Some Continental Influences on English Porcelain
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52925_English_Ceramics_vol19_pt3_book:Layout 1 24/7/08 09:12 Page 429 Some Continental Influences on English Porcelain A paper read by Errol Manners at the Courtauld Institute on the 15th October 2005 INTRODUCTION Early French soft-paste porcelain The history of the ceramics of any country is one of We are fortunate in having an early report on Saint- continual influence and borrowing from others. In the Cloud by an Englishman well qualified to comment case of England, whole technologies, such as those of on ceramics, Dr. Martin Lister, who devoted three delftware and salt-glazed stoneware, came from the pages of his Journey to Paris in the year 1698 (published continent along with their well-established artistic in 1699) to his visit to the factory. Dr. Lister, a traditions. Here they evolved and grew with that physician and naturalist and vice-president of the uniquely English genius with which we are so Royal Society, had knowledge of ceramic methods, as familiar. This subject has been treated by others, he knew Francis Place, 2 a pioneer of salt-glazed notably T.H. Clarke; I will endeavour to not repeat stoneware, and reported on the production of the too much of their work. I propose to try to establish Elers 3 brothers’ red-wares in the Royal Society some of the evidence for the earliest occurrence of Philosophical Transactions of 1693. 4 various continental porcelains in England from Dr.. Lister states ‘I saw the Potterie of St.Clou documentary sources and from the evidence of the (sic), with which I was marvellously well pleased: for I porcelain itself. confess I could not distinguish betwixt the pots made The import for resale of ‘painted earthenwares’ there, and the finest China Ware I ever saw. It will, I and porcelain was prohibited by statute until 1775; 1 a know, be easily granted me, that the Paintings may be prohibition, no doubt, frequently ignored. better designed and finish’d (as indeed it was) because Importation for personal use was allowed, but this our men are far better Masters in that Art than the largely restricted the availability to those with the Chineses; but the glazing came not in the least behind fortune to take the ‘Grand Tour’ or to diplomats. theirs, not for whiteness, nor the smoothness of Even in the 17th century we were not simply running without bubble . .’. He goes on to describe borrowers. Potters such as John Dwight made the preparation of the clay and the numerous firings significant advances, and his patent for ‘china-ware’ required in some detail, and complains about the of 1672 predated the first patents for porcelain of our ‘excessive Rates’ charged; in spite of this he ends by immediate continental neighbours, the earliest being stating ‘The ingenuous Master told me, he had been that of Louis Poterat at Rouen of 1673. Whilst only a twenty five years about the Experiment, but had not handful of pieces can be attributed to the Rouen attained it fully, till within these three Years. I, and factory, it must be granted that they are technically other Gentlemen brought over of these pots with us’. and artistically far superior to the failed attempts of This appears to be the first recorded instance of Dwight. Rouen never developed beyond an continental porcelain coming to England. experimental concern, but out of it was established The influence of Saint-Cloud on English porcelains the first great French factory of Saint-Cloud which is limited, because the great days of the factory began in the early 1690’s, probably as a result of the predated the advent of English porcelain by several patronage of the King’s brother, the duc d’Orleans. It decades, and by the mid 1740s was entering the artistic was the first continental porcelain factory that came and financial decline that culminated in its closure due to the attention of England. to debt in 1766. That some Saint-Cloud was still 429 52925_English_Ceramics_vol19_pt3_book:Layout 1 24/7/08 09:12 Page 430 Some Continental Influences on English Porcelain – Errol Manners arriving in Great Britain in the 1750s is evident from a Occasionally more ambitious borrowings can be notice discovered by Peter Francis in Faulkner’s Dublin found on Staffordshire white salt-glazed stonewares of Journal , 1754, 19th-23 March, which states: the 1740s to 60s (5-8) and later pearlwares with artichoke mouldings. “To be sold by auction on Thursday the 28th Of greater interest from our point of view, as its instant by Messrs Christopher and John Irwin at most ambitious period of production only just pre- their warehouse in and about Arran-street near dated the earliest English factories, is the factory of the Lin en-hall, a large