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This book describes a holistic study of the porcelain manufactured at Nantgarw and Swansea in the first quarter of the 19th Century, using both scientific analytical data and historical provenancing. This porcelain is acclaimed as some of the finest and most translucent porcelain ever produced. These two porcelain factories are linked through the artistic and creative activities of the enigmatic William Billingsley and had a strictly limited production over only three or four years during the period 1812-1820. The earliest chemical analysis of these porcelains were undertaken almost 100 years ago and are compared with the results of more recent analyses The chemical composition of these porcelains, their artistic decoration and the struggle to maintain quality production is reviewed. Scientific explanations are proposed for the characteristic Swansea duck-egg porcelain translucency and for the Nantgarw iridescence. The book is well illustrated throughout and affords a good basis for the further in-depth study of Swansea and Nantgarw porcelains.

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Foreword

Preface

Prologue: The Origins of Porcelain

1: Introduction and Present-Day Scenario
2 : Porcelain Manufacture in South Wales in the 19 th Century

2.1. The Influence of William Billingsley

2.2 Factory Output

3 : Historical Research Issues

3.1. Pattern Numbers : Absence in Nantgarw
3.2. Swansea Set Pattern Numbers

3.3. Attribution of Artist and Source

3.4. The Swansea and Nantgarw Artists

4 : A Chronological Summary of the Billingsley Family and Their Contribution to Porcelain Manufacture and Decoration

5 : Burnishing and Gilding

6 : Commercial Exploitation
7 . Service Types and the Importance of Nomenclature in Their Attribution

7.1. Sponsors of Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelains
7.2. A Cautionary Word

8 : Armorial Porcelains

8.1. Armorial Provenancing and Historical Dating

9 : Documentary Porcelain and Historical Provenancing

10 : The Production of Porcelain Services

10.1. Gilding versus Painting

10.2. Copies of Well-Known Services

10.3. Difficulties in Attribution

11 : The Scientific Analysis of Porcelain
11.1. Porcelain Bodies : A Scientific Appreciation

11.2. The Production of Porcelain : Source Materials and Chemistry

11.3. Lewis Weston Dillwyn´s Recipes for the Swansea Porcelain Body

11.3.1. Chemistry of Phyllosilicates

11.4. Early Analyses of Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelains

11.4.1. Summary of the Wet Chemical Analyses of Eccles & Rackham

11.5. Later Analytical Studies

11.6. General Analytical Conclusions

11.7. Molecular Composition of Porcelain Bodies from Modern Microanalytical Studies
11.8. Final Analytical Conclusions

12 : Named Artists

12. 1. The Three Williams: Turner, Price and Billingsley

13 : Classification of Factory Output

14 : Nantgarw Porcelain : Named Services

15 : Swansea Porcelain : Named Services

16 : Summary of Identified Named Services
16.1. Summary of Stylised Services with Descriptive Names

17 : Conclusions

18. The Discovery of a Long-Lost Nantgarw Dinner-Dessert Service

19. The Attribution of Unknown Porcelain to Swansea and Nantgarw: A Protocol

19.1. Measurements of Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelains

20. Statement Made by Henry Morris to Colonel Grant Davidson in 1850

21. William Billingsley - An Epilogue

Appendix 1 : Notes on the Experimental Production of Swansea Porcelain
Appendix 2 : Transcript of an Interview given by Henry Morris
Appendix 3 : Some Scientific Thoughts on Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelains
Appendix 4. The Pendock-Barry Service: A Re-Appraisal Appendix 5. Detailed Comparison Between the Derby Lord Ongley Service
and its Nantgarw Precursors
Appendix 6. Nantgarw Porcelain - Measurements and Sizes
Appendix 7. Swansea Script Marks and their Attribution to
William Billingsley´s Decoration
Glossary of Terms Used in this Book

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