Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Plate, Cobalt Blue, Gilt and Billingsley Roses, 1907

This is one of a pair of beautiful plates made by William Billingsley at the Mansfield Pottery, between 1799 and 1802. The plates, manufactured by Coalport, have a pleasing slightly diapered shape. They were decorated with beautiful monochrome sepia flowers and a simple gilt rim by William Billingsley. Please see separate listing for the matching plate; I would be happy to offer some discount if you interested in purchasing both plates. 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. Items painted by William Billingsley are rare and very much in demand - together with Thomas Baxter's work they are probably among the most desired pieces of British porcelain. The plate is marked with an impressed 7, the number associated with Billingsley. The attribution of this plate to William Billingsley is due to the fact that he painted nearly identical flowers on a Coalport jug...

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