plate – Moorabool Antique Galleries

Lavish is the word that best describes this Flight Worcester plate. It’s from the ‘Hope’ service, ordered in 1789 by William Henry, the Duke of Clarence, who was the third son of King George III and eventual inheritor of the British throne at the age of 64 after both brothers died without heirs.

The subject was chosen by him, and reflects his military career. Each piece has a different rendition of ‘Hope’ with her anchor, with a ship in the background. He had joined the Royal Navy in his youth, serving in North America and the Caribbean under Nelson. Nicknamed the ‘Sailor King’ when he came to the throne, it is little wonder he chose this nautical theme for his service.

The Hope Service, Flight Worcester, 1790

Securing the service commission was a major event for the ailing Worcester factory, which had been purchased by John Flight in 1783. It was William’s second commission from the factory, the first being the ‘St Andrew’ service, celebrating his achievement of the Order of St Andrew, earlier in 1789.

John Flight recorded in his diary in January 1790:

‘We used our two best painters last week to make some very fine designs for the Duke of Clarence, we have already completed 3 plates and I have sent them to London. One is a gold arabesque design, another the figure of Hope, the other of Patience.’

A few days later on 24th January John Flight added:

‘Apart from the two plates mentioned… we have made two others with figures, Peace and Plenty. H.R.H. Duke of Clarence has decided on the Hope design with the decoration that we put on the Peace plate, he has ordered a table service that will amount to more than £700 sterling. He has given us a year in which to complete it…’

The Hope Service Plate — A plate from ‘The Hope Service’, Flight Worcester 1790, made for the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV.

It is interesting to track down some original tabloid gossip from the period:

'Hope Service' described in the Claredon Post, 1791 — ‘Hope Service’ described in a 1791 Clarendon Post

This news article intended to impress, inflating the price and the number of pieces. The comment about it being ‘particularly appropriate to the nautical profession of the royal proprietor …’ is interesting, as William was indeed a Navy officer. His father George III had determined he should join the Royal Navy, and so he entered the navy at 13 as a midshipman. He saw active service in the War of American Independence (targeted in a kidnap plot by an agent of George Washington in New York, 1782!), and became a friend of Nelson. He was placed on the Warwick under Captain George Keith Elphinstone, and spent time in the Caribbean. In 1789 he returned to England, where his father the King’s health was failing, but although he received promotions to rear-admiral, vice-admiral, and in 1799 admiral, the navy refused his pleas for a return to active service. When he gained the throne in 1830, he was affectionately known as ‘The Sailor King’.

'Hope Service' described in the Derby Mercury, 1791 — ‘Hope Service’ described in the Derby Mercury, 1791

Another news article, in the ‘Derby Mercury’ in 1791, quotes the same inflated price – 800 Guineas (more than the £700 Flight recorded in his journal) – but gets the number of pieces right at 296. The story related of his ‘Blue-blooded Britishness’ is fantastic – if it happened. He was offered a set of ‘Avignon China’ (French porcelain of some type) he refused, saying while OTHERS may be happy with foreign products, he wouldn’t even accept a piece of furniture that wasn’t British!

The back of this plate has a large pasted label, which declares the following:

Hope Service Label

Specimen of the Celebrated Service of Old Worcester
Porcelain, made and presented to Lord Nelson by the
Nation, bequeathed by him to King William the Fourth
who gave it to his son Lord Frederick Fitzclarence
and in whose Will the full particulars are given –

It passed by marriage to the Earl of Erol and was
his up to May 1893 when it was dispersed at Christies
and realised nearly the sum of £2000.

This is of course different to what has been described at the top of this page, and is a fascinating example of mis-information. This old label provides us with the source of this mis-information, the Christies auction which dispersed the service in 1893. They of course got their information from the Earl of Erol, who had inherited it from his father, the illegitimate son of William IV, Fitzclarence. It was in this will that ‘the particulars’ were given, and so the confusion appears to have arisen right back then, just the next generation from when it was a wonderful new service that impressed the nation.

These days, there are pieces in major collections all over the world; the V&A has a fine example comparable with this one , as is another in the British Museum. We also have no less than a trio of them ‘across the road’ in Geelong, in the Geelong Art Gallery collection.

Hope Service - Geelong Art Gallery — Hope Service – Geelong Art Gallery

We are pleased to have a magnificent example as part of our 2016 Catalogue, and as a key piece in our Exhibition which opens on June 18th.

