Billingsley, William: Derby porcelain genius never made his fortune

William Billingsley: Derby porcelain genius never made his fortune

The brilliant Derby porcelain painter and manufacturer William Billingsley died 179 years ago. He was briefly a partner in the Pinxton pottery, established by the Coke family. Maxwell Craven looks back as his life.

Pinxton china factory in 1813 after its conversion into flats. It was established by John Coke who took William Billingsley on as his partner

AN advertisement for an early-19th-century building in Wharf Road, Pinxton, in the commercial section of this paper last week reminded me of the old engraving of the pottery that the Coke family established there in 1796, the products of which are so collectable today.

In fact, the pottery, which only lasted until 1813 and which was subsequently converted into estate workers cottages by the Coke family of Brookhill, was demolished 70 years ago this month. It used to stand on the Wharf at Pinxton by the canal, very close to the property advertised.

The pottery itself was established by John Coke, of Brookhill Hall, at Pinxton, who had fallen in love with porcelain while visiting the China works at the incomparable German city of Dresden on his grand tour.

He was subsequently egged on to establish the enterprise by Derby china decorating genius William Billingsley, who died exactly 179 years ago today.

Billingsley was a genius and his whole life was plagued by the fact that he knew he was a genius.

Furthermore, he was utterly convinced that his talent could be his fortune. His move from employee at Derby to partner at Pinxton was his first attempt to achieve this but he left in 1799, knowing that the new pottery was not profitable and was never going to help him make his fortune.

He went initially to Mansfield and then to Torksey – which firm failed in 1808 – before embarking on a series of heroic travels aimed at securing adequate backing for a new factory with himself as its centrepiece.

He aimed to manufacture soft paste porcelain fine enough to rival the best the continent had to offer.

He eventually set up at Nantgarw, in Glamorganshire, in 1813, although insuperable technical difficulties forced him to take work at the Swansea factory just over a year later.

Nevertheless, he revived Nantgarw in 1817 for three years before it was forced to close permanently. He and his partner – his son-in-law, Samuel Walker – then took up the offer of jobs at the Coalport factory, where sadly he died on January 16. 1828.

Billingsley was born at Derby and baptised at St Alkmund’s on October 12, 1758, where his parents married in 1757. His father, also William, was one of the very first china painters to be employed at the then new Derby China Factory. His mother was Mary Dallison.

Despite working for the Duesburys, Billingsley snr also ran a button warehouse and was landlord of a fine pub nearby at 22 Bridge Gate, originally called the Crown.

It was renamed, before 1761, the Sir John Falstaff after an engaging little figurine of that character from Shakespeare produced, at the time, by the China Factory.

In 1767, Billingsley’s father put the tenancy of the place up to let, but seems to have retained ownership and a residence next door at No 21, for his eminent son was still recorded as the pub’s owner in the Universal British Directory of 1791.

Billingsley was only 11 when his father died in 1770, but he was put out as an apprentice painter at the China works in 1772 and, three years later, was taken on full time for five years at five shillings (25p) per week.

In the end, he worked there until he left for Pinxton in October 1796, a full year after his backer, John Coke, had started building the works.

In 1790, he had succeeded Edward Withers as chief floral decorator at Derby, although it is generally thought that his finest work was achieved in the decade preceding this.

Perhaps this was due to a happy marriage, for he had married Sarah Rigley at St Alkmund’s on November 4, 1780, the aunt of the china painter William Wheeldon who eventually, in 1823, took over the proprietorship of the Billingsley pub on Bridge Gate.

He renamed it the Nottingham Arms probably because it was on the main road to that town. Also, as a teenager, he had left an apprenticeship at Derby and joined his uncle William at his short-lived Mansfield enterprise.

Later, he became a partner in the Derby factory for a while, farmed nearby and became a maltster, greatly enriching his family which went on to fame, fortune and, in the case of his son, George, the mayoralty of Derby.

Through his marriage, Billingsley became related to the Wallis family, stage coach proprietors and landlords of the New Inn, at the top of Bridge Gate. Through them, he also became kin to two other eminent china painters, John Yates (died 1821) and George Robertson (1777-1833), as well as to Joseph Wright, Derby’s world-famous painter.

The marriage produced a son, James, who died in infancy and two daughters. One of them, Sarah, married Samuel Walker who migrated to the USA where he founded the successful New Troy pottery, leaving a flourishing line of descendants.

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