William Billingsley.
The year 2024 marked the 250th anniversary of William Billingsley beginning his career as a decorator of porcelain. He was apprenticed by his mother Mary at the Derby porcelain factory in September 1774, at the age of 16. This was for a term of five years, during which time he received a wage of five shillings per week.
(See the book "William Billingsley, 1758-1828" by W. D. John.)
Once his apprenticeship was completed, Billingsley began his illustrious, though at times controversial career. Many would argue that he was the finest decorator of 18th and early 19th century porcelain and he was certainly one of the "greats". We can only cover his life and career quite briefly here, but will include in this exhibition some wonderfully decorated porcelain from all the factories he was involved with. However the main focus will be on his work on Derby porcelain.
The style of decoration produced by Billingsley in those early years was unremarkable, he'd have worked as instructed by his superiors. The same would have applied after completing his apprenticeship and pieces decorated by him during the Chelsea Derby period are almost impossible to identify. The first time we start to get a clue of his own style was from the start of the puce marked period, which began in 1784 when some of the workmen were allotted numbers to identify their work. Unusually for a painter, Billingsley was also a gilder and was allotted 7 as his gilder's number. Therefore from this time the so called "long-tailed 7" can be found on his work.
Early Floral Decoration from the Puce Marked Period With Long-Tailed 7's.
From the start of the puce marked period in 1784, Billingsley was still following the style he was taught and his work is unremarkable. Some of the early pieces would not be attributed to him were it not for the long-tailed 7 to the reverse. Some examples of those pieces follow here, all have the long-tailed 7 identifying them as by Billingsley. There is one plate in pattern 15, then three plates or dishes of various shapes in pattern 18, followed by one in pattern 35, the central landscape of which is most probably by Zachariah Boreman. All these plates and dishes come from private collections and date from c.1784 - 1788.
Pattern 15
Pattern 18
Pattern 35
Pattern 15
Early Puce Marked Pieces with Floral Decoration but without Long-Tailed 7's.
As with so much in our research of early English porcelain, there is no hard and fast rule and many early puce marked pieces decorated by Billingsley do not have long-tailed 7's. We can sometimes recognise his work, however, with the aid of the pattern books which in some cases actually allocate a pattern to a particular painter. Care must be taken here though, as it's always possible that a second service was subsequently ordered in that pattern which may have been decorated by another hand. We can also judge the evolving style as Billingsley began to develop his "wiped out" style of painting highlights and his increasing use of flowers being painted from the reverse. It's also possible to look back at the thoughts of other scholars from days gone by who research Billingsley and his work. Therefore it must be remembered that the following are attributions to Billingsley which cannot be proved conclusively.
The following photos all show pieces decorated between c.1785 and 1790 which we attribute to Billingsley. There is an ice pail decorated in pattern 80 and shown from both sides, then there follows a cup and saucer decorated in pattern 138. Following this is a dessert plate decorated in pattern 76 (notice the almost identical "love-in-a-mist" from both cup and saucer and this plate) and finally a teapot stand decorated in pattern 65. All are from private collections.
Pattern 80
Pattern 80
Pattern 65
Pattern 80
Floral Decoration from c.1788 - 1795.
From around 1788, Billingsley's style developed quite quickly to become more individual and identifiable. We can't be sure what prompted this change, whether the young decorator was becoming more confident in his own abilities or whether a talent was recognised by his superiors and he was encouraged to develop it. Whatever the reason, his style of painting blossoms to become the finest of all the Derby decorators and arguably the finest decorator in the country.
One of the changes to his style was how he started to "wipe out" the highlights of the flowers. He would have been taught to leave the highlights white, as was the custom at the time. However he developed a way to paint the highlights, then wipe them back, so leaving a faint layer of colour and therefore making the flowers much more lifelike. He was also brave enough to start to paint some of the flowers from the reverse, thus making a group of flowers more realistic.
The following plates are of patterns 100, 107, 129, 137, 151, 157 and 185, with the final two plates not having pattern numbers. All are from private collections.
Pattern 100
Pattern 100 close-up
No Pattern number
Pattern 100
Landscapes.
It is easy to overlook the work that Billingsley did, decorating landscapes on Derby porcelain. He is so well known for his flowers, especially his roses, but in fact he was also quite an accomplished landscape painter. He was close friends with that great painter of landscapes, Zachariah Boreman, who may well have guided and trained the young Billingsley in this particular skill. So much so that it is quite likely that many of Billingsley's landscapes are wrongly attributed to Boreman, their styles being quite similar. Therefore when looking for landscapes by Billingsley on Derby porcelain, the presence of a long-tailed 7 is of importance but these are hard to find. We illustrate one example below, a saucer decorated in pattern 85 which has that all important long-tailed 7. Photo by permission of Hansons Fine Art Auctioneers.
