The Farnley Hall Service: A Unique Survivor in Nantgarw Porcelain

This book covers the discovery and the results of the analytical study of the composition of the Farnley Hall service, involving both the embossed moulding and the decorative compositions. The discovery of this missing porcelain service, which was manufactured 200 years ago, is a modern detective story in the preservation of cultural heritage, whilst its physical analysis has identified some new data that need to be incorporated into correcting and expanding the literature that is used for the differentiation of porcelains by ceramic historians and museum conservators. The importance of the Farnley Hall service discovery is that it provides the only example of such a Nantgarw Porcelain service that still resides in its original place of usage from 200 years ago: it is therefore a unique example and is a very important part of our national cultural heritage. It provides an illustration of the data that can be accessed from the application of inductive reasoning to elicit novel information about a manufactory whose work books no longer exist and its comparison with contemporary manufactories in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The concepts can be appreciated by experts and also by non-technical readers. This is the first time that such a detailed research approach has been adopted for any comparative ceramic project. The book is therefore relevant for a specialist and non-specialist readership, including museum ceramics curators and collectors of the genre.

Howell Edwards, born in Skewen, South Wales, is Professor Emeritus of Molecular Spectroscopy at the University of Bradford. He read Chemistry at Jesus College in the University of Oxford, and after completing his B.A. and B.Sc. degrees, he studied for his doctorate in Raman spectroscopy at Oxford with Dr. Leonard Woodward and then became Research Fellow at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, where he worked with Dr. Jeremy Jones. He joined the University of Bradford as Lecturer in Structural and Inorganic Chemistry, becoming Head of the Department of Chemical and Forensic Sciences, and he was awarded Personal Chair in Molecular Spectroscopy in 1996. He has received several international awards (Sir Harold Thompson Award; Charles Mann Award; Emanuel Boricky Medal; Norman Sheppard Award) in a spectroscopic career which has resulted in the publication of over 1350 research papers in Raman spectroscopy and the characterisation of materials, along with six books on the application of this analytical technique to art, archaeology and forensic science. He has had a lifelong interest in the porcelains of William Billingsley, especially those from the Derby, Nantgarw and Swansea China factories. He has authored five major books on Nantgarw and Swansea Porcelains: Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelains: A Scientific Reappraisal, Nantgarw and Swansea Porcelains: An Analytical Perspective, Porcelain to Silica Bricks: The Extreme Ceramics of William Weston Young, 1776-1847, 18^th and 19^th Century Porcelain Analysis: A Forensic Provenancing Assessment, and Welsh Armorial Porcelains: Nantgarw and Swansea Crested China, published by Springer Publishing, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. He has also produced several monographs on these manufactories: William Billingsley-The Enigmatic Porcelain Artist, Decorator and Manufacturer; Nantgarw Porcelain-The Pursuit of Perfection; Swansea Porcelain-the Duck-Egg Translucent Vision of Lewis Dillwyn and Derby Porcelain: The Golden Years,1780-1830. He is currently preparing a text for publication in 2022 on Raman Spectroscopy in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, for which porcelain artefacts will feature as artworks and a vital part of a nation's cultural heritage, as does the industrial archaeology, excavation and the preservation of early porcelain manufactory sites, many of which have now sadly disappeared in urban expansion. Howell Edwards is Honorary Scientific Adviser to the de Brecy Trust on the scientific evaluation of their artworks and paintings.