Period: Regency
Maker: Coalport Porcelain Works (John Rose & Co.)
This Coalport trio of teacup, saucer and tea plate is a triumph of the exuberant and imaginative ‘Japan’ style of ceramic art that developed in Regency England.
Salmon-pink stylised tree peonies draw the eye. Curling sinuously between them, in cobalt blue and gold, are the feathery leaves of the chrysanthemum, interspersed with smaller orange and gold flower heads. (Note how the flower ovaries resemble a Japanese mon crest.) The ground is painted in ‘all-over leaf’: a myriad of tiny gilt leaves.
The freehand-painted design adapts to the three surfaces. On the deep saucer, it is more densely compressed and therefore darker than on the far larger tea plate. The outside of the teacup showcases two peonies.
To contemporaries, such patterns were known as ‘Japans’ owing to the source of their inspiration. English ceramic decorators of the time clearly relished the abstract possibilities of Japanese art, and at their most sophisticated, English ‘Japans’ of the early 19th Century can be superbly imaginative. This strong aesthetic influence exerted by Japan over Regency porcelain has been largely overlooked by art historians and museum curators.
The pattern number, 605, is painted on the bottom of the plate. This is an unrecorded Coalport pattern. In his book Coalport 1795-1926, Michael Messenger wrote that ‘The last surviving pattern in the first book was numbered 603, while the first pattern remaining in book number two is 643.’ It is difficult to date with any accuracy when the first book ended and the second one started, but a general consensus seems to be around 1813.
The cup is of Bute shape. When prime minister of Great Britain (1762-63), the Earl of Bute is said to have suggested the design to Josiah Wedgwood. The profile of a Bute cup resembles a truncated hemisphere. It is essentially a tea bowl with a handle added but lacking a foot rim. At least 20 different potteries made Bute-shape cups between 1780 and 1820. The Earl of Bute’s other notable contribution to history was taxing the American colonists, thus precipitating the American Revolution!
The porcelain body is greyish-tinged. It is of the ‘hybrid hard-paste’ variety that John Rose used at Coalport before switching to bone china.
Condition Excellent. A few spots of minor gilt rubbing but nothing significant.
Plate diameter: 21.5 cm; depth: 3.7 cm Saucer diameter: 14.1 cm; depth: 3 cm Cup height: 6 cm; diameter: 8.2 cm; width across handle: 10.1 cm
Net weight: 637 g
Medium: Hard-paste porcelain
Origin: Coalport, Shropshire, England.
For background on the factory, see Coalport Porcelain Works (John Rose & Co.) in Makers & Artists
