The Madrid or Buen Retiro porcelain (1759-1808) was of various quality but included some of the most beautifully modelled and coloured figures ever made in Europe. For these the modeller Giuseppe Gricci was probably responsible. Amongst many styles of painting on vases and table wares there is much that is of a minute but significant delicacy. The manufacture was revived at La Moncloa from 1817 to
Porcelain was also made at the count of Aranda's faience-factory at Alcora from 1774, and at Vista Allegre in Portugal from 179o.
No certain English porcelain is known of earlier date than the so-called "goat and bee" jugs, made of a soft paste resembling milk-white glass and incised with the name of the Chelsea factory, the date 1745 and a triangle. This "triangle period" of the Chelsea factory is believed to have ended about 175o, when Nicholas Sprimont apparently displaced Charles Gouyn as manager. Chelsea china of the next eight years is the finest ever made in England. Of a smooth soft-paste capable of giving the most delicate quality to enamel-painting, Chelsea is more often original than any other English porcelain, though its styles were largely inspired by Meissen. The figures in particular are unsurpassed for beauty of modelling. The mark of an anchor, at first in relief, later painted in red, belongs to this period, 750-58, which ended with the death of the proprietor, Sir Ever ard Fawkener. In the subsequent period, when Sprimont was proprietor as well as manager, the rococo style (at the time out moded at Sevres) survived for ten years in extravagant forms of great interest. Coloured grounds, including a dark "mazarine" blue and a rich broken crimson were inspired by Sevres, as were figure subjects, chinoiseries, and other styles of painting. Profuse gild ing of fine quality, richly brocaded costumes and bocages or backgrounds of flowers and foliage were characteristic of the boldly modelled figures, some of which were at one time erro neously attributed to the sculptor Roubiliac. The beautiful Chel sea toys—scent-bottles, seals, bonbonnieres and the like—were made from about i75o onwards and even continued to be done at the factory after its sale in 177o to William Duesbury, the pro prietor of the Derby factory. This had been in existence since 1750 and had made figures and other porcelain in Chelsea styles, but of comparatively little merit. The productions of the period I770-1784 (when the Chelsea works were closed) are often known as Chelsea-Derby china. The pseudo-classical vases and the figures (including some in biscuit) in the fashionable sentimental Sevres styles are of less importance than the table-wares which are the chief title to fame of the Derby factory. Later porcelain in the same excellent tradition was painted by artists whose names are known, such as Zachariah Boreman and William Billingsley. Derby declined after the succession to the management of Robert Bloor in 1811, and came to an end in 1848.
The Bow factory was perhaps in existence in
but its productions before 1750 have not been certainly identified. From 1749 (when a distinctive bone-ash paste was adopted) to about 1760 its productions were largely inspired by, and often close copies of Meissen, but rank next to Chelsea for delicacy of modelling, and have the attraction of a beautiful ivory-toned material and clean strong colouring. Later Bow, which was marked with an anchor and a dagger, shows a distinct falling off in these respects. Lowestoft was an offshoot of Bow and largely imitated the productions of other factories, as well as Chinese models, in soft-paste. At Longton Hall in Staffordshire from about 175o to 1760 William Littler made excellent figures and other wares of a soft porcelain in which are apparent some of the attractive qualities of the more rustic Staffordshire earthenware. A rich blue enamel used as a ground, and a fondness for dishes and vessels in the form of folded leaves were characteristic of Longton Hall. At Lowdin's factory at Bristol, transferred to Worcester in 1752, soapstone (steatite) was used in the paste, and Chinese, Japanese and Meissen motives were employed with an attractive simplicity. Amongst the best Worcester china, made between 1755 and 1765, may be singled out the beautiful armorial mugs (Plate XI., fig. 6). Transfer-printing was adopted very largely as a mode of decoration at Worcester. About 1768, painters from Chelsea were engaged, and a showy style with rich gilding and coloured grounds, including a distinctive "scale blue," became the fashion. Painting of highly-coloured "exotic birds" was inspired by Chelsea. The later "Flight" and "Flight and Barr" periods of Worcester (which succeeded the so-called Dr. Wall period, 1751-83) show a marked decline in taste. Some Liverpool factories and that at Caughley (the "Salopian" factory), making porcelain from about 176o to 1772 respectively, may be regarded as offshoots of Worcester. At Plymouth, William Cook worthy had discovered the secret of hard-paste before 1768 (when he took out a patent), and made figures and useful ware employing Chinese, rococo and classical motives. His factory was transferred to Bristol in 177o, and sold in 1773 to Richard Champion, who made much handsome table-ware as well as figures in the classical style. The Plymouth and Bristol china often fails in effect on account of its comparatively hard glaze, into which the colours have not fused. Champion sold his patent in 1782 to a Staffordshire syndicate who continued to make hard paste in "cottage style" at the New Hall factory until about 181o. Meanwhile a hybrid porcelain made of hard-paste materials in combination with bone-ash had been introduced before the end of the century by Spode and others. The history of this china, like that of a beautiful but unpractical soft-paste made by William Billingsley, at first at Pinxton (1796) and afterwards at Nantgarw