Of the marks on Chelsea china, it may be observed that the earlier specimens, in the days when they imitated blue and white Oriental models, are unmarked. Later the anchor appears, embossed in a raised oval, impressed on the bottom of the piece, and bearing the anchor in relief. Various forms of the anchor are used, and in varying colours, apparently according to the caprice of the workman, who drew it with his hair-pencil. Red is the colour most commonly used, and the best pieces are mostly marked in gold, with the anchor more carefully drawn.
(In gold on best pieces).
(Mark on milk jugs in form of goat).
Chelsea 1745
(Earliest dated example)
[Chelsea Marks].
Specimens with the double anchors are very valuable, as this was a mark only used on very high-class pieces.
The triangle is one of the marks of Bow, and the little milk-jugs in the form of a goat, decorated with raised flowers, were attributed to Bow, on account of this mark, but the last mark we give shows beyond dispute that the triangle was also used as a Chelsea mark.
Having told of the rise and progress of Chelsea, we have regretfully to chronicle its fall. The following contemporary advertisement is mournful reading: “To be sold by auction, by Mr. Burnsall, on the premises, some time in March next (1764), at the Chelsea Porcelain Factory, everything in general belonging to it, and all the remaining unfinished pieces, glazed and unglazed; some imperfect enamelled ditto, of the useful and ornamental; all the materials; the valuable and extensive variety of fine models in wax, in brass, and in lead; all the plaster moulds, and others; the mills, kilns, and iron presses; together with all the fixtures of the different warehouses; likewise all the outbuildings, etc., etc. And, as Mr. Sprimont, the sole possessor of this rare porcelain secret, is advised to go to the German spaw, all his genuine houshold furniture, etc., will be sold at the same time.