Coalport is one of the great names in British porcelain yet few know of its derivation.

The site chosen by John Rose and Edward Blakeway for their new factory in 1795 was in the River Severn gorge, beside a canal that ran parallel to the river. It was here that coal, limestone and iron ore were transferred from rectangular, wrought-iron tub boats that plied the Shropshire and Coalport canals to sturdier barges and trows (flat bottomed cargo boats with collapsible masts for going under bridges) that could navigate the Severn to the Bristol Channel and open sea.

The tub boats from the Shropshire Canal were lowered down the 63-metre drop of the gorge by means of an ‘inclined plane,’ powered by the same counterbalancing principle as a funicular railway. The ‘Hay Inclined Plane’ opened in 1792. The tub boats were then pulled along the short Coalport Canal to a warehouse and wharfs by the bank of the Severn. Shropshire coal from the tug boats was also used to fire John Rose’s kilns, while from downriver, barges and trows brought Cornish stone needed to make the porcelain.

Iron ore was smelted at numerous blast furnaces in the gorge, a cradle of the Industrial Revolution. The most famous furnace was at Coalbrookdale, two miles upriver from Coalport, where Abraham Darby I used coke to fire his pioneering Coalbrookdale Furnace in 1709. Grandson Abraham Darby III built the Iron Bridge over the gorge. Opened in 1781, the world’s first bridge made of cast iron has since given its name to the gorge. ‘Ironbridge Gorge’ is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes the former Coalport factory.

The original 1795 porcelain factory of John Rose & Co. is now a youth hostel. The nearby Coalport China Museum is on the site of a rival factory in which John Rose’s younger brother Thomas Rose was a partner. The two factories were only separated by a stretch of the Coalport Canal (since filled) and competed fiercely for fourteen years in what has been dubbed the ‘War of the Roses.’ John Rose was the eventual victor, acquiring Anstice, Horton & Rose in 1814. Contemporary porcelains of the two factories usually bore no mark and can be difficult to tell apart.

In 1799, John Rose had also acquired the lease of another porcelain factory in the vicinity, the Caughley (or Salopian) works of Thomas Turner, located on high ground on the opposite side of the River Severn, about two miles from Coalport. Caughley (pronounced calf-ley) produced mainly blue-and-white tableware in the Chinese style, using a soft-paste body. Today, Caughley wares are much sought after by collectors (see The Caughley Society). Rose closed the Caughley factory in 1814.

Geoffrey Godden writes that Coalport porcelains prior to about 1815 were ‘of the hybrid hard-paste type: while often rather heavily potted, they were durable and in general well-produced and decorated.’[i] They were obviously in high demand, as John Rose & Co. was prosperous enough to have absorbed two other factories.

A considerable part of the business was in supplying blank porcelain to independent decorators, one of whom was the restless genius William Billingsley. Among the Cotswold Antiques collection is a superb centrepiece potted at Coalport and decorated by Billingsley during his 1799-1803 stay at Mansfield in Nottinghamshire.

Not content with decorating wares, Billingsley was interested in perfecting a porcelain recipe. Before moving to Mansfield he had helped establish the Pinxton works in Derbyshire. He then failed in a venture with Samuel Walker aimed at manufacturing porcelain in Lincolnshire. The pair next spent five years at the Worcester works of Flight, Barr & Barr, developing new kilns and refining the porcelain recipe, before setting up their own factory at Nantgarw (pronounced nant-garu) in South Wales in 1813 (see Nantgarw China Works Museum).

‘For a few years thereafter Billingsley was something of a thorn in the side of John Rose – in short, a dangerous rival rather than the artist-craftsman of the very early years of the century who through his quality decoration of Coalport porcelain had helped to ensure that the Company’s porcelains were displayed in the houses of the wealthy and discerning,’ Michael Messenger observed in his book Coalport, 1795-1926.[ii]

Nantgarw porcelain was of superlative quality but ruinously expensive to produce – the wastage rate was about 85%. Financial straits opened the door to a buy-out from Rose, who made Billingsley and Walker employees in 1820. It is not sure what, if anything, Billingsley did while on the Coalport payroll; Rose seems content to have neutered Nantgarw by acquiring its intellectual property. Billingsley died in 1828 and is buried near Coalport under the name of ‘Beeley,’ which he probably assumed in order to escape the clutches of creditors.