The Prentice Plate.
Before we leave Billingsley's time at Derby, we should look at the so called "Prentice Plate". It is believed that this was executed by Billingsley as an example of roses painted from all directions. Haslem records that it was retained by the factory as an example for the young apprentices to follow, right up to the time the factory closed in 1848. Unsurprisingly it is somewhat worn, but still of huge significance. Interestingly it is marked as pattern 138, though this does not match that pattern number in the pattern book. It is held by Derby Museums where it is on display at their city centre museum. The photos here are by permission from them.
Billingsley Leaves Derby.
Billingsley was ambitious, he wanted to create a porcelain body as fine as that which was produced on the continent and then add his own exquisite decoration to that porcelain. He must have been discussing this quite openly as word reached Joseph Lygo, manager of the Derby warehouse in London. During August 1795, Lygo wrote to William Duesbury on this very matter, part of which is reproduced here:
"I hope that you will be able to make a bargain with Mr. Billingsley for him to continue with you, for it will be a great loss to loose such a hand, and not only that, but his going into another factory will put them in a way of doing flowers in the same way, which they are at present entirely ignorant of".
In 1795 Billingsley left the Derby factory to begin setting up the porcelain factory at Pinxton. As far as we know, he never returned to work there again.
The research of Andrew Ledger, published in our Journal 2 under the title "Derby Botanical Dessert Services, 1791-1811", strongly suggests that the last botanical dessert service that Billingsley could have contributed to the decoration of before leaving is pattern 197. Therefore any attribution to him of later patterns should be treated with caution.
Pinxton (1795-1799)
Digging of the foundations of the new Pinxton Porcelain factory was begun on October 26th 1795 and was sited at the head of the newly built Pinxton Canal. The first kiln firing was on April 23rd 1796 and from this date, porcelain production began at the factory.
A three year partnership agreement had been signed between John Coke and William Billingsley which came to an end on April 15th 1799, when it was dissolved. Billingsley had underestimated the costs of both building and running the factory, and of producing the porcelain. Coke realised that Billingsley was an unreliable business partner so chose to continue the business alone. (Information taken from "William Billingsley at Pinxton" by C. Barry Shepherd, The Pinxton Porcelain Society's Bicentenary Exhibition Catalogue, Mansfield Museum.)
During his time at Pinxton, Billingsley was mostly involved in the day to day running of the factory leaving little time for him to decorate the fine porcelain it was producing. Therefore examples of his work there are scarce. Below we show images of two examples at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a vase and a tankard. It is believed that Billingsley decorated these between 1797 and 1799.
Mansfield (1799-1802)
Having left Pinxton, Billingsley was out of work and quickly needed to find gainful employment to provide an income for himself and his family. He therefore moved to Belvedere Street in Mansfield where he established his own decorating establishment. Here, it was necessary for him to buy in white porcelain to decorate himself and there is evidence to suggest that he did this from such factories as Chamberlains Worcester, Pinxton, Coalport and Derby, as well as a number of Staffordshire factories and some French hard paste porcelain.
Billingsley employed a small team of workmen to help him at Belvedere Street, including George Hancock, a flower painter, ground layer and colour mixer, his nephew William Wheeldon who at the time was just 11 years old but who went on to become a fine decorator at Derby, as well as Billingsley's own wife and daughters.
After a short stay at Mansfield, Billingsley formed an association with Henry Banks and left to build a new manufactory at Brampton-in-Torksey in Lincolnshire. (Information taken from "William Billingsley at Mansfield" by C. Barry Shepherd, The Pinxton Porcelain Society's Bicentenary Exhibition Catalogue, Mansfield Museum.)
There are a very small number of pieces marked "Billingsley Mansfield", otherwise identification of his unmarked work is difficult. It can be found on porcelain from many factories and it is necessary to identify it by recognising both the style of decoration and the date of the piece.
The teapot below was manufactured at Pinxton but decorated by Billingsley at Mansfield. It is in the collection at the V&A and was exhibited by the Pinxton Porcelain Society at the Bicentenary Exhibition at Mansfield Museum. There are two reserve views but only one is shown here. It is inscribed under the teapot "B 26" and "Veiw (sic) of Breadsall Old Hall, Derbyshire" and "Dunnington Castle, Berkshire". Inside the cover it is marked "B 26" and "Billingsley Mansfeild (sic)".
