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Cream jug
Coalport Porcelain Factory - Enlarge image
Cream jug
- Place of origin:
Coalport, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1830 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Coalport Porcelain Factory (manufacturer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Porcelain painted with enamels and gilded
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by Herbert Allen
- Museum number:
C.575D-1935
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 120, case 18
Object Type
The moulded and applied naturalistic decoration of the three pieces from this tea service are very elaborate, ensuring that they would have been expensive to manufacture and vulnerable to damage during use. They may therefore have been reserved for special occasions and display. Afternoon tea, as a meal in its own right, was introduced towards the end of the 18th century, but only became common in Britain around 1840. The other pieces of the tea service are museum numbers C.511&A-1935 and C.511B&C-1935.
Place
The service was made at the Coalport factory in Shropshire, which specialised in elaborately decorated wares in the Rococo revival style used here. The factory was well sited - it had good water communications via the River Severn and was near rich deposits of coal, which provided fuel for the kilns. This part of Shropshire had a long tradition in potting, so skilled workmen would have been available, and there would already have been a network of merchants and ancillary traders in place when the factory was first set up.
Trading
Although some of Coalport's wares were made for a local market, many of the more elaborate wares were sold to large china and glass retailers in London.
