Swansea.
Cambrian Pottery.—A small manufactory of earthenware appears to have existed at Swansea in the middle of last century, at which time the works had come into the hands of, and belonged to, a Mr. Coles, who afterwards took into partnership a Mr. George Haynes. The buildings were originally copper-works, and were converted into a pottery. In February, 1783, the works were offered for sale, as will be seen by the following highly interesting advertisement, which I now, for the first time, reprint. It shows the importance and extent of the works at that time.
“POTTERY AND MILLS.
“To be SOLD, A very capital SET of WORKS, well calculated for the POTTERY, GLASS, or any other Business, wherein well constructed Cones are necessary.
“These Works have been built within these few Years, and have been employed in a very extensive Pottery and Earthenware Manufacture. They are situated at Swansea, in Glamorganshire (the most flourishing Port in that Part of this Island), and have every Convenience for carrying on the present or any other similar Business. Coals of a most excellent Quality are brought into the Works for less than 5s. per Ton; Teignmouth Clay for 12s. per Ton; and Flints for 20s. per Ton; and may be landed at the Door of the Works, from Vessels of 300 Tons.
“The Country being full of excellent Coals, and there being several considerable Manufactures of Copper, Lead, Tin, &c. on the River, the Port of Swansea is resorted to by great Numbers of Ships from the West of England, Ireland, Holland, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Norway, by which Means advantageous Connexions are already formed and may be easily extended. The Country is very populous, Provisions in great plenty, and Labour very cheap.
“There are two excellent Water Mills included in the Premises, for grinding the Flints, one of which is more than sufficient for the Works; the other may be very advantageously altered to a Grist-Mill, not being above a Quarter of a Mile from Swansea; and at present the Inhabitants of that populous Town are under the Necessity of sending their Corn above three Miles to be ground.
“The Purchaser may be accommodated with a very good Dwelling-House, Gardens, Stable, and some Pasture Ground, close to the Works.
“The present Proprietor accidentally became possessed of the Works, and is settled in a very different Way of Business, at a 100 Miles distance; which is the Reason of the Premises being disposed of.
“Further Particulars may be had by applying to Mr. John Miers, Merchant, in London; Messrs. J. and W. Cave, Merchants, in Bristol; Mr. Edward Coles, on the Premises; or Mr. John Coles, at the Iron Warehouse, Glocester.”
Later on, probably after the sale, Mr. Haynes became sole proprietor, and by him and his partners, under the firm of “Haynes & Co.,” the works were much enlarged, and were by them styled the “Cambrian Pottery.”
In the year 1800, when Donovan wrote his excursions in South Wales and Monmouthshire, the works, then carried on by G. Haynes & Co., of which he gives an extended account, were considered to be extensive, and to be producing wares of a superior class; the buildings being said to be arranged on the same plan as those of Josiah Wedgwood, at Etruria. In 1802 Mr. Haynes sold his works, moulds, models, stock, &c., to Mr. Lewis Weston Dillwyn, and by him the buildings were very greatly enlarged, and the business considerably extended.
At first, only the ordinary descriptions of common earthenware were made at these works; but the manufacture was gradually improved by Mr. Haynes, who produced a fine white earthenware, a cream-coloured ware, an “opaque china,” and other varieties, as well as a very passable kind of biscuit ware. This “opaque china,” a fine, hard, compact, and beautiful body, is doubtless the “porcelain” ware spoken of by Donovan, on which so much unnecessary stress was laid by a recent writer in attempting to prove that veritable porcelain was made at Swansea before the time when Mr. Dillwyn commenced it; the same writer forgetting to notice that in the same paragraph in which Donovan speaks of the Swansea “porcelain” he speaks also of it and other wares bidding fair some day to vie with “Sieve pottery.”
In 1790, one of the “throwers” was Charles Stevens, who had been an apprentice (at the same time as William Taylor) at the Worcester China Works. In that year he applied to be employed at the Derby China Works, sending as his address “The Pot Work, Swansea,” and next “at Mr. Bothwell’s, engraver, in the Strand, Swansea.”
In the body of the Swansea wares, “the North Devon or Bideford clays seem to have been early employed; as also the Dorset or Poole clays, the last still continuing to be used. Cornish Kaolin and China stone likewise formed a portion of the porcelain body.”
