COLLECTED WORKS

WORCESTER PORCELAIN

he early 18th century was a revolutionary time for European pottery makers. At long last they had discovered how to create porcelain, until then a secret known only to the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans. Canny businessmen quickly spotted a tempting commercial opportunity: top-quality tableware didn’t necessarily need to be imported, it could be made at home!

In Worcester, two such entrepreneurs, Dr John Wall and William Davis, devised their own ‘secret recipe’ for a porcelain that could withstand boiling water – a highly desirable property for any tea service – and successfully touted their business scheme to local investors. As a result ‘The Worcester Tonquin Manufactory’ was established in 1751.

Royal Worcester, a world-famous brand to this day, traces its origin back to this ‘Manufactory’, although the connection has arguably been somewhat diluted by the fact that the original business merged with Spode in the 1970s and went into administration in 2008. Wares carrying the brand name – rights to which were acquired by the Portmeirion Group – are nowadays made in Stoke-on-Trent.

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1: Worcester porcelain spoon tray, circa 1770. Sold by Tennants for £140. 2: Pair of Flight, Barr & Barr Worcester porcelain Campagna vases, circa 1820, painted with Muckross Abbey and Malvern Church. Sold by Tennants for £1,200. 3: Royal Worcester porcelain vase and inner cover, painted with Highland cattle by John Stinton, 1919. Sold by Tennants for £1,100. 4: Set of six Flight, Barr & Barr Worcester porcelain dessert plates, circa 1820. Sold by Tennants for £250. 5: Royal Worcester porcelain twin-handled Campagna Vase, painted with a still life of fruit by Richard Sebright, 1909. Sold by Tennants for £190. 6: Royal Worcester ‘Prince’s Grace and Foal’, limited edition model by Doris Lindner. Sold by Tennants for £320.

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Taking Flight

In 1783 the factory set up by Wall and Davis was bought by Thomas Flight, and in 1788 it received its first royal warrant. Martin Barr joined Flight in the company in 1792, and ownership of what was by then called ‘The Royal Porcelain Works’ subsequently passed to the pair’s sons.

It’s worth noting that ‘Worcester porcelain’ is used as a general term that includes the output of two other local factories, Chamberlain’s and Grainger’s, both of which would eventually merge with Flight and Barr’s company.

Unsurprisingly, given its 200-year-plus history, ‘Worcester porcelain’ encompasses a vast range of different styles, many fine examples of which have come under the hammer at Tennants auction house in Leyburn in recent years.

A good deal of early Worcester was relatively austere ‘blue and white’ ware that took its inspiration from the Chinese porcelain that it was trying to emulate. But things were soon to take a more colourful turn.

Many readers will be familiar with Royal Worcester’s most popular 20th century pattern, ‘Evesham Gold’, with its gold banding and depictions of luscious apples, plums and blackberries. This obsession with fruit and gilt was already in evidence in Worcester’s early years, notably in an extravagant service created for the Duke of Gloucester in 1770.

The transfer of the business to Flight and Barr marked a shift towards more even more elaborate decoration. Along with mouthwatering fruit and increasingly vivid and ornate Chinese motifs, rural views were another common theme in the early 1800s. These often depicted elegant country houses or – in line with the Romantic tendencies of the age – picturesque ruins and dramatically rendered English beauty spots.

Meanwhile the Chamberlain and Grainger factories were working along similar lines, with the Chamberlain factory in particular quickly gaining a reputation for the production of exquisitely painted porcelain.

Perfectionist Painters

As the 19th century wore on, Royal Worcester recruited an impressive team of decorators. Each painter was encouraged to specialise in a particular theme, and eventually artists were even allowed to sign their work on the front of the piece rather than with a simple monogram on the base.

Several generations of the talented Stinton family painted for Worcester factories from 1805 until the mid 20th century. One of the most highly respected was John Stinton junior (1854–1956), whose forte was Highland cattle and moody landscapes.

Richard Sebright was another exceptionally skilful Worcester painter, considered to be the finest fruit painter of his generation and possibly the best ever to work at Worcester. He mastered a complex layering technique, painstakingly building up layers of translucent glaze – each one followed by a firing – to create extraordinarily deep and lustrous images.

Royal Worcester continued to embrace new techniques and new fashions during the late 19th century – reflecting, for example, the growing popularity of majolica, and producing a number of striking pieces influenced by the Aesthetic Movement and the passion for all things oriental. By and large, though, the factory preferred to rely on high quality traditional work rather than taking risks. Despite a polite flirtation with Art Deco, the bulk of their 20th century output remained resolutely middle of the road.

Doris Lindner (1896–1979) modelled a series of limited edition figurines of animals, and in particular horses, that were extremely popular in the 1960s and remain so to this day. Unfortunately, successes like Lindner’s models and the Evesham Gold range of ‘oven-to-table’ ware – seemingly ubiquitous in the 1970s – weren’t enough to keep the company solvent in the face of challenging economic conditions and cheap imports from overseas. For more information about Tennants Auctioneers, or to arrange a valuation, visit tennants.co.uk or call 01969 623780.