Oriental patterns were gradually superseded by motives inspired by rivalry with Saxon porcelain—sprays of naturalistic flowers with insects, landscapes, or animal subjects, such as the series in illustration of Æsop’s Fables. A further advance is seen in the use of ground colours betokening emulation of Sèvres, which lasted in vogue till the independent existence of Chelsea came to an end. The earliest of these colours, an attempt at reproducing the French bleu de roi, is probably that occurring on the vases with a ground of uneven streaky blue of rather dull tone which have often been ascribed, without evidence to justify the attribution, to the Longton Hall factory in Staffordshire. Later a more satisfactory colour was arrived at in a dense and splendid “mazarine blue,” while in the effort to equal the rose Pompadour of Sèvres, the claret-colour was evolved of which the glory belongs to the Chelsea works alone. On such splendid grounds as these were reserved panels for miniature paintings taken, as the contemporary sale catalogues inform us, from “Busha,” “Burgam,” “Tenier,” and other foreign masters.
This style is exemplified by the sumptuous vases in the Jones Bequest at South Kensington. One pair with mazarine ground bears subjects from the set of the “Four Seasons” painted by Boucher for Madame de Pompadour in 1755. Other vases are painted with a domestic scene in peasant life, and La Cueillette de Cerises after the same artist. A pair of vases with a claret-coloured ground have mountain landscapes with cattle in the manner of Berghem. Wonderful as such pieces are in the richness of their glaze and gilding and in the careful finish of the paintings, the same defects are generally observable as in the later Chelsea figures. In the desire to cater for luxurious tastes, richness of ornament has been carried to excess, nor do the ungainly forms with their twisted rococo handles compare in attractiveness with the modest shapes of earlier times. The vase figuring in [Plate 24], the middle one of a set of three in the Schreiber Collection, suffers less than most from the defects of the period, and well shows the richness of colour and gilding that were then attained. The slightly uneven tone of the deep blue ground was doubtless regarded by the makers as a defect, which they would gladly have overcome if they could; but it is just this quality of variety which gives life to the surface, and makes these Chelsea glazes compare favourably with the almost too perfect ground colours of Sèvres.
The late Chelsea style is most pleasing in the wares made for less pretentious purposes. No better illustration could be found than the tea- and coffee-service with claret-coloured ground bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Miss Emily Thomson of Dover. The teapot is figured in [Plate 25]. Every piece in the service is differently painted with a figure in the quaint dress which passed at the time for Oriental. These charming miniatures are evidently inspired by the chinoiseries of Watteau, which reflected the growing trade with the East under the auspices of the Compagnie des Indes; a previous writer[2] has plausibly suggested that this may be the actual “equipage most inimitably enamelled in figures from the designs of Watteau” which was offered for sale at the last auction of Sprimont’s china held in Christie’s Sale-room in February 1770. The sumptuous decoration of such a service need not be condemned when the surroundings in which it was intended to take its place are borne in mind; its display would greatly enhance the elegance of a tea-party in an eighteenth-century drawing-room.
[2] Mr. William Burton, in English Porcelain.
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It seems, however, that Sprimont’s costly porcelain was appreciated by too small a circle of patrons to ensure its success as a commercial venture. After his works had passed in 1770 into the hands of William Duesbury of Derby, the style to which most of all Chelsea owes its renown was soon abandoned. In the china made during the ensuing period, in which the Chelsea and Derby works were carried on conjointly under the same proprietor, the Chelsea element in the decoration is small, and it may be inferred that the new manner which appears had already been in vogue at Derby. At what date the Derby factory was founded, and the nature of its earliest productions, is obscure, but to it belongs the credit for a style of decoration unsurpassed among “useful” wares for its suitability to the purpose for which the china was made. Many and varied are the dainty borders, executed sometimes in gold alone, sometimes in bright enamel colours laid on with a sparing and discriminating hand. The scrollwork and contorted forms of the rococo period entirely disappear, to be revived only in imitative work of a later time, when they had lost all vitality and meaning, and were no longer in keeping with the spirit of the age. Restraint verging at times on over-formality is the keynote of the new era, in which for people of culture in all parts of Europe the newly-found vases and sculptures of ancient Greece and Rome were the admired models.
PLATE 23
Jar, with Cover, Chelsea, about 1755, copied from Japanese Kakiyemon ware. Height, 12½ in. Schreiber Collection.
No. 237. See p. [80].