Upon the works passing into the hands of Mr. Lewis Weston Dillwyn, in 1802, the opaque china was much improved, and the decorations assumed a much more artistic character. Mr. Lewis Weston Dillwyn, who was a Fellow of the Linnæan Society, was the author of “A Synopsis of British Confervæ, Coloured from Nature, with Descriptions;” “A Description of Recent Shells;” and “Catalogue of the more rare Plants found in the neighbourhood of Dover;” and, in conjunction with Dawson Turner, of “The Botanist’s Guide through England and Wales.”
Fig. 653.
The principal painter employed for the decoration of this ware appears to have been a Mr. W. W. Young, an artist of great ability, who was particularly skilful in painting flowers, but more especially natural history subjects—birds, butterflies and other insects, and shells. These he drew from nature, and was remarkably truthful and free in his delineations. Pieces decorated with his painting are now of rare occurrence, especially those with his name signed upon them. When it does appear, it is, so far as my knowledge goes, either Young pinxit, or Young f. In the Museum of Practical Geology are some interesting examples of this “opaque china,” or “opaque porcelain.” The decorations consisted—we are told by Donovan—in 1800, of “emblematical designs, landscapes, fruit, flowers, heraldic figures, or any other species of ornamental devices,” so that several artists must at that time have been employed. Mr. Young, of whom I have just spoken, had been for some time previously employed by Mr. Dillwyn in illustrating his works on Natural History; and having been instructed in the use of enamel colours, he proved a great acquisition to the manufactory. He afterwards became one of the proprietors of the Nantgarw China Works, as I shall show in my account of that manufactory.
In 1814 Mr. Dillwyn received a communication from Sir Joseph Banks, that a specimen of china had been submitted to Government from Nantgarw, and he was requested to examine and report on those works. This matter is thus spoken of by Mr. Dillwyn himself: “My friend Sir Joseph Banks informed me that two persons, named Walker and Beeley,[57] had sent to Government, from a small manufactory at Nantgarw (ten or twelve miles north of Cardiff), a specimen of beautiful china, with a petition for their patronage; and that, as one of the Board of Trade, he requested me to examine and report upon the manufactory. Upon witnessing the firing of a kiln at Nantgarw, I found much reason for considering that the body used was too nearly allied to glass to bear the necessary heat, and observed that nine-tenths of the articles were either shivered, or more or less injured in shape, by the firing. The parties, however, succeeded in making me believe that the defects in their porcelain arose entirely from imperfections in their small trial-kiln; and I agreed with them for a removal to the Cambrian Pottery, at which two new kilns, under their direction, were prepared. While endeavouring to strengthen and improve this beautiful body, I was surprised at receiving a notice from Messrs. Flight & Barr, of Worcester, charging the parties calling themselves Walker and Beeley with having clandestinely left an engagement at their works, and forbidding me to employ them.” In 1814, then, William Billingsley and George Walker commenced for Mr. Dillwyn, at the Cambrian Pottery, Swansea, the manufacture of china, of the same body and glaze as that they had produced at Nantgarw.
For this purpose some new buildings, kilns, &c., were erected, and the utmost secrecy was observed. The new buildings for the manufacture of china were erected on a place previously a bathing-place. Mr. Dillwyn—or rather Billingsley and Walker for him—succeeded in producing a beautiful china; but the loss of time in building and altering the kilns, &c., and the losses and disappointments attending numerous experiments and trials, prevented it being made to more than a limited extent. Soon after the receipt of Messrs. Flight & Barr’s letter, Mr. Dillwyn dismissed Billingsley and Walker (who returned to Nantgarw), and continued the manufacture of china, but of a somewhat different body. About 1817 the manufacture was laid aside by Mr. Dillwyn, and for a time carried on by Mr. Bevington. In 1823, the moulds, &c., were purchased by Mr. Rose, of the Coalport Works, and removed to that place; and since that time no china has been made at Swansea.
The Cambrian Pottery passed successively from Mr. Lewis Weston Dillwyn (who afterwards became, from 1832 till 1835, Member of Parliament for Glamorganshire) to Mr. Bevington, who, I am informed, was at one time manager of the works, and who subsequently took a partner, and carried them on under the style of “Bevington & Roby,” and “Bevington, Roby, & Co.,” and so back again, ultimately to Mr. Dillwyn, and thence to his son, Mr. Lewis Llewellyn Dillwyn, M.P. for Swansea. Under this gentleman’s management the works were carried on with much spirit and consequent success. In 1840 negotiations were entered upon between Mr. Dillwyn and the Messrs. Brameld of the “Rockingham Works” (which see) for the letting of the “Glamorgan Pottery” to the latter firm for the purpose of manufacturing china ware. The following letter in my own possession is too interesting to omit:—
“Burrows Lodge, Swansea.
