Coalport History

Over two centuries of craftsmanship and passionate artistry lie behind every Coalport piece. That's why our designs take pride of place in so many magnificent and lovingly amassed collections all over the world.

The founder of Coalport, John Rose (1772-1841) trained at a factory in Caughley, Shropshire. Luckily for Rose, he was apprenticed to Thomas Turner, a potter with a revolutionary approach to making porcelain. Once fully fledged, he joined forces with Edward Blakeway. They bought the Caughley pottery in 1799, set up another at nearby Jackfield a year later, and shortly afterwards moved the business to Coalport.

Coalport was a 'new town' on the banks of the Severn, an area noted for producing ceramics since Roman times. The river brought raw materials from the west, and shipped finished goods directly to Bristol and beyond. Furthermore, Coalport was well placed for cheap local coal and good quality fireclays. Rose found his artist-craftsman's skills perfectly complemented those of practical Blakeway, a former Mayor of Shrewsbury and a shareholder in the famous Iron Bridge over the Severn.

The factory began by specialising in tableware, often decorated from 1801 with the 'Indian Tree Pattern', a design more chinoiserie than Indian, that Rose was the first to use. By this time, Coalport was steadily generating an international clientele, including the Prince and Princess of Orange.

In 1820, the Royal Society of Arts awarded Rose a gold medal for inventing a new glaze that was leadless and feldspathic (comprising vital rock-forming minerals). At the same time, the Company started making elaborate designs rife with flowers - the celebrated Coalbrookdale ware.

From the 1830s, Coalport pieces were decorated with faint, transfer-printed outlines subsequently coloured by hand. That way, the factory kept up with growing demand while retaining the key qualities of hand-decorated porcelain. In the mid-19th century, products included table services finely painted with fruit or flowers on coloured grounds and long vases lavishly encrusted with flowers; "large and spectacular" designs that won a medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

White Parian figures had long been a Coalport speciality - the 'Cat and Monkey' (c. 1848) is an outstanding example - but, when Thomas John Bott became Art Director in 1889, production of individual figures took off in earnest; and, by the time he retired in 1932, they formed most of the factory's output.

In 1967, the Company joined Wedgwood, thereby becoming part of Waterford Wedgwood in 1985. However, Coalport has retained its own identity within the Group; and, ever since it recruited an outstanding team of sculptors in the early 1970s, it has gone from strength to strength.

You can visit the original factory at Coalport to this day. Soon after the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust took it over in 1976, it became the first winner of the European Museum of the Year Award. In tandem with this engaging piece of living history, Coalport continues to produce the ceramics that have delighted so many collectors for so long. Moreover, a surprisingly - and gratifyingly - high proportion of our production processes are still carried out by hand.