in addition to the blousy plate the 'wonky bits',' shards', 'wasters' are of interest also ..


Mr L Dilwyn in a letter afirmed that he visited Nantgarw in Sept 1814 , he found there a great number of broken and imperfect articles


'upon witnessing the firing of a kiln at Nantgarw I found reason for considering that the body used was nearly allied to glass to bear the necessary heat .... i observed that nine tenths of the articles were either shivered or more or less injured in shape in the firing'





90 % wastage


90% + 10%


9 out of 10



...from a small village in wales to the china cabinets of the aristocracy.....................














'there can be little doubt that the greatest proportion of the most perfectly finished Nantgarw porcelain was decorated away from the pottery by contemporary London enamelers.'


leading dealers were willing to take as much as they could of the perfect WHITE Nantgarw porcelain for elaborate decoration. Little decoration was attempted at the pottery. London dealers preferred to purchase porcelain in the white




















http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk/heritagetrail/Blue_Plaque/ncw.html





William Billingsley:



porcelain genius who never made his fortune http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Billingsley_(artist)


'for 20 years William Billingsley had devoted a large proportion of his time , energy and enthusiasm to the perfecting of a perfect porcelain body which would equal in fine quality and translucency the famous soft porcelain of Sevres.'...

artistic skill and taste , his white hot enthusiasm for his creative trade, his love of beauty, of perfection for itself, his power of absorption of all that was most perfect and beautiful around him , set him a plane apart .....Frank Hurlbutt old Derby porcelain

'Debt seems to have dogged his footsteps but it was for no evil purpose . His ideals were too high.. As his patient wife said of him ' he was never satisfied with what he did,he wanted to do something better ' The nantgarw works


Of Nantgarw works ..

Being in Wales it had to struggle with its own incapacity to meet the commercial but inartistic wants of the British people generally. It therefore sank, overpowered by the very weight of its own perfections




Billingsley was known as the rose painter