The group of china here engraved is a selection of pieces made during Billingsley’s time at Pinxton. The pieces are all remarkable for the beauty of the body and of the glaze, and some of them are also noticeable for the excellence of the gilding. The coffee-pot in the centre is one of a set bearing, in oval borders, views of different places either in Derbyshire or elsewhere. These landscapes are excellently painted, of a peculiar brownish effect which pervades the whole colouring, by James Hadfield, who was the best landscape painter at the works. The views on the pieces which have come under my notice are of local and other places: for instance, Pinxton Church, Darley Hall, Hartington Bridge, Ashwood Dale, Buxton, Wingerworth Hall, Tong Castle, Saltram, Menai Straits, Wanstead Church, Frog Hall, Caerphilly Castle, &c. The teapot and stand are of elegant shape, unusually narrow and carefully gilt; the stand is of peculiar form. The cup and saucer have the “Derby sprig” (Tournay sprig), as it is frequently called. The coffee-mug and flower-pot tell their own tale.
Fig. 115.
After the close of Billingsley’s connection with the Pinxton Works they were carried on by Mr. Coke with the assistance of a Mr. Banks. Afterwards Mr. Coke took Mr. John Cutts to manage the concern, and he became a partner in the works. In the later part of the time the manufactory was carried on by Cutts alone. At the close of the Pinxton Works, which took place about 1818, Mr. Cutts removed into Staffordshire—fixing himself at Lane End—where he commenced business; at first buying ware in the white and finishing it for sale. In 1811, Davies says, “There is a considerable porcelain manufactory at Pinxton, which finds employment for several hands.”
After Billingsley’s removal from Pinxton the character of the ware underwent a change. The granular body of which I have spoken as produced, and afterwards brought to such perfection, by him, was his own secret, and he zealously kept it. On leaving Pinxton this secret, naturally, went with him, and, of course, the goods produced after that time were of a different and much inferior body. The later ware approached pretty closely the ordinary china body of the time, and had a slightly bluish tint in the glaze. The decoration was also, as a rule, not equal to what it had been in the earlier days of the factory.
Among the workmen brought from Derby along with Billingsley, were Thomas Moore, a clever thrower; Ash, also a clever thrower and turner, and many others of repute. Among the painters, &c., were James Hadfield, a good landscape painter; Edward Rowland, a landscape painter; Morrell, who painted landscapes and flowers; Richard Robins, from London; William Alvey, and others, including Slater and Marriott. Alvey left Pinxton about 1803, and became master of Edingley School, near Southwell, where he died in 1867, aged about eighty-three. He had a numerous family, some of whom re-settled at Pinxton. Alvey was held in high respect at Edingley, and was possessed of remarkable natural gifts; he was an excellent musician, a clever draughtsman and colourist, a first-rate mathematician, a splendid penman, a very fair land-surveyor, and a poet of no mean order. He was fond of drawing and painting to the last.
No especial mark was used at the Pinxton Works. The number of the pattern was occasionally given, and sometimes a workman’s mark was added; and although other marks were used, none seem to have been adopted as distinctive of the works. A writing letter
and a Roman capital letter P have both been noticed as occurring on isolated specimens. A tea service, named to me by Capt. G. Talbot Coke, bears, however, inside the lid of the teapot, the word Pinxton, written in gold letters. The service is of a beautifully clear white china, with broad edges of burnished gold; a handsome arabesque border of red, blue, and gold ornamenting each piece.
One peculiarity connected with the Pinxton China Works remains to be noticed: it is the issuing of china tokens, i.e., tokens representing different values of money, made of china, and payable as money among the workpeople and others, including shopkeepers. These were issued in a time of difficulty, so that they were only temporary conveniences, and thus they possess great interest. They were of two distinct kinds. The general form was a circular disc of white china, thicker in the middle than at the edges—in fact, exactly of the form of a common magnifying glass—and bore on the obverse a figure of 5 in the centre, and the words, “Let the Bearer have in goods five shillings,” in four lines across. On the reverse a similar figure 5 and the words, “which place to account with John Coke, Pinxton. Decr. 24th, 1801,” in five lines across. The writing is in blue, and the tokens are well glazed. They were issued of various values, as 10s., 7s. 6d., 5s., 3s. 6d., 1s. 6d., and 1s. respectively. The one here engraved belongs to W. S. Coke, Esq., of Brookhill, and I am indebted for it to his nephew Capt. J. Talbot Coke. Others bore, as shown on the next engraving, simply the figure of value, gilt or painted on an oval disc. These tokens were used as promissory notes, and when returned to the works by their holders their value in money was given for them, and they were broken up and destroyed. They were payable in and around Pinxton, on one side as far as Sutton, but their payment did not extend to Mansfield. They were called “Mr. Coke’s coin,” or “Chainé money” (china money), in the provincialism of the locality.[35]