Showing posts with label porcelain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label porcelain. Show all posts

Thursday, August 3, 2023

Coalport Porcelain Jeweled Ball Perfume Bottles

I won't get into the history of the Coalport firm as there is so much information to be gleaned online and in books. 


In 1780, John Rose who had been trained and apprenticed at Caughley, established a small porcelain factory in nearby Jackfield. In 1790, he moved his establishment to Coalport, just a mile farther down the Severn, and in 1799 bought the Caughley factory. The business from the first prospered exceedingly and, after Rose's death in 1841, was continued by his nephew. After 1875, the establishment was acquired by a company and the business was carried on upon the old site by the Coalport China Company. 

Much of the porcelain from the Coalport factory was sold as whiteware in London to outside decorators from all over England. Coalport worked hard to imitate the magnificent ground colors of Sevres.

Initially, Coalport followed the patterns and decorations used at Caughley, however, Coalport made excellent reproductions of the porcelain from the Sevres, Derby, Meissen, Dresden and Chelsea firms. These included direct copies of vases, cabinet pieces and tableware, even the original marks were accurately copied as well. This was achieved by employing painters from Worcester, Derby and the Staffordshire potteries. The work was so well done that collectors have been duped over the years thinking they were purchasing authentic antique porcelain from those firms but in reality purchased excellent copies made by Coalport.

"In the second half of the 19th century the Coalport manufacturers added yet another specialization to their repertoire of hand decorated porcelains. They developed the technique called “jewelling” whereby small beads of colored enamel were applied most often to a gold ground. According to the auctioneers Skinner Inc, it is thought this was first developed and introduced by the Worcester porcelain factory in the mid 1860s. Turquoise seemed to be the prevalent color, meticulously and uniformly decorating tea wares, useful wares and ornamental wares, often accompanied by a rich raised gold decoration. They were produced for sale in Britain and abroad. "

This is just a brief guide and gallery of one the firm's specialized products: ball shaped perfume (scent) bottles with hinged caps and decorated with tiny turquoise enameled dots (or beads) called "jewels." Coalport specialized in making jeweled porcelain in the Sèvres style. The porcelain was lavishly covered or accented with gold enamel and profusely embellished with rich, raised gold borders, chased and raised enamel rococo scrolling. My favorite effect is the multicolored enamel cabochons mimicking precious and semiprecious gems such as opals, moonstones and agate. 

In 1892, for example, the Pottery Gazette noted that Coalport's "ornamentation is exceedingly rich, and is shown on a great variety of fancy shapes .... The imitations of jewelled setting is [sic] very perfect , particularly the topaz and pearl."

In the reserved panels (or windows) with the ground colors, and also on porcelain without ground colors, a wide variety of decorations was utilized. All manner of naturalistic floral motifs, garlands, lacy festoons, wreaths, birds, scenic landscapes in the manner of Watteau, portraits and figures.  

The colors used as grounds on the pieces were Mazarin blue, bleu de roi (Sevres' turquoise), Rose Pompadour (incorrectly called rose du Barry), claret, salmon, teal, crimson lake, apple green, sky blue (turquoise or celeste), gray, buff, Swansea blue, a bright canary yellow, mauve, magenta, maroon, Sardinian green, cafe au lait, and others.

Chats on English China by Arthur Hayden, 1904:
"A maroon ground introduced by Walker from Nantgarw about 1822 The deep mazarine blue of Derby reproduced at Coalport is quite equal to Derby pieces in tone. The rich ground colours of old Sèvres porcelain were copied with great success at Coalport particularly the turquoise blue and the rose du Barri."

