Antiques: The copycats who made killing in china; Christopher Proud love looks back on the 18th century boom in Chinese porcelain... and finds how there's still money to be made from it today.

Byline: Christopher Proud

IT was during the 17th century Europeans first became aware of Chinese porcelain decorated in tones of blue, thanks largely to the trading and importing activities of the Dutch East India Company.

Porcelain was regarded as the trappings of the exotic and the rich, and it was celebrated whenever possible.

Dutch Old Master artists painted still lifes to include the porcelain treasured by their rich patrons, and houses were bedecked with the stuff as a show of wealth that came to symbolise the three ideals: peace, prosperity and plenty.

The huge amounts of the less valuable blue and white decorated Chinese porcelain imported into England in the 1740s clearly indicated this was the usable everyday items for the wealthy and mercantile classes of the day, particularly in the growing habit of the drinking of tea.

Polychrome - or multi-coloured - ware was traditionally the most highly regarded type of decoration on the porcelain. But it was the blue and white wares that were to predominate in the fashion of the imitation of Chinese designs in England at the time.

It was not long, therefore, before entrepreneurial English porcelain manufacturers of the day began to take to create a Western alternative and redirect some of the fortunes into their own bank balances.

The first to try their hand were the London manufactories of Bow, Chelsea, Limehouse and Vauxhall. Each developed its own quirky shapes and decoration, often mirroring the localised potting traditions of their neighbours who were engaged in producing domestic earthenware and London delft pieces.

Lengthy experimentations with clays, firing temperatures and glaze resulted in a myriad of differences to the colour of the porcelain.

Designers adopted the extravagance of fashionable rococo silver o produce a purely English style and feel to these early 'Chinese' pieces.

A forerunner in the process was the Worcester factory, where in 1751, after many trials and experiments in an apothecary's shop, Dr John Wall and William Davis succeeded in signing up 12 other businessmen to finance the Worcester Tonquin Manufactory.

The start was beset by early difficulties and it was only after the premises, stock, tools and effects of the failed Benjamin Lund's Bristol porcelain works were acquired in 1752 that Worcester production began to gather momentum.

The acquisition produced an extra bonus. Worcester also inherited Lund's decorators, many of whom had originally trained in the delft, Limehouse and possibly even Bow factories and they had an understanding of the artistic tradition of painting.

Interestingly, the factory was constantly advertising for more painters who developed their mastery of using the underglaze cobalt blue, to a point where it was in no way inferior to the Chinese wares they were copying.

The fashion of the day demanded pottery decorated with Chinese designs - chinoiserie- and Worcester's senior decorators were given their heads, resulting in the factory maintaining a successful grasp on the market of the day. Examples of these early purely chinoiserie designs are found on very few recorded shapes, most of which are teawares, while ornamental wares are exceptionally rare.

Among the rarest is a creamboat, of which only two examples are known to exist. One of them can be seen in the Museum of Worcester Porcelain, marked in low relief with the Latin Wigornia for Worcester. Its value is beyond measure.

Porcelain shaped like scallop shells were scarce to find in Chinese porcelain at the time and the Worcester factory was able to fill this important trading gap, one of the prettiest being decorated with the highly unusual design of a bird sitting on a floral branch.

However, Worcester was by no means alone in the market.

In 1744, Huguenot silversmith Nicholas Sprimont, who had fled Liege and settled in London, entered into a partnership with fellow Huguenot Charles Gouyn to produce fashionable porcelain for Royal and aristocratic London society.

Their factory was built in what was then the village of Chelsea, and their early wares were gaily coloured domestic porcelain to appeal to such an elite market.

Consequently, blue and white Chelsea porcelain is rare.

Sadly, the partnership was beset by differences and in 1749 Sprimont and Gouyn quarrelled and split, Gouyn moving back to St James's, where he had been a jeweller.

He continued to manufacture a series of porcelain figures, animals, scent bottles and seals, which he then mounted beautifully in precious metals.

Sprimont, who suffered bouts of ill health, sold the factory to James Cox in 1769, who in turn sold out less than a year later to William Duesbury, the founder of the Derby factory.

The Chelsea factory was sold in 1784 and what small production that remained there was moved to Derby - masters of copying oriental wares, notably the ubiquitous Imari

CAPTION(S):

A rare early Worcester pickle leaf dish, circa 1756, decorated with peonies and a bird perched on a rock. It's worth pounds 3,000-4,000