en the works has always been known as the
Worcester Royal Porcelain Works. In 1793 Martin Barr was taken into
partnership; the "Flight & Barr" period, so well known to collectors,
lasted until 1807.

[Illustration: Early Worcester Potters' marks.]

Another Worcester porcelain works was in existence after 1784, viz. the
Chamberlain factory, which was working in rivalry with the original
establishment; but its productions are of no particular artistic merit,
and in 1840 the two firms became amalgamated, and so gave rise to the
present Worcester Royal Porcelain Co. The most noteworthy feature of the
productions of both the Worcester works at the end of the 18th century
were the "Armorial" services made for various royal and noble families,
and those adaptations of Imari patterns known as "Old Japan."

_Derby._--Experiments in the manufacture of porcelain appear to have
been made at Derby as early as 1750 by a French refugee, Andrew Planche;
but the business, which was afterwards to attain such a great
development, was only founded in 1756 with William Duesbury as its
manager. Duesbury was originally a decorator of china figures in London,
and his career proves that he was a man of great industry and energy,
for within twenty-five years he not only built up a large business at
Derby, but he absorbed the decadent works at Bow and Chelsea, so that in
the last quarter of the 18th century Derby was the most important china
manufactory in England. As is so often the case, a commercial success
like this implied the absence of any distinct artistic impulse. The
porcelain produced at Derby is for the most part only an echo of the
successes of Meissen, Sevres, or the earlier English factories. It is
only fair to remark that a very deep and rich under-glaze blue was
attained at the Derby works, and that this was associated with very
mechanical painting of birds and flowers and with gilding of exceptional
quality. At this factory, too, the old Japan patterns were imitated with
exceptional vigour, until "Crown-Derby Japan" became a standard trade
name for this clobbered oriental style.

[Illustration: Derby Potters' marks.]

Mention has already been made of the "biscuit" porcelain figures made at
Derby, which are superior in style to anything else made in-Europe in
the 18th century except the "biscuit" porcelains of Sevres. The Derby
"biscuits" of the best type range from 1790 to 1810, and the finest
specimens have a "waxy" surfac