 

The China Decorator - Volumes 10-11, 1891:
"The Coalport enamelers may be quite as skillful - nay, much more so - than those of the Coalport ateliers, but their work is intended to make a greater show and attract more attention than that of the Coalport artists. Turquoise is their great material for exhibition. The article to be enameled is first covered with gold, fired, and nicely burnished. Then the enamel is laid on the graduated dots (to make it plain to the reader) from large to small in perfect sizes and pattern. Small articles for cabinets and ornament as tiny bon-bon boxes, jewel cases, scent bottles, etc., and on very small articles sometimes shows several hundred dots of enamel. Cups and saucers are also decorated in the same fashion, and such articles being from $8 or $10 each to $50 in retail shops. 
Besides a very elaborate employment of turquoise blue enamel, they also use enamels, imitating pearls and other translucent gems. With opals particularly they are very successful. The center of the article or space to be decorated first has a gold design in imitation of jewelry work, sometimes with raised paste, oftener flat. After firing and slightly polishing, the enamels are laid on for the second firing. 
The method of work is kept as great a secret as possible, and the imitation of opals, which is accomplished with a combination of transparent and semi-opaque enamels, is really marvelous. Since imitating jewels with glass has become so successful and popular, it is possible that these so called enamel opals are in reality glass jewels. It would be quite possible to make one appear quite like the other without detection, but the artists and manufacturers say the work is enameling, and there is no reason why they should misrepresent facts." 


Table Talk - Volume 8, 1893:
"A new departure is the "Chalcedony," still Coalport, but with a new blue for grounding and a perfect imitation of moss-agate, introduced with all the shadings and beauty of the real stones. Lovely plates, the centre pieces, miniatures, copied from the portraits of Reynolds and Gainesborough, again the café noir cups and saucers, the grounding the brown of the coffee berry with decorations of bright gold - the inside of cup entirely burnished gold. This delicate, exquisite porcelain seems adapted to fancy pieces for gift and cabinet purposes and the dressing tables of the fair women of many countries are beautiful with its graceful, dainty presentations."

The British Trade Journal - Volume 31, 1893
"The Coalport China Company - Rarely have more beautiful or costly pieces of china been sent to any exhibition than those forwarded to Chicago by the Coalport Company. Plates, vases, and trinket boxes comprise the greater part of this magnificent display. A specialty is the chalcedony decoration, which reproduces the hues of the agate, and there is a lovely Sèvres glaze on the ware, and the precious stone appears to have been inlaid. Two graceful vases a present for Princess Christian are adorned with this scheme." 

The Book of the Fair, Hubert Howe Bancroft · 1894
"A specialty of the Coalport China company's exhibits is its reproduction in chalcedony of the hues of agate, as may be seen in two of its vases intended for Princess Christiana."

The British Trade Journal - Volume 31,
"The Coalport China Company, in addition to a number of new goods in their first-class artistic ornamental wares, are making many novelties in useful ware, but all elegant in shape and rich in decoration. Some of their new decorations, introduced for exhibition at Chicago, will be seen this season in many of their productions for home purposes. The latest novelty they have, the "Chalcedony," is perfectly unique. It is a splendid imitation in china of "moss agate," and is most artistically introduced into almost every useful article made by the firm, dessert plates, teas, scent bottles, plaques, wall pockets, and even teacups and saucers, are all shown with this realistic imitation agate, introduced with fine effect."



Gallery of Scent Bottles:


Elaborately jeweled examples were included in Coalport's display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and won a gold medal and garnered much publicity. I suspect many of the designs looked like the ones below.






















Marks Found on Coalport Perfume Bottles:



The Coalport Crown Mark shown below was used c1891 to 1919.


 

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Antique Victorian Porcelain Backed Vanity Sets

These pretty vanity items were produced during the 1890s and continued for a few more years up until around 1920 or so. The hand mirror and brush were sold along with a comb in most cases. Sets were available to adults as well as children, the children's set being a bit smaller than the adults of course. Masculine sets were offered to men as well.



Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Fulper Pottery Perfume Lamps

In the 1920s, Fulper offered a range of porcelain perfume lamps, or Lumiers de Parfum. Their most common example is the dainty little Ballerina.  Perfume goes in the base and when the light bulb heats it and the scent comes out the holes in the sides of the ballerinas head. Boudoir lamp and base measure 6 1/2" tall and 4 1/4" wide. The lamp was available in several colors including: Henna, Blue, Pink, Jade, Orchid, Apricot Peach, Flame, Black, Canary, Old Rose and Turquoise. 


As advertised in Arts & Decoration, Volumes 15-16. 1921.



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