| Positions vary. | The triangle now is given to Chelsea, possibly to Derby, not to Bow. |
Chelsea—Soft Paste.—The porcelain-works at Chelsea, near London, were begun before the year 1747, by some workmen brought from Burslem and elsewhere; a little later, in 1748 to 1749, they were more firmly established, under the direction of a foreigner named Sprimont, or Spremont. The works were carried on by him until about the year 1769, when they were advertised for sale, and he retired from the business.
Some very expensive, elaborate, and beautiful vases were made by him, of which two in the possession of Earl Dudley are said to be hardly surpassed by anything made at Dresden or Sèvres. The price paid for one of them, in 1868, was two thousand pounds sterling.
The first work made seems to have been in imitation of Chinese porcelain, and it is doubtful if much original designing was done at Chelsea. Chaffers says: “The fine vases in the French style, in imitation of Sèvres, with gros bleu, crimson, turquoise, and apple-green, were made from about 1760 to 1765.”
The illustration given ([Fig. 147]) is one of their most highly-decorated vases, and is unquestionably brilliant. But it has the vice, as it seems to me, of over-decoration; there is no restraint, none of the delicacy of true art. The form, too, lacks perfectness in many ways.
The want of invention or original design in England would seem to indicate that porcelain was not a natural or spontaneous art there. In France and in Saxony, on the contrary, while much of the taste is questionable, and some of it bad, many original and peculiar works were designed and executed. This was not the case in England; and, indeed, excepting Wedgwood, we can hardly point to any conspicuous examples of creative power. Here the god of Trade comes in, for it pays better to copy than to create.
