Worcester and Its Porcelains

The first china factory in Worcester, England, was started in the mid-eighteenth century when fifteen citizens organized the Worcester Tonkin Manufacture and subscribed forty-five hundred pounds for the venture.

A physician, Dr, John Wall, who had first conceived the project, was their leader while among his fellow-founders were an apothecary, an engraver, a silversmith, and two experienced potters. Business plans were carefully made and speedily carried out. An old mansion was leased in July of 1751 as a factory, kilns were built, and a staff of workmen engaged.

Dr. Wall had business aptitude and the porcelain factory was successful from the start. These early years are known as the Dr. Wall period and the products are among the most beautiful of English china. Dr. Wall apparently had some of the best artists then working in England at china painting. At first, the factory made only tableware, copying the pieces imported from China as to shape and decoration. Later decorations included transfer prints from copperplate engravings and, around 1768, came the exotic bird patterns that are almost synonymous with the name Worcester.

After Dr. Wall's death, the business was bought in 1783 by Thomas Flight, agent of the company at its London warehouse. He put his two sons, Joseph and John, in charge of the factory. They introduced more ornate decorations, changing the character of the ware. Consequently, porcelains of the Flight period are not hard to distinguish from the earlier Wall examples. Furthermore, Robert Chamberlain, head of the decorating department, decided to open his own porcelain factory, taking his brother Humphrey with him. This did not make for particularly good feeling, but both factories prospered and were keen rivals.

In 1793 the Flights took in Martin Barr as a partner and, fourteen years later, Martin Barr the younger joined them. Name and mark were then changed to Barr, Flight & Barr, which lasted to 1840 when the rival companies merged and became Chamberlain & Company. Lastly, in 1862, the name was changed to its present one, Worcester Royal Porcelain Company, Ltd., a joint-stock company still operating.

Marks used from the founding of the original company to 1840 were first, a W in script, then a more usual mark, a crescent in outline, in solid color, or with shaded lines. These, as well as the marks "R.H. Worcester" or "R. Hancock fecit" belong to the Dr. Wall period. China bearing any one of these marks is the rarest and most artistic. Marks after 1783 include names or initials of the firm, impressed.

Although china made during the Barr, Flight, & Barr years tended to be over-ornate, the quality was excellent and many handsome dinner services were produced, along with tea sets, dessert services, and other objects. The Chinese influence persisted from the start. The Imari pattern, shown on the plate at the right in the illustration, was later adapted by Staffordshire potters to produce the Gaudy Dutch dishes with the vivid colors which give it its present-day name.