“We have latterly challenged the continental world to compete with us and to contend for equality in many branches of manufacture into which art excellence and refinement of taste enter, and we have carried off the palm. Neither Sèvres nor Dresden has of late years compared with the best English productions. There is no doubt of this; and most especially we might instance as successful rivalry the progress that the Coalport Works have made. The marked patronage of Royal circles on the Continent and at home for their productions is, perhaps, the best proof of the truth of our statement. . . . They have been especially practical in their catering for the Vienna Exhibition, and met the foreigner at his weak point rather than courted rivalry at his strongest. No nation on the Continent can compete with the French as regards the painting, though Coalport could and will challenge with every hope of success for the first place when it comes to the question of rivalry in design, exquisite form, graceful ornamentation, brilliancy of colour, bright burnish of gold, and tenderness of glaze in merely decorative porcelain works. The specimens of this character which are sent will, we are sure, worthily maintain the reputation of Coalport.”
The _Standard_ also, May 23, 1873, in an article on the “Ceramic Art,” had the following:—
“Messrs. Daniell have so many good things from Coalport Works that it would be difficult to present even a brief mention of them all. There is one beautiful pair of vases in imitation Cashmere ware which Sir R. Wallace has already purchased, and the same gentleman has also secured a number of plates delightfully painted by Faugeron with exotic leaves. Two portrait vases of the Emperor and Empress of Austria are of old Sèvres shape, the bodies being of turquoise and gold, and the paintings by Palmere, almost miniatures in their fine detail. Two gros bleu vases, with raised and chased gold ornamentation and panels, choicely painted with birds by Randall, are as elegant as a pair of jardinières, with a cobalt ground and gold ferns and grasses in relief, butterflies touched up in bright enamel, toning the otherwise too great richness of the dark gold and blue. These are only a few of the attractions of one of the finest, though not largest, cases in the section. Messrs. Pellatt exhibit some Coalport ware, which is in every respect worthy of the high repute of that renowned manufactory.”