Coalport Figurines

I stumbled upon these beautiful female figurines recently -- Coalport Figurines. Well, what I stumbled on was a book about the figurines.

It's just one of those things -- standing at the thrift shop and you go "Hmm, what's this?" Flipping through the book, I saw all of these marvelous pictures. I'm not generally a "collector" collector. Like I'm not someone who feels comfortable spending $800 on a figurine just because it's a one-of-a-kind. If I love it, and I want to save up for it, fine, I'll buy it. But that's a lot of money! Even to someone like me, who loves figurines.

Coalport figurines are named after the town of Coalport, in England. The original factory was there, in the town. For the first 80 years, the factory specialized in tableware. They did a few specialized pieces but almost all of their output was for the table.

Starting in the mid 1880's the factory got heavily into Parian. It's like an ersatz marble. Which lead me to another book.... It's like going down a rabbit hole sometimes. I like the look of Parian. I'm big on simple, clean lines. I don't know that I'll get into Parian in any sort of capacity. It might be just too much. I mean, there is only so much room in the house.

But maybe a small statue or two. I probably have held Parian in my hands without realizing that it wasn't porcelain. I swear, I still have so much to learn!

But back to the original point of this post! Coalport. The figurines are just gorgeous. There's some thing about the glaze that's most appealing. If you look at the picture at the left, you can see that the little house just glows with life. The Coalport workmanship is amazing.

Many of the figurines are female -- women in long dresses. They are not all of this style, but in my mind I think Scarlet O'Hara from Gone With the Wind. Those kinds of figurines -- gracefully, sweeping, delicate.

I've seen some discontinued figurines online for $100-$150. I might just pick one up and see what I think. In the meantime, the book (although it's almost 10 years old) is a fun way to pass the time.