“June 1, 1840.
“Gentlemen,—I am altogether unacquainted with the China manufacture and should therefore decline any partnership in one. I have, however, no doubt that China may be manufactured very profitably in Swansea, and should rejoice to see a manufacture established here. I am also convinced that a China and Earthenware factory might very materially assist each other in many ways. On these accounts I have made an arrangement, at some inconvenience to myself, by which I shall be enabled to let you the Glamorgan Pottery, which I should think was in every way well calculated for a China work. I am ready also to let the premises to you on lower terms than I should have expected from any other party.
“The terms I would let them upon to you would be £300 per annum, with a stipulation on your part that nothing but China of the best transparent body should be manufactured upon them.
“Should you think this offer worth your consideration, if one of your Firm will come down, I shall be happy to shew him everything in my power.
“I remain, Gentlemen,
“Yours very truly,
“L. L. Dillwyn.”
“Messrs. Brameld & Co.
Near Rotherham.”
The letter is addressed to Messrs. Brameld, and a pencilled note by Mr. Brameld says, “Too high, unless a good mill with it.” The negotiations fell through, and thus Swansea was deprived of a good chance of becoming an important centre of porcelain manufacture.
About 1848 or 1850 Mr. Dillwyn introduced a new branch of manufacture—that of an imitation of Etruscan vases, &c. This ware, which was called “Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware,” was a fine rich red body. On this was printed, in black outline, Etruscan figures, borders, &c., and the general surface was then painted over and up to the outlines with a fine black, leaving the figures of the original red of the body. The effect was extremely good, and some remarkably fine examples, although but few pieces were made, are still preserved. The accompanying engraving exhibits an example formerly in my own collection. It is of extremely elegant form, and the pattern, both border and figures, is in remarkably good taste. The mark is the one shown below. It is printed in black on the bottom of the vase. The forms were all taken either from vases in the British Museum, or from Sir William Hamilton’s “Antiquités Etrusques, Grecques, et Romaines.” But very little was produced, as it was not a ware, unfortunately, to command a ready sale. It was made from clay found in the neighbourhood, which, when not too highly fired, burns to a good red colour.
Fig. 654.
Fig. 655.
In 1852 Mr. Lewis Llewellyn Dillwyn retired from the concern, and it then passed into the hands of Mr. Evans, who carried it on, under the firm of “Evans, Glasson, & Evans,” until 1859, when, for a time, the style was altered to “Evans & Co.,” and, subsequently, to “D. J. Evans & Co.” (son of the Mr. Evans just alluded to), by whom it is at the present time carried on. The manufacture consisted of the ordinary classes of white, blue and white, and agate earthenware; the markets being principally Wales, Ireland, West of England, and Chili. No trade-mark is used.
About the end of 1869 earthenware was rather suddenly discontinued being made at the Cambrian Pottery, and the bulk of the workpeople discharged, a portion only being retained till the ware made was printed and finished by passing through the kilns. The site of the Cambrian Pottery, adjacent to the Swansea Canal and the North Dock, having become more valuable for other commercial purposes than for a pottery, an arrangement was made by Mr. Dillwyn with Messrs. D. J. Evans & Co. to surrender the short unexpired term of their lease, so that as soon as the stock and plant could be cleared off, the buildings might be taken down or converted to other uses. The whole site was let to Messrs. Cory, Yeo, & Co., who held an adjoining wharf, and about June, 1870, they commenced clearing space for erecting their new Patent Fuel Works, and cutting a branch from the canal across the site to near the North Dock. The “Patent Fuel Works” was quickly erected (in part from the old pottery materials at hand), about the centre of the site, the kilns, workshops, and warehouses taken down (except one or two buildings and sheds on the west side, converted), so that scarcely a vestige of what was properly called the working part of the Cambrian pottery now remains. At the close of the works the copper-plates were sold to the South Wales Pottery, Llanelly.
