Note: Thomas Pardoe (1770-1823) was one of the most versatile painters of pottery and porcelain in the late 18th and early 19th century in England and Wales.  Born in the parish of St. Alkmund in Derby, Pardoe was apprenticed to the Derby porcelain works at the age of 15, and by age 20 had moved to Swansea as a skilled artisan by request of George Haynes, owner of Cambrian Pottery.  Between 1802 and 1804 Pardoe was acting manager and chief painter.  Around 1809 Pardoe moved to Bristol, where he is recorded as having a decorating business.  While in Bristol, Pardoe acted as go-between in the development of a new venture of porcelain manufacture at Nantgarw, aiming to manufacture the finest porcelain available for the English market.  In 1821 Pardoe was invited by William Weston Young to work with him and decorate the large stock of porcelain that remained.  Pardoe’s Nantgarw painting was based on his standard repertoire, including Japanese-influenced ‘Imari’ styles, Chinese-influenced ‘famille rose’ styles, botanical decoration, naturalistic flower groups, and caillouté or ‘pebbled’ gilding.  Pardoe’s painting at Nantgarw was among his very finest, a reflection of his great admiration for the factory and the culmination of some thirty years of painting experience.

The present lot is most likely a single-item commission rather than from a named service or registered pattern, and therefore bears a possibly unique decorative scheme in Pardoe's oeuvre. It bears no impressed mark, but this is not universal for Nantgarw porcelain, see below in the related literature for other examples. The turquoise caillouté ground is strongly reminiscent of Sèvres porcelain and illustrates the prevailing taste and demand for Sèvres porcelain among wealthy families and connoisseurs in London in the first decades of the nineteenth century. 

Related Literature:

Andrew Renton et. al., Thomas Pardoe 1770-1823, Nantgarw, 2023: Nantgarw China Works. Cf. N18 for a plate decorated by Thomas Pardoe in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, item number NMW A 31449, and N20 for a plate decorated by Thomas Pardoe in the Andrews Collection, Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw. The examples mentioned above share the six lobed cartouche with iron red stylised flowers, ornamental reserves painted with exotic birds, and caillouté ground found on the present lot. These unusually elaborate plates showcase the range of Pardoe's skills from figurative and landscape painting to East Asian motifs. The NMW example equally bears no impressed mark and yet is undoubtedly from Nantgarw and decorated by Thomas Pardoe. 

W. D. John, Nantgarw Porcelain, Newport, 1948: R. H. Johns Ltd. Cf. 53 D. for a small plate in the Kildare S. Meager Collection decorated with similar ornamental reserves to the present lot, albeit containing single pink roses. See also 54. A for a small plate in the E. M. Bythway Collection with a similar treatment of exotic birds with a distant background of conventional mountains in pale bluish-grey colouring to the centre of the plate. 

We are grateful to Andrew Renton of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales for confirming the attribution of the present lot based on inspection of photographs.