We know that by 1820 Rose had switched to making bone china as in that year he was awarded a gold medal by the Society of Arts for introducing a lead-free felspathic glaze. The motive for the award was rising concern at the prevalence of lead poisoning in the industry. Rose’s formula used felspar as a flux, and he advertised the accolade through large backstamps printed on his new ‘Coalport Feltspar Porcelain.’

From the 1820s, one of Coalport’s great specialities was floral-encrusted porcelains, often referred to as ‘Coalbrookdale.’ Ornamental pieces were adorned with intricately hand-made flowers. The fashion was most intense in England in the 1820s and 1830s. Minton also led the field.

Coalport produced a fine selection of teaware and dessert wares in all the latest fashions. From the 1840s to 1870s, Coalport vied with Minton to copy Sèvres shapes, ground colours and added decoration. A soft shade of pink, known as rose du Barry after one of Louis XV’s mistresses, was perfected just in time for the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where it proved a great success. The original, known first as rose Pompadour after another of the king’s mistresses, was developed at Sèvres in 1751; the recipe was later lost.

The standard of decoration peaked in the mid-19th Century, with magnificent display pieces as well as tableware. The factory employed many expert painters.

In hindsight, the company’s decline began in the 1860s, a result of poor management and over-reliance on ornamental pieces. When William Pugh, the sole proprietor, died in 1875, Coalport was placed in receivership. Eventually, a new buyer was found in Peter Schuyler Bruff and in a bid to restore financial health more emphasis was placed on core products such as teaware. Still, Messenger’s verdict is far from flattering. ‘Overall the quality of the wares manufactured between 1880 and 1890 was generally unremarkable and there was a lack of both imagination and creative development.’

 Bruff’s son took over in the 1890s and was determined to restore Coalport to its former glory. There was a new art director and distinguished artists were employed.

The economic slump in the United States and Europe that followed World War I negated all of these efforts and Coalport suffered heavy losses. The works were sold to Cauldon Potteries in 1925 and one year later all production was moved to Stoke-on-Trent.

Industry has long departed the Ironbridge Gorge and the former Coalport works are now surrounded by verdant countryside. The Coalport Museum has preserved two of the bottle-shaped kilns and several of the former workshops but it is hard to imagine that was one was once of the largest potteries in the world. The museum is still well worth a visit, not least for its two national collections of Coalport and Caughley porcelain.

TIMELINE OF COALPORT

1795     John Rose and Edward Blakeway establish a porcelain factory at Coalport in Shropshire

1796     The Prince of Orange visited the new factory. “Their Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange … thence proceeded to the china factory at Coal-park, where his Highness bought some pieces of Mr. Rose”.

1799     Rose purchases the leases for the Caughley works. Caughley continues to make porcelain but much of it is decorated and finished at Coalport.

1800     William Reynolds, William Horton and Thomas Rose establish a rival porcelain factory at Coalport; Reynolds dies in 1803 and is replaced in the partnership by Robert Anstice.

1803     The official tile of the John Rose partnership becomes John Rose & Co.

1814     John Rose acquires the Anstice, Horton and Rose factory and closes the Caughley works.

1820  Rose buys out William Billingsley and partner Samuel Walker in the rival Nantgarw factory they had founded in 1813. The pair join Coalport and the Nantgarw factory is closed two years later. The Society of Arts awards Rose a gold medal for his introduction of a lead-free felspathic glaze.

1841 John Rose dies; manufactory is continued under the name John Rose & Co by his nephew W.F. Rose and William Pugh

1850   Coalport perfects the Sèvres “Rose Pompadour” pink ground colour known in England as “Rose-Du-Barry” and showcases it at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.

1925  Coalport China Company sold to Cauldon Potteries

1926 Coalport Works closed and production transferred to Stoke-on-Trent

1967   Coalport becomes part of the Wedgwood Group 

 

[i] Geoffrey A. Godden, Coalport & Coalbrookdale Porcelains (Herbert Jenkins, 1970)

[ii] Michael Messenger, Coalport 1795-1926 (Antique Collectors’ Club, 1995)

 

© Cotswold Antiques 2018