Description

Heading : Nantgarw Porcelain Dinner Plate – Lady Seaton Service – c1818
Date : c1818
Period : George III
Marks : Impressed NANT-GARW C.W. over three dots
Origin : Nantgarw. South Wales
Colour : cobalt blue overglaze hand-enamelling and gilt
Pattern : gilt dentile rim around seven monochrome blue floral sprays

Features: lobed rim; moulded c-scrolls and rococo swags and flourishes to the lip; abbreviated moulded ribs fading to the well
Condition : Excellent; no chips. cracks or flakes other than some tiny nibbles to the foot rim; some very small underglaze inclusions and burst glaze bubbles;  there are three firing cracks to the underside – two along the internal angle of the foot-string and one. a little stained. through the glaze. up and over the foot-string; wear to the gilding and enamel; some tiny fine scratches to the well.
Restoration : none
Dimensions : 3.5 cm high – 25.2 cm diameter
Weight : 644 grams 

Notes : This London-decorated service is said to have acquired its common name – Lady Seaton – due to its superficial resemblance to a Swansea service which was actually owned by the lady in question. during her ownership of Bosahan House in Cornwall. The provenance of the Swansea service can be traced from its original owner – a Mr Arthur Jones – to Sir Arthur Pendarves Vivian and thence to Lady Seaton by inheritance in the 1920’s; it was a locally (ie Welsh) decorated. transfer-printed service of some 145 pieces; this is – so it states in our source – considered to be an inferior service to the Nantgarw iteration due to the substance of the porcelain itself. and the method by which it was decorated.

Reference : Welsh Armorial Porcelain: Nantgarw and Swansea Crested China (H G M Edwards. 1922)  p 241 et seq