Swansea and Nantgarw Porcelains ― A Scientific Reappraisal

In this volume the porcelain manufactured at Nantgarw and Swansea in the first quarter of the 19th Century, which has been acclaimed as some of the finest and most translucent porcelain ever produced, is studied holistically using both scientific analytical data and historical provenancing. The particular advantage of this approach for these two porcelain factories, linked geographically and through the artistic and creative activities of the enigmatic William Billingsley, is centred upon their strictly limited production over perhaps only three or four years during the period 1812-1823. The earliest chemical analysis of these porcelains was undertaken on museum specimens almost 100 years ago and the results of these and of more recent analyses will be compared and reviewed. This book will not only describe the chemical composition of the porcelains of Swansea and Nantgarw and the modifications made empirically in attempts to improve their robustness and kiln firing survivability, but also their artistic decoration and the struggle to maintain quality production in times of fierce competition and economic difficulty. A comprehensive survey is undertaken of the “named services” specially commissioned from these factories; a long lost Nantgarw dinner-dessert service has been discovered during this exercise. A reappraisal of the available scientific evidence relevant to the manufacture will be correlated with their identification based upon documentary records and a protocol is advanced for the initial screening and identification of putative Swansea and Nantgarw porcelains and is illustrated by ten case studies. Scientific explanations for the characteristic Swansea duck-egg porcelain translucency and for the Nantgarw iridescence noted for enamelling carried out on porcelain decorated in the London ateliers are also proposed. The book is well illustrated throughout and affords a good basis for the further in-depth study of Swansea and Nantgarw porcelains.

Professor H.G.M. Edwards M.A., B.Sc., D.Phil., C.Chem., F.R.S.C.?Emeritus Professor of Molecular Spectroscopy, Director of the Centre for Astrobiology and Extremophiles Research , Faculty of Life Sciences , University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK.?Honorary Scientific Adviser to The De Brecy Trust for the scientific evaluation and pigment composition of Renaissance and later period paintings.

Howell Edwards studied Chemistry at Jesus College, University of Oxford, and carried out research for his D.Phil. at Oxford on the chemical applications of Raman spectroscopy under the supervision of Dr. Leonard Woodward, Aldrichian Praeelector in Chemistry. Following a Research Fellowship at Jesus College in the University of Cambridge he took a lectureship in Structural and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Bradford where he subsequently became Professor of Molecular Spectroscopy and Head of the Chemical and Forensic Sciences Division. In 2003, he received the Sir Harold Thompson Award from Elsevier Science for his international contributions to vibrational spectroscopy. He is the recipient of the Emanuel Boricky Medal for 2008/2009 from Charles University, Prague, for distinguished international contributions to geochemistry and mineralogical analysis. He was awarded the Charles Mann Award from the US Federation of Analytical Chemical Spectroscopic Societies in 2011 for his distinguished international work on the applications of Raman spectroscopy.

In his research career he has published over 1250 papers on Raman spectroscopy and its applications and is the co-editor of five books: “A Handbook of Raman Spectroscopy: From the Research Laboratory to the Process Line” (with IR Lewis, Marcel Dekker, New York, 2001), “Raman Spectroscopy in Archaeology and Art History” (with JM Chalmers, RSC Publishing, Cambridge, 2005), “Selected Topics in Raman Spectroscopic Applications: Geology, Biomaterials and Art” (with F Rull Perez, P Vandenabeele and DC Smith, Publidisa Valladolid, 2007), “ Raman and Infrared Spectroscopy in Forensic Science” (with JM Chalmers and MD Hargreaves, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK, 2012) and “ Selected Topics in Analytical Archaeometry” (with P. Vandenabeele, RSC Publishing, Cambridge, 2012).?

Professor Edwards has wide-ranging interests in the applications of Raman spectroscopy to the characterisation of materials particularly in forensic, art historical, astrobiological and archaeological contexts. He is a guest editor and contributing author of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, the oldest scientific journal in the world, which celebrated its 350^th anniversary in 2015 from its foundation in 1665. He has been a forerunner in the Raman spectroscopic identification of chemicals produced in biodegradation processes for prehistoric and contemporary systems in an archaeological context—he first investigated the Raman spectra of Dirina lichen colonization of toxic metal substrates on Italian Renaissance wall–paintings in 1991 and has extensively studied the pigments and associated materials involved in paintings from prehistoric cave art to the 20^th Century. He is science lead on the European Space agency/Roscosmos ExoMars Raman Laser spectrometer instrument in the Pasteur suite of a planetary rover which will interrogate the Martina surface and subsurface to search for biosignatures and signs of extant and extinct life, scheduled to launch in 2020, with particular responsibility for the interpretation of Raman spectroscopic biosignatures from biogeological niche environments on Mars. He is also UK representative on the ESA/Roscosmos Landing Site Selection Group dedicated to determine where the spacecraft will land on Mars for the deployment of the rover vehicle.

He is Honorary Scientific Adviser to the charitable de Brecy Trust in the evaluation of the scientific composition and analysis of their collection of Renaissance and later period easel paintings.