A MALVERN fine bone china firm has pushed the boundaries of production with a stunning new rectangular box.

The Birlingham Box is part of the George III range produced by Chamberlain & Co on Merebrook Business Park in Hanley Road and each one takes more than 50 man hours to produce. Priced at £8,995, it is based on a trial box the company produced for the gifting market in the Middle East.

The company's operations director David Leader explained: "One of the most difficult shapes to make in bone china is a square or rectangle. Bone china clay shrinks by 15 per cent the first time you fire it, therefore the clay is moving as it shrinks. The art is to encourage it to move retaining the straight lines. People will not buy a rectangular piece if it looks bowed, the eye perceives it as faulty. The larger the piece the more movement there is.

"The difficulty with the Birlingham Box is exacerbated by the necessity of having an internally fitted cover. Again, people will not buy a covered box if the lid does not fit accurately. The complexity gets greater when you add items such as the four feet and the finial. These additions compete with the walls of the box during the firing process, shrinking at a different rate and in a different direction resulting in the possibility of distortion on the straight lines.

The hand painting is exquisitely detailed featuring camelias, passion flowers, roses, hollyhocks, tulips, pansies and auriculas.

"The finished profile may look effortlessly graceful, but it takes consummate skill to prevent the clay from following its innate tendencies and 'bellying' out; clay yearns to be rounded rather than flat. In this design Chamberlain & Co's artisans are defying nature. It’s not surprising then, that so few ceramic boxes are available in such prodigious dimensions. The Birlingham Box measures approximately 34cm x 23cm x 20cm, making it probably the largest ornamental cast ceramic box in made in the UK."