COALPORT VASE.
(Blue Ground, richly Decorated in Pink and Gold.)
By the kindness of the proprietors of the Coalport manufactory, we are enabled to give some further account of the modern ware, and to reproduce illustrations of the later marks used and of the sumptuous plates turned out at the present day from Iron Bridge, in Shropshire.
In the year 1820, the first year of the reign of George IV., Mr. John Rose obtained the gold medal of the Society of Arts for his “improved glaze for porcelain.” At this time a mark was adopted on some of the ware, “Coalport Improved Felspar Porcelain,” enclosed in a wreath of laurel. Surrounding the wreath are the words “Patronised by the Society of Arts.” The name “I. Rose and Co.” is marked underneath. If any of our readers have any porcelain having this mark, they will notice how good is the paste and how excellent the glaze.
Just prior to the mark above alluded to, the word Coalport was used and sometimes the letters “C. D.”—standing for Cole-Brook-Dale. Other marks of a later date are a monogram formed of the letters “C. B. D.,” and the same enclosed in a circle with the word “Daniell, London,” an eminent firm acting as agents and connected with the sale of the ware in London. This firm had depôts in Bond Street and in Wigmore Street, and there is in the national collection a plate with bleu-de-roi ground, enriched with gilding, one of a service executed by command of Her Majesty the late Queen Victoria for presentation to the Emperor of Russia. This service was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the centre of the plate is painted the Order of St. Andrew, while the body is ornamented with Russian orders painted on ivory-coloured ground in six compartments.
We now come to a very curious mark which may have puzzled some of our readers, but which is easily explained. It is a scroll somewhat like that which stands for the word “and”—&. Within its curves appear the three letters “C. S. N.” Upon examination it will be found that the aforesaid curves really make two letters, viz., “C. and S.,” which stand for Coalport and Salopian, while the other three letters stand for Caughley, Swansea, and Nantgarw—the whole emblematical of the development of the manufactory and its absorption of the smaller factories.
We give an illustration of the various marks placed in order of date used, up to and including the one now in use by the firm. Our readers may be able to form some idea by comparison of the dates of their specimens.