parcel of wines, [etc]. Chantilly. This was established with money and There will also be sold by auction at Mr. Neale’s patronage of Louis-Henri, duc de Bourbon, the room in Fishamble-street, on Friday the 5th of Prince de Condé, who purchased land and buildings April next for account of the shippers, several for the factory in 1730. Letters Patent were granted to parcels of curious French dry goods . a small his manager, Ciquaire Cirou, in 1735, giving him the parcel of costly porcelain of St Cloud , . The right ‘To make in the factory established at Chantilly above may be viewed two days before the fine porcelain in all colours, types and sizes in respective days of sales.” imitation of the porcelain of Japan . .’. Ghenete Zelleke has shown that it was in this year, The régence style of the finest early Saint-Cloud was 1735, that Charles Lennox, the second Duke of hardly a satisfactory source for the most fashionable Richmond (1701-1750), visited Chantilly on his way wares of the early English factories, but influence can back to England. 6 In 1734 the Duke inherited an estate be seen in the simpler prunus patterns with moulded at Aubigny and the title of duc d’Aubigny from his trembleuse saucers at Bow and at Chelsea 5 of the raised grandmother, the French mistress of Charles II. He anchor period, in the gadrooning popular at Bow, visited Aubigny annually from 1735, and the family Longton Hall and Worcester into the 1760s (1-4) , maintained close ties with France, often visiting their and particularly on knife hafts and cane handles. property until Napoleon seized their estate in 1806. 1. Saint Cloud prunus moulded trembleuse saucer, circa 1730 2. Bow saucer after a Saint Cloud original, circa 1755 430 52925_English_Ceramics_vol19_pt3_book:Layout 1 24/7/08 09:12 Page 431 Errol Manners – Some Continental Influences on English Porcelain 3. Saint Cloud blue and white gadrooned saucer, circa 1740. 4. Bow after a Saint Cloud original, circa 1760 Courtesy of Stockspring Antiques 5. Saint Cloud tureen with mask handles, circa 1725, Musée des Arts Decoratifs 7. Detail of the handle of fig. 5 431 52925_English_Ceramics_vol19_pt3_book:Layout 1 24/7/08 09:12 Page 432 Some Continental Influences on English Porcelain – Errol Manners 6. Staffordshire salt-glazed tureen, circa 1750, Sotheby’s, New York 8. Detail of the handle of fig. 6 In the “Liste de porcelaine recue de sa Grandeur la Duchesse pieces of Chantilly porcelain have, such as a pair of de Richmond le 25 Juin 1739 a Londres par Fr. Lefevre ” wine coole rs with green and yellow lizard handles (apparently a household servant) Chantilly porcelain is enamelled with ‘banded hedge and squirrel’. Part of described in three rooms in the London, presumably, the second Duke’s collection was sold in London in Whitehall, residence of the Duke of Richmond: 1751 shortly after his death. The auction catalogue included: ‘Six cups, 6 saucers (2 sorts) a tea pot, milk Dans le Salun pot, sugar dish and cover, a slop bason, Chantilly’. Deux Teaboards de pigeonwood avec deux John Mallet has shown that Chelsea had access to Grand tasses et soucoupe de Chantilly, deux and copied Chantilly porcelain as early as the Tasses sans soucoup, six Tasses et 6 soucoups, Triangle period7 and adopted their practice of using Un pot a sucrie et son couvert, un pot à crème tin oxide to opacify the glaze, albeit at a lower Et sa soucoupe, le tout de Chantilly, un concentration (9 & 10). Sprimont did not simply Grand pot a thé brun, un pot a thé de copy the Chantilly acanthus-moulded pattern but Jantilly. improved on it; the best of the Chelsea versions are Dans le Drawing Room crisper and more elegant in design (11). Small details, Un teaboard avec cinque tasses et six such as floral moulding within the footring, were also Soucoups de janti lly. Le sucrier et son couvere. copied and suggest a range of availability of Chantilly Dans le bedchamber un teaboard de at Chelsea (12 & 13). The scolopendrium-moulded [ ] avec 6 tasse & 6 soucoupe & wares were popular in the Raised Anchor period an d un pot a thé de Chantille were to be adopted by Worcester in the 1760s. A teapot attributed tentatively to Derby of the Dry- This represents at least two tea services and is the first Edge period also uses a similar moulding, but it is French porcelain actually recorded in England. While difficult to be certain whether it is taken from these teawares have not survived at Goodwood, other Chantilly or Chelsea (14 & 15). 432 52925_English_Ceramics_vol19_pt3_book:Layout 1 24/7/08 09:12 Page 433 Errol Manners – Some Continental Influences on English Porcelain 9. Chantilly acanthus-moulded cream jug, circa 1740 10. Chelsea Triangle Period copy of fig. 9, 1745-49 12. Footring of a Chantilly teabowl, circa 1740 11.