Chelsea has the same reputation in Britain as Meissen in Europe. They are probably the earliest British porcelain factory, and produced large numbers of figurines that have never been beaten by any other factory in the UK.  Sometime around 1745 the factory was opened in Lawrence Street adjoining the embankment and not far from Kings road, one of London's most fashionable shopping centres.  The managers where two foreign gentlemen, Nicholas Sprimont from Liege, who was registered as a silversmith, and a French jeweller, Charles Gouyn. 

A associated figure was Thomas Briand, who had demonstrated a fine white porcelain to the royal society in London as early as 1742. Briand may well have been a workman from one of the French porcelain factories, he did so much to spread technical knowledge throughout Europe.  Within a few years Gouyn and Briand disappeared from the scene, leaving Sprimont in sole charge.

By the 1750s the factory was a great success. People are said to have lined up outside the works to by figurines and tableware's the moment that the were finished,  and Dresden and Chelsea were mentioned together on advertisements with no apparent sense of incongruity.  The factory found a patron, Sir Evrard Fawkener, who was the Duke of Cumberland's secretary, and Cumberland himself seemed to have a financial interest in the business.

Eventually Sprimont became sole owner, he made a great amount of money at this time, because he own property both in London and in the country.  The wealthy bought Chelsea figurines  to decorate their tables and shelves.  Someone called doctor Johnson investigated the manufacturing processes by spending two days a week at the Lawrence Works.

The workmen left him to mess about himself, for in his dogmatic way he insisted on making up clay mixtures to his own formula, with disastrous results.  In the 1760s the factory fell on hard times, though wares still sold at good prices.  The works where up for sale in 1764, but either Sprimont failed to find a buyer or he changed his mind  in 1769 he sold out to James Cox and put his remaining stock up for auction, and retired a year later.

Cox sold the works at a handsome profit to William Duesbury and John Heath,  owners of the Derby factory.  The two factories operated together as the Chelsea Derby period, the workmen at Chelsea used a clay mixture sent down by the works by their employers, who where intent on guarding their trade secrets. The Chelsea factory closed in 1784 when the lease ran out.  Duesbury sold the buildings and fixtures and brought some of the moulds and the best artists to derby.

The short history of Chelsea is easy to remember by being divided into five periods, each a different mark.  In the earliest period, down to about 1750, the mark was a small triangle cut into the base of the object before it was fired, the paste  was probably made after the formula used at St Cloud.  It was rather glassy and often lost its shape during firing.  Making delicate little figures must have been difficult with such material, and in fact very little where made,  although they often look as they have been left unpainted, it is likely that the colours have just worn away, because oils or other unfired colours were used.

There were great technical advances during the raised anchor period, which lasts from about 1750 to about 1752.  The mark was now an anchor which stood out from a little raised oval of clay on the body,   though for some reason a few pieces were marked in under-glazed blue with a crown intersected with a trident.

Raised anchor paste was a great improvement on previous material, and true enamel colours that remained fast where used for painting.  From about 1752 1758 the mark was a small anchor painted in red, the figurines made in this red anchor period are superb.  In the last period of their existence as an independent factory down to 1770, there was something of decline in taste,  the actual quality of the porcelain stayed high, in fact the body was even strengthened by adding bone ash to the paste, the new mark was a gold anchor, these figurines are modelled in the full blown Rococo style.