Chelsea Factory

British, founded 1743

(not assigned)London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

BiographyEnglish ceramic factory. The date of the foundation of the factory, situated in the London village of that name, is uncertain. It is likely that a French jeweller, Charles Gouyn (d 1785), founded the factory jointly with nicholas Sprimont and that they obtained technical help from a German chemist, whose name is given, perhaps unreliably, as ‘d’Ostermann’. Around 1749, following initial losses, Gouyn left the partnership but continued to make, at Bennet Street, St James’s, or near Hyde Park Corner, ‘very beautiful small porcelain figures’ thought to include the scent bottles and seals of the so-called ‘Girl-in-a-swing’ class, which used formerly to be confused with Chelsea products. Sprimont’s first known connection with the Chelsea factory site was on 12 September 1744, and the earliest datable products are the ‘goat-and-bee’ jugs inscribed 1745; this seems a probable date when commercial production began. The factory expanded in size and productivity until 1757, when Sprimont’s ill-health and the withdrawal and subsequent death of Sir Everard Fawkener (1694–1758), seemingly a principal financier of the factory since at least 1746, checked the firm and probably induced Sprimont to concentrate on a smaller production of luxury porcelains. Sprimont sold the business to James Cox (fl 1749–91), a London jeweller, in August 1769, and Cox resold it in February 1770 to william Duesbury, who ran it in tandem with his porcelain factory at Derby, until he closed the Chelsea branch in 1784.

Chelsea porcelains are usually classified into five periods named after the marks then in use: during the first or ‘Triangle’ period (c. 1744–9) a triangle was often incised before the piece was fired; more rarely it was painted in underglaze blue. Probably c. 1749 an underglaze-blue crown and trident mark was occasionally substituted. Figures and some wares were slip-cast. The glassy paste is highly translucent, and its slightly yellow appearance was, from c. 1747 to 1755, counteracted by the application of a glaze opacified and whitened with tin oxide. Enamelling was technically successful but at first artistically uneven.

The ‘Raised Anchor’ period (c. 1750–52) and the ‘Red Anchor’ period (c. 1752–8) show a continuous development. A wide variety of shapes and enamelled patterns, including the fable subjects associated with the painter Jefferyes Hamett O’Neale (1734–1801), was introduced, and the paste became less prone to slump in the kiln, which made it possible to produce an increasingly sophisticated variety of figures (see [not available online]) and, from c. 1754 to 1756, tureens formed as animals and vegetables (e.g. life-size Swan tureens, c. 1755–6; London, V&A and Bedford, Cecil Higgins A. G.). From 1748 to 1766 the factory’s figure modeller is thought to have been a Flemish sculptor, Joseph Willems (c. 1715–66). On the other hand Brolliet, an industrial spy who appears to have worked at Chelsea in 1758–9, reported that ‘the modeller is one named Flanchet, a pupil of Mr. Duplessis’, presumably Jean-Claude-Chambellan Duplessis, who was a leading modeller of wares and vases at Sèvres, so it is likely that Flanchet modelled similar things at Chelsea. Brolliet adds, ‘the draughtsman is named Du Vivier: he is Flemish’ (see Dragesco). It is possible to recognize many models and styles of decoration from surviving auction catalogues of the factory’s annual production in 1755 and 1756. Though Japanese Kakiemon patterns were still in production during these years, it is evident that floral decoration in the style of the Meissen Porcelain Factory was more popular, and many of the figures were also copied from Meissen (see Meissen, §3). Wares made during the ‘Gold Anchor’ period (1758–70) contain bone-ash, and the glaze is thick and clear. Gilding, which had been increasingly used since the ‘Raised Anchor’ period, became more frequent and elaborate. A rich ‘Mazarine blue’ and other ground colours inspired by porcelain made at Vincennes and Sèvres were much used, with such decoration as exotic birds filling reserved panels. Figures were also often elaborate, set on gilded Rococo scroll bases, or backed with tree-like bocages supporting candle-nozzles. Miniature scent bottles and other ‘toys’ (trifles), introduced in the late ‘Red Anchor’ period, were much in vogue, as were elaborately gilded and painted sets and pairs of vases.

Probably little was made under Cox’s management, and under Duesbury after 1770 a fusion of Chelsea and Derby styles and techniques rapidly occurred, so that it is difficult to determine which pieces were made at which factory. The gold anchor mark of the preceding period seems to have remained in at least occasional use as late as 1779, though by then a crown and anchor mark and an interlaced anchor and D (for Duesbury) had both been used. The glaze on Chelsea-Derby porcelains is usually thinner and less inclined to ‘pool’ than that on Sprimont’s ‘Gold Anchor’ porcelains. Neo-classical forms and decoration were introduced, but a diluted Rococo style was continued. Seals and other miniatures are known to have been made or at least enamelled at the Chelsea branch of the combined firm.

J. V. G. Mallet. "Chelsea Porcelain Factory." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T016251 (accessed May 1, 2012)

Person TypeInstitution