Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelain

The Cambrian Pottery operated from 1764 to 1870. Under George Haynes and Lewis Weston Dillwyn its products reached a standard of excellence which in those days and ever since has made the name of Swansea porcelain celebrated. After 1850 the quality of the ware declined until the pottery closed in 1870. Swansea and Nantgarw potteries were responsible for some of the most beautiful pieces of porcelain made. William Dillwyn, of Walthamstow, a Quaker born in Philadelphia, bought the Cambrian Pottery, Swansea, from George Haynes in 1807, and placed his son, Lewis Weston Dillwyn, in charge the following year. L.W. Dillwyn engaged George Haynes as his manager and William Weston Young, of Aberdylais, Neath, as painter and decorator. Weston Young '1814, disgusted with two runaway potters of Worcester, transferred his interests in the Cambrian Pottery to Roby, Bevington & Co.

The ceramic department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, published a booklet, entitled Analysed Specimens of English Porcelain, from the pens of Herbert Eccles, F.C.S., and Harold Rackham, and in it we find an explanation why Dillwyn left the Cambrian Pottery, and makes interesting reading. It seems that Samuel Walker, one of the run-a-way potters, the other being the father-in-law of Dillwyn, whose name was William Billingsley, was threatened with a law-suit by his old firm at Worcester for breach of contract, for in a letter dated 1814 at Worcester, they state. 'We are told you are about forming some sort of connection with a person of the name Young, and also with Dillwyn & Bevington, Potters of Swansea, and that you are to make for them a composition, the principles of which are similar to the one for which we paid you a high premium etc .

The Worcester firm claimed £1,000 for breach of contract.

Dillwyn's notebook containing valuable recipes for porcelain bodies and glazes (1815-1817) was presented in 1920 to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Weston Young was considered a genius as a decorator of porcelain, and the views he painted on Swansea ware were chiefly sketched in the beautiful Vale of Neath, where he lived for some years. William Pollard who lived at Landore, was also thought of as one of the best painters on Swansea china. He excelled in painting what was known locally as the "Burrows Rose", also called "Burnt Rose". It is recorded that 'His lovely roses seem to revel in their existence on the bevels of the old plates'.

Such was the skill of the Swansea potters that a Sevres plate was sent from London for others to be made like it. Sevres, situated on the Seine in France, is mainly noted for the famous porcelain factory established there in 1756. When the order was despatched, the owner of the sample plate asked that it should be returned, not knowing that it was included among the others. The expert could not tell the difference.

Extract from Swansea Local History

If you happen to have one of these in the kitchen - handle with care. It was valued at £3,200 in 2004.

Swansea Porcelain 8.5 inch Plate c1816
Painted by Pollard. Marked SWANSEA in red.