FLOWER POWER

Over the top yet undoubtedly joyful, the Coalbrookdale style of encrusted porcelain first produced by Coalport was quickly imitated, says Willa Latham

- Willa Latham

Love it or hate it, as we have been looking at 19th-century Rococo Revival porcelain we must talk about the 'Coalbrookdale' style. Encrusted with countless little blooms, it is not my natural favourite. But then there are some items that I can't help but utterly love, because they are so beautifully made, so pleasing in their shapes, and so boundlessly uplifting in their sheer 'flower power'.

The name Coalbrookdale came from a village in Shropshire, recognised as 'the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution' thanks to the world's first coke blast furnace. It was also an early name used by the nearby Coalport porcelain factory, which was the first to popularise the encrusted porcelain style. Ironically, this village - the cradle of the environmental destruction we are facing today - also lent its name to this delicate style of flower-encrusted porcelain.

From the mid 1820s to about 1850, many factories produced this style, but it all started with Coalport. When the Rococo Revival fashion emerged, Coalport took some 18th-century German items from Meissen as an example: the 'Schneeballen' style (German for 'snowballs') with thousands of tiny encrusted blooms. From there, it quickly developed: floral details were added, and sometimes birds.

The Coalbrookdale style had earlier roots also in Britain; encrusted flowers had been used on the 18th-century porcelain figures, as bocage' or a background of trees and bushes. Chelsea made some crazy-looking frill vases' with large encrusted flowers.

But, back in the 18th century, encrusted flowers were not the main event, just an embellishment.