: Heraldic Achievements 2.1 The Origins of Heraldry and Coats-of-Arms 2.2 Components of Armorial Bearings 2.2.1 The British Peerage 2.3 Swansea and Nantgarw Armorial Porcelains in the Literature 2.3.1 Distinction Between Monogram, Cipher and Initials 2.4 Examples of the Heraldic Descriptors for Coats-of-Arms and Crests 2.4.1 Welsh Heraldry and Mottoes 2.5 What Constitutes an Armorial Service? References Chapter 3: History of China Production at Swansea and Nantgarw 3.1 The Nantgarw China Works 3.2 The Cambrian Pottery and the Swansea China Works 3.2.1 The Cambrian Pottery 3.2.2 The Swansea China Works 3.3 Armorial Earthenwares from the Cambrian Pottery 3.3.1 List of Armorial Earthenwares from the Cambrian Pottery 3.3.1.1 The Origin of Punch and Punchbowls 3.3.1.2 The Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Punchbowl, Jesus College, Oxford, 1732 3.3.1.3 The Consumption of Punch 3.3.2 Armorials from the Cambrian Pottery 3.3.2.1 The Richardson-Francis Punchbowl 3.3.2.2 The Llwchwr (Lliw) Corporation Punchbowl 3.3.2.3 The Bevington Punchbowl 3.3.2.4 Other Armorials and Non-armorials 3.3.2.5 The Garter Star Motif 3.3.3 A Summary of the Cambrian Pottery Armorials 3.3.3.1 Coat-of-Arms on Cambrian Pottery Earthenware: Foreign Nobility? 3.4 Decorators of Nantgarw and Swansea Porcelains References Chapter 4: Nantgarw Armorial Porcelain 4.1 The Viscount Weymouth Service 4.1.1 Marquess of Bath /Viscount Weymouth Genealogy 4.2 The Wyndham Service 4.3 The Ramsay Services (2) 4.4 The Baron Phipps of Normanby Service 4.5 The Homfray Service 4.6 A Thomas Pardoe Decorated Armorial 4.7 Armorial Order of the Garter Star—Or Is It? References Chapter 5: Swansea Armorial Porcelain 5.1 The Clarke of Hereford Impaling Parkinson Service 5.2 The Lloyd of Bronwydd Service 5.3 Boar’s Head Crest 5.4 Dolphin Crest 5.5 Spread Eagle Crest 5.6 Paschal Lamb Crest 5.7 Escallop Shell Crest 5.8 Bird on a Tree Stump Crest 5.8.1 Hill Versus Lockwood 5.9 An Unidentified Escutcheon 5.9.1 Arms of Lockwood Impaling Manners-Sutton 5.10 Demi-Leopard Crest 5.11 Rampant Lion Crest References Chapter 6: Resume of the Current Situation with Nantgarw and Swansea Porcelain Armorials 6.1 The Input of Sherlock Holmes’ Methodology to the Definitive Attribution of Armorial Porcelains References Chapter 7: A New Approach 7.1 Local Landowners and Landed Gentry 7.2 A Test Case 7.3 Local Support and Sponsorship for the Swansea and Nantgarw China Works 7.3.1 Nantgarw 7.3.2 Swansea 7.3.3 Analysis of Table 7.2 Supporters 7.4 Comparison with Armorial and Crested China from the Cambrian Pottery, Swansea References Chapter 8: Summary and Conclusions 8.1 Cross-Correlation with the Cambrian Pottery Armorial Earthenwares 8.2 Recapitulation of Analyses 8.2.1 Lockwood of Dews Hall, Essex 8.2.2 Richard Hill, Plymouth Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil 8.2.3 William Booth-Grey of Dyffryn St Nicholas 8.2.4 John Edwards of Rheola House, Glyn Neath, Vale of Neath 8.2.5 William Vaughan, Lanelay Hall, Llantrisant 8.3 Lost Services and Information Tracking 8.4 Final Assessment of Unattributed Crests 8.5 Analytical Differentiation Between London Decorated and Locally Decorated Porcelains 8.6 The Standing of Armorials Vis-à-Vis Named Services for Nantgarw and Swansea Porcelains References Appendices Appendix I: China and Goss China What Is China? Goss Crested China (1858–1939) Appendix II: The Named Decorators and Gilders of Welsh Armorial Porcelains. Survey of the Named and Identified Decorators and Gilders and the Difficulty Experienced in Their Attribution Concise History of Swansea and Nantgarw Armorial Decorators Henry Morris William Billingsley Thomas Pardoe Appendix III: Local versus London Decoration of Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelains Gilding on Armorials Appendix IV: The Ironmasters of Merthyr Tydfil and The Birth of Steam Locomotion Appendix V: The “Ten True Men of Glamorgan” Appendix VI: Mortlocks of London Glossary References References for Appendix I References for Appendix II References for Appendix III References for Appendix IV References for Appendix V References for Appendix VI Selected Bibliography for Welsh Armorial Porcelains Index