It’s a particularly nice example, being the one John Sandon illustrated in his 1993 book ” The Dictionary of Worcester Porcelain: 1751-1851 “

An Important fresh discovery:

Swansea Porcelain plate painted by Thomas Baxter with a Welsh subject, circa 1818

'The Bard', after de Loutherbourg 's lost work, depicted as an engraving in Gray's ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’ - painted by Thomas Baxter on Swansea Porcelain! — ‘The Bard’, after de Loutherbourg ‘s lost work, depicted as an engraving in Gray’s ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’ – painted by Thomas Baxter on Swansea Porcelain!

Produced for just a few short years in the early 19th century, Welsh porcelain is a rarity in the collecting world, and Welsh porcelain with Welsh subjects is almost unheard of. Add to this the name of the artist Thomas Baxter, considered to be the best of his time, and the result is simply stunning.

This is ‘The Bard’, a dramatic Swansea porcelain plate painted by Baxter, with a fascinating tale to tell.

Baxter is well known for his beautiful shell still-life pieces of shells or flowers. In such pieces he uses a similar format and technique as what we see in the Bard plate; a gloomy back-ground, slightly textured by stippling the paints on in a graduated palette, and the raking light that here highlights the face and front hand, is also seen in his shell-works. Baxter excelled in fine details, and the amount of realistic detail is certainly evident in the Bard plate, in particular the tendons and skin on his hand, and the hair that is buffeted by the stiff Welsh wind.

The subject is an ancient Druid playing a harp. In the complete source painting, his dramatic stance makes sense, as he is busy taunting the enemy (English) soldiers on the other side of a ravine.

The literary source is most likely a poem, ‘The Bard’, by the English poet Thomas Gray (1716-71). Gray penned the poem, and published it with the help of his good friend Horace Walpole in 1757.

The engraving in ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’, by Edward Jones. 1784

The source of this illustration seems to be an engraving from ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’, by Edward Jones. This was published in 1784, with subsequent editions in 1802 & 1808, a convenient date that links with the creation date of this Swansea plate. This engraving was based on a painting depicting Gray’s poem, an oil by the Franco-English artist Philip James de Loutherbourg.

A fascinating artist, he was a child protege artist in the late 1760’s, and came to London in 1771, employed by Garrick to paint the backdrops of theatre sets. His style is very dramatic, with sharp contrasts and dramatic skies. It is easy to see why Baxter was drawn to paint his scene, as it suits his own sense of drama.

De Loutherbourg’s lost ‘The Bard’, a copy in the Museum of Wales — De Loutherbourg’s lost ‘The Bard’ oil, a copy in the Museum of Wales

De Loutherbourg’s ‘The Bard’ is known from an 1840 copy hanging in the Museum of Wales, the original’s whereabouts is unknown. The British Museum notes that there was a drawing of this subject by de Loutherbourg in the possession of Horace Walpole, now in a private collection. Walpole was the patron who published ‘The Bard’ in 1757. This would presumably be the preliminary sketch for the now-lost oil. Perhaps Walpole also owned this oil ?

Did Baxter work from the above mentioned print, or did he in fact have access to the original now-lost oil? As a London based artist, de Loutherbourg’s works were also exhibited there, and so there is a high probability that Baxter would have seen the c.1775 original. Further supporting this is the amazing detail Baxter put into the hand, something that would not have been apparent in an engraving, but obvious in the original oil painting.

Baxter has adapted the composition to fit the plate, effectively shifting the view point lower and thus balancing the composition – but there’s no doubt the original painting, or the frontispiece of the book was the source for the plate.

An identical depiction of ‘The Bard’ can be found on a Chamberlains Worcester cup & saucer (right), painted by Baxter and titled underneath ‘Gray’s Bard’.

'Gray's Bard' by Baxter on FBB porcelain — ‘Gray’s Bard’ by Baxter on FBB porcelain

‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’ is considered to be one of the first flowerings of the Welsh nationalistic spirit, being a compilation of music and poetry about the Druids and their Kin. When we consider the Swansea origins of the plate, and the possibility that this was painted while Baxter was resident at the short-lived Swansea works (employed 1816-19) , it doesn’t take much imagination to conceive a local patriotic gentleman with Welsh interests having a copy accessible……. possibly Dyllwin the proprietor of the Swansea works himself?

–View this plate on the moorabool.com website–

This previously unrecorded plate is a fresh discovery, having been catalogued previously as ‘Paris Porcelain’. It has been purchased by the Geelong Art Gallery, with funding from the McAllister Bequest. The Gallery has collected numerous examples of fine quality early 19th century painting on porcelain, and the plate is in good company alongside several impressive examples of Baxter’s work.

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The Hope Service Plate, Flight Worcester c. 1790-2

An Important Swansea plate with Welsh subject, newly discovered….

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