NANTGARW DISH (12 IN. IN LENGTH).
Marked “Nantgarw, C. W.”
(Pink ground; raised white floral sprays; richly gilded scrolls. The centre white, with handsome fruit and flower piece painted by Billingsley.)
Great stress has been laid by those who affect the collecting of Nantgarw on its whiteness and transparency. By its detractors this is said to be its fault—that it is too white and too cold to compete with the older productions of the better-known factories. Of course only experts come to blows on this matter. Whether it is too glassy and too cold, and lacking the mellow warmth of the older glassy porcelains, matters little to the modest collector who desires to have Nantgarw represented in his or her scanty collection.
It may be observed in passing that the distinguishing feature of Nantgarw is the elaborate painting of flowers and fruit on the pieces manufactured there. We reproduce a beautiful Nantgarw dish, marked “NANTGARW. C. W.,” with pink ground, having garlands of raised white flowers bound with a knot, and encircled with richly gilded scrolls. The centre is white, with a handsome floral piece from the brush of Billingsley. The roses are exquisitely drawn, such as no other ceramic artist ever drew them; and the pear, of a warm, luscious brown, has all the bloom of the natural fruit upon it.
Mr. Dillwyn, of the Swansea works, has left us an interesting memorandum concerning the proprietors of Nantgarw. He says:—
“My friend Sir Joseph Banks informed me that two persons, named Walker and Beeley, 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 that 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.” This was in 1814, and it was in the same year that Billingsley and Walker entered the service of Mr. Dillwyn at Swansea and commenced to make the beautiful china, highly decorated and of exquisite finish.
In concluding our remarks on Nantgarw we may observe that this factory was not finally abandoned till 1820. From 1812 to 1814 is its first period, when Billingsley and Walker and Young (of whom we shall have more to say later) were all at Nantgarw. Its second period is when the trio appear there again from 1817 to 1819. Billingsley and Walker then left for Coalport, and Young carried on the works till their close.
