Albany Fine China
Albany "Mill Reef" sculpted by David Lovegrove
Ltd Ed of 500 circa 1975
Mill Reef was a famous English racehorse that won many stakes races including the Epsom Derby.
Albany "Thoroughbred" in bay color sculpted by David Lovegrove
Ltd Ed of 250 circa 1981
This mold was offered in several colors
The Albany Fine China factory opened in 1972, founded by by three former RW employees - David Lovegrove,
Bill Nichols, and David Palmer. Most of the artisans and sculptors were ex Royal Worcester workers.
They produced extremely high quality realistic horse portraits, primaily of famous racehorses.
The company's heyday was the 1970's to 1980's. All of their horses were limited editions with planned
productions normally around 500 pieces. There were also smaller editions of 100 issued. However, in most
cases these numbers were never reached. Some were not even close with one run (Seattle Slew) closing
with only 6 horses produced.
As tastes changed in Europe, work slowed. In 1987 Albany Fine China was bought out by cottage makers
Lilliput Lane. They took manufacturing up to Stoke-on-Trent. They employed 175 people and made mainly
fantasy wares in resin. Lilliput Lane sold the Albany Fine China divison in 1990.
They returned to Worcester but business didn't improve. The company didn't officially close until 2005
but they stopped producing fine china horse runs in the 1990s.
This is an Albany Fine China Tennessee Walking horse sculpted by David Lovegrove
This was a Limited Edition offered in three OF colors.
The original OF has been custom glazed to a bay roan by Alchemy Ceramics (Mark Farmer)
