Double Bottle Coaster by Henry Clay

A fine papier-mâché double bottle coaster produced by Henry Clay after 1816 by when he had sold his Birmingham manufactory to Jennens and Bettridge.

The Regency Chinoiserie decoration is fine and bright; the whole in excellent condition. Impressed to the base ‘CLAY KING St. COVt GARDEN’.

English circa 1820.

16.25 in x 6.75 in x d:3.5 in

Papier mâché in England began in 1772 when Henry Clay applied for a patent for heat resistant panels of laminated paper; initially known as Paper Ware. This was a further development of the French papier mâché which they had been making since the seventeenth century. Clay’s trade card announced that he was ‘Japanner in ordinary to his Majesty and to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales’. In 1816, having sold his Birmingham manufactory to Jennens & Bettridge, Clay moved to London where he continued to produce his fine papier mâché until 1860.