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.

This book addresses the contributions made by analytical chemistry to the characterisation of 18th and early 19th Century English and Welsh porcelains commencing with the earliest reports of Sir Arthur Church and of Herbert Eccles and Bernard Rackham using chemical digestion techniques and concluding with the most recent instrumental experiments, which together span more than a hundred years of study. From the earliest experiments which required necessarily the sacrifice of significant portions of each specimen, which may already have been damaged , to the latest experiments which needed only microsampling or the non-destructive interrogation of valuable perfect specimens a comprehensive survey is undertaken of more than twenty manufactories of quality porcelains. The correlation is made between the quantitative elemental oxide determinations of the scanning electron microscopic diffraction and Xray fluorescence data and the qualitative molecular spectroscopic Raman data to demonstrate their complementarity and use in the holistic forensic assessment of the origin of the fired procelains ; this will form the groundwork for the adoption of analytical techniques for the attribution of unknown or questionable procelains to their potential source factories . The book will also examine the perception of what constitutes a porcelain and its definitions and examines the assignment of porcelains to types which currently employs the definitions of hard paste , soft paste , hybrid , magnesian and bone china from the conclusions derived from the analytical data and a consideration of the raw materials employed in their manufacturing processes. During the discussion of this analytical evidence several themes and protocols have been established for its utilisation in the potential identification of porcelains and several case studies undertaken for this purpose are cited. The book will be of interest to analytical scientists , to museum ceramics curators and to ceramics historians.

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.