The Mortlock China Company was a merchandising rather than a manufacturing operation. Considered the most important china retailer in London in the early 19th century, it exercised enormous power and influence over the manufacturers, particularly Coalport, insisting that the products that Mortlocks sold should bear the Mortlock mark rather than that of the original maker.
In common with other major London houses, Mortlocks employed independent decorators to finish its wares, sometimes on an exclusive basis and often with a rather overdone result borrowed from the Brighton Pavilion with moldings, beadings, animal motifs and acanthus leaves jostling for attention. Customers loved it.
The Mortlock product was of high quality, with a Coalport dinner service for example, retailing for 200 guineas (equivalent to over $20,000 today). A single dinner plate might sell for $9 or more - six months’ wages for an agricultural laborer.
Both factories made mostly tablewares that had elaborate overglaze decoration, mostly with floral subjects. A further round of mergers in 1819 brought molds and skilled staff from Nantgarw porcelain and Swansea porcelain to Coalbrookdale, which continued to thrive through the rest of the century. The Coalport factory was founded by John Rose in 1795; he continued to run it successfully until his death in 1841. The company often sold its wares as Coalbrookdale porcelain, especially the pieces with flowers modelled in three dimensions, and they may be called Coalport China.