Brampton-in-Torksey (1802-1808).
Billingsley would not have been in Lincolnshire long and the new factory barely up and running, before his new found business partner, Henry Banks, was declared bankrupt in August 1803. He would have needed an income to support himself and his two daughters (his wife having returned to live in Derby when he moved from Mansfield). It is not clear how much porcelain he was able to produce at Torksey during these early years so it is likely that he had to resume buying white wares, then decorating and selling it as he had done at Mansfield.
Billingsley's fortunes improved in 1806 when a new company was formed - Sharpe and Company. There were five partners, William Sharpe, Samuel Walker (later to become Billingsley's son-in-law), James Walker, Benjamin Booth and William Billingsley. It is probable that it was over the next two years that most of the porcelain production took place.
Archaeological evidence from an excavation of the site in 1969-71 found an enormous quantity of principally biscuit shards and of kiln furniture, suggesting fairly large scale production was attempted and some must have survived the firing process and went on to be decorated, but where is it? There is virtually no evidence of marked pieces and most of the shards recovered were of tea and coffee ware forms found in collections of Pinxton porcelain.
Sharpe and Company was wound up in November 1807 but we know the Billingsley's were still in Lincolnshire on 4th July 1808 when Billingsley's daughter Sarah was a witness at a wedding in Torksey. The factory buildings and materials were advertised for sale on 21st July 1809. The Billingsley's left Lincolnshire some time after the July wedding in 1808, making their was to Worcester via Derby, Bristol and South Wales. It was around this time that Billingsley changed his name to Beeley. (Information taken from "William Billingsley at Brampton-in-Torksey" by Roy Chapman, The Pinxton Porcelain Society's Bicentenary Exhibition Catalogue, Mansfield Museum.)
Examples of proven Torksey manufactured pieces are extremely rare. Pieces bought in the white and decorated at Torksey can occasionally be found like this French hard-paste porcelain plate at the V&A, decorated in monochrome enamels and titled to the reverse "A View in Hardwick Park, Derbyshire". The V&A date the decoration on this plate to c.1802-03.
Worcester (1808-1813).
Along with his two daughters and Samuel Walker who was soon to become his son-in-law, William Billingsley arrived in Worcester in 1808 where they finally found employment. It's not clear what exactly Billingsley did at Worcester but there isn't a great deal of porcelain of which the decoration can be attributed to him. Initially it is suggested that their main work was in improving the kilns with the introduction of a new type of muffle kiln for firing the enamels. However in November 1809 an agreement was entered into with Martin Barr for them to work on an improvement of the porcelain body to achieve more translucence. Experiments must have gone ahead and in November 1812 a bond was drawn up between Barr Flight and Barr on the one hand and Billingsley and Walker on the other preventing them from sharing the new porcelain recipe with others.
In November 1813 and just a few days after the death of Martin Barr, Billingsley, his two daughters and Walker left Worcester for South Wales where they set up a factory at Nantgarw to make this new porcelain body. (Information taken from "Flight and Barr Worcester Porcelain 1783-1840" by Henry Sandon.)
Below you'll see an example of Billingsley's decoration on Barr Flight & Barr porcelain. It is marked to the reverse with a crown and Prince of Wales feathers over BARR FLIGHT & BARR, Royal Porcelain Works, WORCESTER. London-House, No 1 Coventry Street. It is also impressed with a crown over BFB. (Private collection).
South Wales, Swansea and Nantgarw (1813-1820)
It is not clear why it was Nantgarw that Billingsley went to after his rather abrupt departure from Worcester. However it was there that, along with his two daughters and Samuel Walker, he arrived in late 1813. Porcelain production would seem to have started fairly quickly, possibly by the spring of 1814. They managed to secure the interest and financial support of William Weston Young who later in 1814 became a partner with Billingsley and Walker. Production of the fragile body was difficult, but it's estimated that around 300 pieces of white porcelain were produced each week.
Later in 1814, Young decided to withdraw his financial support but agreed to help Billingsley and Walker with an appeal for help from the Government. This was subsequently refused. However the quality of the porcelain had come to the attention of Mr L. W. Dillwyn who wanted to transfer the manufactory from Nantgarw to the Cambrian Pottery at Swansea. Thus in October 1814, Billingsley, Walker and Billingsley's two daughters moved to Swansea with the Nantgarw works either closed or mothballed. (Information from "William Billingsley, 1758-1828" by W. D. John).
