Although he co-founded what turned out to be one of Ireland’s most successful pottery manufacturers, when his business partner died, the latter’s son refused to recognise his partnership, leading to litigation that probably brought on his premature death. It was a sad ending to such a thriving and admirable enterprise. The pottery in question is Belleek Pottery and the person in question is architect and engineer Robert Williams Armstrong, who was born 200 years ago on December 1st (this date is not certain as one source gives January 1st, 1824).
He was born near Granard, Co Longford, the son of Francis Armstrong, an architect and builder.
Little is known of his education but he may be the Robert Armstrong who entered the Dublin Society’s School of Drawing in Architecture in 1837, according to the Dictionary of Irish Architects’ website. In any event, he trained as an architect and civil engineer and exhibited designs for a parish church and a collegiate school at the Royal Hibernian Academy (1848-49) and various designs at the Royal Academy, London (1848-57), and received several architectural commissions in Ireland.
According to Helen Andrews, who wrote the entry on him in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, he displayed an early aptitude for pottery and he established a practice with Minton & Co pottery in Stoke-on-Trent and the Royal Porcelain Works, Worcester. At Worcester, he learned about ceramics and was employed by the works’ director, WH Kerr, who was from Dublin and became his friend, adviser and agent.
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“Appreciating the economic potential of the rich natural resources, including deposits of kaolin and feldspar, on the estate of John Caldwell Bloomfield at Belleek, Co Fermanagh, Armstrong formed a partnership with Dublin businessman David McBirney, and they founded what was subsequently Ireland’s most successful pottery at Belleek, trading under the name of D McBirney and Co,” Helen Andrews tells us. (McBirney also established the famous department store that was such a well-known Dublin landmark on Aston Quay until it closed 40 years ago.)
Armstrong designed the factory in the form of an imposing country house and also specified the machinery to be installed.
It was built between 1859 and 1862 and entered regular production in 1863, producing high-quality but utilitarian earthenware, including domestic and sanitary ware, the mechanical mass-production process being patented by Armstrong.
However, the intention was to produce porcelain and he played the leading role in bringing this about in his capacity as manager and art director.
New ceramic wares, glazes and designs unique to Belleek were developed under his supervision and he wrote “Memorandums of Various Matters Connected with Pottery Bodies and Glazes Collected or Invented by Robert W. Armstrong Commenced at Belleek, Enniskillen 1860″, which amounted to eight volumes.
Skilled potters from England were brought in from about 1863 onwards and the fine Belleek Parian porcelain emerged as “busts, statuettes, tableware and ornaments of great skill, artistry and varied designs were produced, including such notable pieces as ‘The Prisoner of Love’, ‘Dickens’ and ‘Erin Awakening from Her Slumbers’,” (Helen Andrews). Armstrong won some notable and important patronage, including that of Queen Victoria, and plaudits from influential art publications. Orders came from all over the world and national and international awards followed.
The enterprise was thriving, with some 170 employed by 1882, but McBirney unfortunately died that year and his son Robert decided to sell the business.
As no written contract existed to show Armstrong’s partnership, Robert McBirney refused to recognise any claims on his part; this meant he faced financial ruin as he had invested all his money in the business. Therefore, he opposed the sale and a protracted legal battle followed, during which he died suddenly on January 27th, 1884, at 59. Helen Andrews tells us that Belleek Pottery was closed and then sold to a consortium of local businessmen later that year, “who paid a paltry sum for patents to Armstrong’s widow”.
It was a poor reward for so much hard work and imaginative input involving such a wide range of skills.
Armstrong had married in 1848 Anna Langley Nairn, who was an artist. Dublin-born, into an artistic family, she became a reputed landscape artist who exhibited at the RHA, and she designed some of the early Belleek ornamental porcelain especially employing marine and botanical images. She combined her talents with William Wood Gallimore, who came from Stoke-on-Trent to work for Belleek in 1863, and they produced more than 500 designs together.
The Armstrongs had at least four children and many members of the family later emigrated to Australia.
His eight-volume “Memorandums” are in the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney; the National Museum of Ireland has photocopies of seven of the volumes, the eighth being too fragile to copy.