Among the artists at one time or other employed at Swansea, besides Young, of whom I have already spoken, it may be interesting to note the following: Pardoe, who was an excellent flower-painter (afterwards of the Nantgarw Works); Baxter, a clever figure painter, who came to these works from Worcester, to which place he afterwards returned;[58] Bevington, a flower-painter, also from Worcester; Reed, a modeller of considerable repute; Hood, also a clever modeller; Jenny, a tracer in gold; Morris, a fruit-painter; Colclough, who was much admired as a painter of birds; Evans, who was a talented flower-painter; and Beddoes, who was the best heraldic painter; to these, of course, must be added Billingsley, who was the best flower-painter of the day, or since.
The principal marks used at these works appear to have been the following:—
Fig. 656.
This occurs on a beautiful dark mottled blue oviform earthenware vase (formerly in the collection of Mr. S. C. Hall), having on one side an exquisitely painted group of passion-flowers, roses, &c. The mark is painted on the bottom, and is, I believe, unique. In Mr. Hall’s collection, besides this splendid example of “Cambrian” ware, were an oviform vase and cover, having a yellow ground, with blue borders and handles, and brown scrolls at top; a flower vase on a tripod stand, blue ground with a white border, painted with acanthus scroll, and on the cover a bouquet of flowers in relief; a pair of cup-shaped vases, with blue ground, black borders, and white classical figures at the top; and a lamp, the handle in form of a female holding a pitcher, the lamp resting on a pedestal and triangular foot.
Another mark occasionally met with has the words “Cambrian Pottery” in writing letters, and another has the same words but in capital letters.
Cambrian Pottery.
CAMBRIAN
POTTERY.
On the porcelain made by Billingsley and Walker for Mr. Dillwyn, the mark appears to have simply been the name SWANSEA printed in red; or, as on the subsequent make of china, the name sometimes occurs simply impressed,
Swansea, or SWANSEA, or Swansea.
Sometimes the name
appears impressed in the body of the ware, at other times with the addition of a trident, “which,” Mr. Dillwyn says, “denotes a supposed improvement which was not ultimately found to answer.” It is thus—
or
Another mark, which I here engrave, has two tridents in saltire and the name Swansea, thus—
Other marks which I have met with, or have notes of, are—
DILLWYN & CO.
CAMBRIAN POTTERY.
OPAQUE CHINA,
SWANSEA.
HAYNES, DILLWYN & CO.
CAMBRIAN POTTERY.
SWANSEA.
The Glamorgan Pottery, already alluded to, was situated to the west of the “Cambrian Pottery,” on the opposite side of the road leading to the North Dock Bridge. In extent it was about two-thirds of the Cambrian, and produced similar wares. It was discontinued some years ago, the kilns taken down, and part of the building converted into iron warehouses. It was, I am informed by Mr. Holland, built about the year 1816, by a Mr. Baker, who was soon after joined in partnership by Mr. Bevan and Mr. Herwain, and the business carried on under the style of “Baker, Bevan, & Herwain,” until 1839, when it seems to have been purchased by Mr. Dillwyn, who, in the following year, as I have shown, offered it to Messrs. Brameld, of the Rockingham China Works, for the purpose of carrying on the porcelain manufacture there. Mr. Baker also, at one time, held another small pottery for a finer kind of earthenware, near the river Tawe, in another part of Swansea.
Rickard.—In Swansea, too, is also a small potwork belonging to Mr. Rickard or Ricketts, who produces only the commonest kinds of black and Rockingham ware tea-pots, jugs, &c., and hardware jugs of mixed local clay and Dorset clay (principally for the home markets), ornamental flower-pots, garden vases, &c.
Landore Pottery.—About 1848 Mr. John Forbes Calland, of Swansea district, built a pottery, conveniently situated, on the Swansea Canal, and near the river Tawe at Landore, about a mile from Swansea. This was worked for a few years by Mr. Calland, who produced printed and common earthenware from white clays, in dinner, tea, and toilet ware, for the home trade under the style and mark of
J. K. CALLAND & CO.,
LANDORE POTTERY.
and
CALLAND
SWANSEA.
Not being commercially successful, Mr. Calland discontinued the manufacture about 1856, when the whole of the copper-plates then in use were transferred to the South Wales Pottery at Llanelly. The Landore Pottery has since been converted into a smelting-works, and is now used for smelting copper ores.