Mark inside the neck and on the cover: an anchor in red.
The effect of the change was decidedly in favour of porcelain as a material; the chastened decoration which it brought with it allowed the charming qualities of paste and glaze to be seen once more to full advantage, and nowhere in European porcelain is the result more happily shown than in the best work of Derby. The ornamental vases of this period fell into the danger as time went on of losing originality and liveliness, as conformity with classical models became more rigorous, but those dating from its earliest days offer a welcome contrast to their Chelsea predecessors.
One of the finest forms made by Duesbury is exemplified by the vase in the Jones Bequest shown in [Plate 26]. On either side of the body is an oval medallion with a miniature painting. One of these panels represents the incident of Celadon and Amelia overtaken by the storm, from Thomson’s poem The Seasons, the source of many a subject in the somewhat theatrical figure-paintings of the time. On the reverse side is a river-scene with a rider watering his horse in the foreground, and a castle-keep on a hill in the distance. The terminal female figures forming the handles are in unglazed biscuit porcelain, offering a pleasant contrast to the glancing surface of the body. The gadroons on the neck, the frieze with a grotesque mask between two lions, and the flowers in natural colours on a gold groundwork, seem when analysed rather incongruous elements, but the effect of the whole though brilliant is yet harmonious. The bleu de roi, which is the ground colour on the neck and foot, is of a lighter tone than the Sèvres colour which it was intended to imitate. It is possible that this vase may be the actual one advertised in the sale-catalogue for 9th May 1773, as “A most capital large therm vase, richly painted in compartments with figures of Celadon and Armelia [sic], ornamented with fine blue and richly finished with chased and burnished gold.”
The style of Derby porcelain was not greatly modified while the works were in the hands of the Duesbury family, but after they were leased in 1811 to Robert Bloor a change came about. Little can be said from an artistic point of view in praise of the output of later years. Effective “Japan patterns” based on Imari originals were adopted for tea- and dinner-services, but generally over-decoration and vulgarity of form and colour were faults for which technical improvements do not avail to compensate.
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The porcelain made during the eighteenth century at the “Worcester Tonquin Manufacture,” founded by Dr. John Wall and others in 1751, has a more English character than that of the other leading china works in this country. Unambitious in its aims and businesslike in its methods, it contented itself for a long time with producing little but wares for useful purposes. These are characterised by a certain homeliness in the decoration and pleasing simplicity of form. The thoroughly practical nature of the undertaking is borne out by the somewhat doubtful distinction it enjoys of being the pioneer in the use of printing for the decoration of porcelain, or at all events the first factory to make extensive use of this process. While in its early days Worcester drew its inspiration from Oriental china, the Eastern designs were taken rather as suggestions for patterns than as models to be closely copied, as was frequently the case at Chelsea. The same practice held good even in later years, when after the engagement of workmen from Chelsea in 1768, more pretentious wares were attempted. The celebrated “scale-blue” and “powder-blue” vases, with birds or flowers of brilliant hues in reserved panels, were doubtless suggested by the bleu de roi of Sèvres, but they bear little resemblance to their prototype, and, even in their most splendid form they seldom err beyond the limits of sobriety and good taste.
This character of the Worcester wares is well illustrated by the little vase from the Schreiber Collection chosen as the subject of the drawing reproduced in [Plate 27]. The pattern is a very free adaptation of a Japanese design, in which the chrysanthemum and the wattled fence motive, appearing here as a wheat-sheaf, can be recognised; combined with this is a turquoise border, edged with gilt rococo scrolls, betraying some trace of French suggestion, but the whole is so informally treated that no incongruity is felt, and the general impression received is one of delightful freshness and simplicity. The vase is typical of Worcester at its best.
PLATE 24