Below is an image of the house Billingsley lived in at Nantgarw.
Once two new porcelain firing kilns had been built at Swansea the production of porcelain would have begun. Mr Dillwyn quickly realised that it would be necessary to strengthen the Nantgarw body, but it took around two years of experimenting until the autumn of 1816 that the fine Swansea "duck-egg" porcelain was evolved and was acceptable to all concerned. Serious production commenced, but the body still proved to be fairly fragile and proved not to be economical. By the spring of 1817 Mr Dillwyn's enthusiasm for porcelain production was waning and it was finally stopped later that year. Billingsley seemed to have anticipated this and he returned to Nantgarw in the early summer to investigate the possibility of re-opening the Nantgarw works. (This information is taken from "William Billingsley, 1758-1828" by W. D. John.)
Below is a photograph of a very fine Swansea cabinet cup decorated by William Billingsley (Private collection).
In the second half of 1817, the production of fine porcelain was recommenced at Nantgarw. William Weston Young was once again able to help with financial support and in 1818 a group of ten country gentlemen also came forward with money. With this backing production was increased and the London market seemed willing to take all that Billingsley could produce provided it was in fine condition. Presumably second quality pieces were decorated at the factory though it is debateable how much time Billingsley had for this task.
For two and a half years Billingsley and Walker must have worked hard in what was the period of peak production, but as had been the case in so many of Billingsley's previous ventures, the heavy losses in the biscuit kiln firing made the business unviable. By the start of 1820 the capital they had secured had been used up and the manufacture of fine porcelain gradually ceased. To this date though, the porcelain produced at Nantgarw remains the finest ever produced in this country.
In the early months of 1820, Billingsley and Walker left Nantgarw for the last time, securing employment at Coalport. (Information taken from "William Billingsley, 1758-1828" by W. D. John).
Below are photographs of two items of Nantgarw porcelain, a dish and a plate, both attributed to William Billingsley. (Private collection).
Coalport 1820-1828.
It is possible that Billingsley found employment at Coalport because that factory had lost out heavily to Nantgarw for sales of white porcelain to the London dealers. Employing both Billingsley and Walker on seven year contracts would have been a simple way to ensure that the Nantgarw porcelain manufactory would never restart in its previous form. It is also unlikely that Billingsley would have much influence on the Coalport body, John Rose being well aware of the fragility of the Nantgarw body. The fact the Coalport body did improve a little around 1822 may have been partly due to Billingsley's input, but that would have been carefully restrained by economic concerns.
Now in his sixties, it is not certain how much decorating Billingsley did at Coalport and no obvious examples are known save for a small open vase on four feet and attached square base. It is of the improved porcelain (c.1825) with roses and convolvuli closely resembling Nantgarw items. (See W. D. John, "William Billingsley, 1758-1828, Illustration number 70A).
Billingsley died at his home on the Shifnal Road, near the Coalport works on January 16th, 1828, aged 70 years. He is buried in the parish of Kemberton, near Coalport.
This on-line exhibition was originally intended to reflect Billingsley's life and career at Derby, however that plan has grown to also include a brief insight into his very eventful life after Derby. Students and collectors of those later factories may well argue that more information should have been given, but that was not possible here. However for those wishing to learn more of Billingsley's later life there are many excellent books and publications available and a representative sample are listed here for guidance.
We hope you have enjoyed this brief look at the life of a quite remarkable man, who has forever made his mark on British porcelain history.
Suggested Further Reading.
William Billingsley (1758-1828) by W. D. John
Nantgarw Porcelain by W. D. John
Swansea Porcelain by W. D. John
Not Just a Bed of Roses, published by The Usher Gallery, Lincoln
Billingsley Mansfield Bicentenary Exhibition, published by The Pinxton Porcelain Society
Flight and Barr Worcester Porcelain 1783-1840 by Henry Sandon
The Patterns and Shapes of the Pinxton China Factory 1796-1813 by N. D. Gent
A Beginner's Guide to Pinxton China by June C. Meeks
A History of the Torksey and Mansfield China Factories by C. L. Exley
Swansea Porcelain, Shapes and Decoration by A. E. (Jimmy) Jones and Sir Leslie Joseph
The Pottery and Porcelain of Swansea and Nantgarw by E. Morton Nance
The Old Derby China Factory by J. Haslem
Derby Porcelain 1748-1848, An Illustrated Guide by John Twitchett
This list is by no means complete, but is a representative guide of books and publications dealing with the factories at the times that Billingsley was present, and with various aspects of his life.