Any porcelain made at the Pinxton porcelain factory is rare, but to find a complete tea service is even rarer! This wonderful service was made around the year 1800 and bears a hand painted monochrome orange-red pattern in the Japanese style, in what is often called the "blood and milk" colour scheme. The service consists of a teapot with cover, a sucrier with cover, a milk jug, a slop bowl, a plate, and four trios.
 
We have two more trios available from this service, please see separate listings.
 
The Pinxton Porcelain factory was started by William Billingsley and John Coke in 1796. Billingsley was trained and then worked at Derby before setting up his own factory; his interest was not only in decorating, but in developing the finest porcelain ever made. It is likely that Billingsley had received a porcelain recipe from his friend and mentor Zachariah Boreman at Derby, who had knowledge of the original Chelsea recipe containing bone ash. The Pinxton factory ran until 1813, although Billingsley already left in 1799 to set up a decorating establishment in Mansfield. The factory was taken over by John Cutts in 1804, however he would choose economy over quality. The original Pinxton porcelain is some of the finest made in Britain, with a beautiful translucency often not present in other English porcelain. The short period of operation makes Pinxton porcelain very rare.
 
William Billingsley was a brilliant but notoriously difficult man who left behind a trail of debts, broken hearts and mystery - but he was also one of the most important people in the history British porcelain. Billingsley revolutionised the way British decorators painted flowers; he added a freedom and artistry that now singles out British flower painting, and he created a new technique for painting roses, which you can see in this design. Billingsley trained and worked at Derby, and then started his own pottery at Pinxton. He then left to start a decorating studio at Mansfield, where he decorated wares from various potteries, among which Derby, Coalport, Whitehead and others. After that, he spent a period in Worcester, and then went to Wales where he set up a pottery in Nantgarw, worked at the Swansea pottery for a while and then returned to Nantgarw. While in Nantgarw he created some of the best porcelain ever made, but racking up great debts. He ended up running off in the dead of night and ending his days at Coalport painting flowers.
 
The service is unmarked, which is normal for Pinxton porcelain, but can be identified by its shape and decoration.
 
DOCUMENTATION: a cup and saucer of this pattern can be seen in Nicholas Gent's "The Patterns and Shapes of the Pinxton China Factory 1796-1813", fig 74, page 86.
 
CONDITION REPORT The service is in near-perfect condition without damage, repairs or crazing, except a rivet repair to the handle of the teapot, a faint hairline around the spout of the teapot, and a tiny chip off the spout of the teapot. In spite of this, the pot is fine to use (with caution) if warmed up with warm, not boiling, water before use. There is a small area of crazing on the rim of one of the saucers, with an associated glaze line.
 
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1800s, and this meant that china from that period can have some firing specks from flying particles. British makers were also known for their experimentation, and sometimes this resulted in technically imperfect results. Due to the shrinkage in the kiln, items can have small firing lines or develop crazing over time, which should not be seen as damage but as an imperfection of the maker's recipes, probably unknown at the time of making. Items have often been used for many years and can have normal signs of wear, and gilt can have signs of slight disintegration even if never handled. I will reflect any damage, repairs, obvious stress marks, crazing or heavy wear in the item description but some minor scratches, nicks, stains and gilt disintegration can be normal for vintage items and need to be taken into account.
 
There is widespread confusion on the internet about the difference between chips and nicks, or hairlines and cracks. I will reflect any damage as truthfully as I can, i.e. a nick is a tiny bit of damage smaller than 1mm and a chip is something you can easily see with the eye; a glazing line is a break in the glazing only; hairline is extremely tight and/or superficial and not picked up by the finger; and a crack is obvious both to the eye and the finger. Etcetera - I try to be as accurate as I can and please feel free to ask questions or request more detailed pictures!
 
DIMENSIONS please feel free to ask for detailed measurements.