Coalport ‘Animal Service’ porcelain sells for £4,000 at Shrewsbury auction
Nine pieces of rare Coalport ‘Animal Service’ porcelain sold for more than £4,000, smashing pre-sale estimates at a leading Shropshire fine art auction house on Wednesday.
The seven dessert wares, a plate and one coffee can and saucer were in high demand at Shrewsbury-based Halls Fine Art’s successful fine art, antiques and jewellery auction which attracted both private and trade buyers. The auction total was £180,000, including buyer’s premium.
The Coalport pieces were consigned by a private collector in Newport, Shropshire. Top price of £900 went to John Rose Coalport oval dessert serving dish, circa 1800-’05, painted with a circular panel of ‘The Fallow Deer’.
A John Rose Coalport dessert ice pail or fruit cooler painted with a circular panel of a Striped Hyena and a dessert sauce tureen and cover sold for £650 each while a shell shaped dessert side dish painted with a circular ‘The Ban Dog’ panel made £600.
“Coalport’s ‘Animal Service’ remains something of a mystery to collectors, as it’s not known who commissioned it, how large the service was and who decorated it,” said Caroline Dennard, Halls Fine Art’s ceramics specialist.
“The animal painting, from which this service takes its title, is inspired by Thomas Bewick’s ‘A History of Quadrupeds’, published in 1800. The scope of potential inspiration was enormous, with more than 200 different woodcut engravings serving as sources for the decoration.
“Given that each piece features a single animal, it’s likely that additional pieces will continue to be found as time passes. One of the lots in the auction was previously sold in London, but other pieces appear missing from modern attempts to list known examples, which may account for the excellent prices achieved.
“The ‘Animal Service’ offering at Halls Fine Art was the most significant in terms of quantity to enter the market in recent years.”
Whilst the principal decorator is not definitively known, there is speculation that it might have been Charles Muss (1779-1824), son of Italian artist, Beneficio Muss.
He exhibited several works at the Royal Academy, including Dunkeld Castle in 1800 and produced an enamelled plaque with a named and dated view of the Coalport China Works in 1804.
Coalport was prominent in the highest prices achieved in the ceramics section. Highlights were £2,200 for a Minton dessert service painted by James Edward Dean (active 1882-1926) with still lives of fruit, £1,000 for an early 20th century Coalport dessert service painted with flowers by Howard and Chivers, £850 for a Coalport dessert service, circa 1855, painted by John Randall with assorted birds and £750 for an English porcelain tray, possibly Coalport, decorated with fruit.
Other leading prices were £440 for a pair of Coalport Coalbrookdale vases, circa 1820-25 and £400 for Coalport Chicago Exhibition agate and jewelled tea canister and cover, circa 1893.
