When I compiled my list of books published in 1951 and came across this book by Compton Mackenzie I was expecting it to be a light hearted but social comedy. I was not expecting it to be a history of a pottery china works on the banks of the river Severn in Shropshire, but this is what I got. I suppose it being subtitled 1750-1950 was a bit of a giveaway. Compton Mackenzie is best known for his two comic novels Whiskey Galore and The Monarch of the Glen, but he also wrote a number of biographies and histories as well as poems, plays essays and children's books, he was nothing if not prolific.

It looks like a book that Mackenzie was commissioned to write, although I can find no details that this was the case. It is a sympathetic story as far as the founders and owners of the works are concerned and tells the story from the beginning with the establishment of the first worksop at Caughley some 4 miles from Coalbrookdale on the banks of the river where it was established as a major pottery works. It specialised in fine hand painted bone china with its production method being a closely guarded secret for a number of years. The factory was established by William Reynolds and was then owned outright by John Rose. It made a connection with the Sèvres the porcelain city just outside Paris, where patterns were exchanged and workers were persuaded to come over to England.

In 1799 there was a ferry-boat disaster when the ferry transporting workers across the river Severn capsized and 28 people were drowned. Under The Rose familie's management the company established itself as a leading producer of fine pottery, but spiralled into a slow decline. In 1885 it was taken over by the Bruff family and John Bruff revived its fortunes for a time. The first world war and then in 1923 a long strike made it increasingly unprofitable and the old factory was sold dismantled and rebuilt in Shelton Staffordshire. It then became part of the Crescent works in Stoke on Trent and Mackenzie's final chapter is a walk through the factory in 1950 with some pictures of the workers hand painting the pottery items, some surviving from Coalport.

The book which looked to be finely illustrated serves its purpose as a story of Coalport pottery, it is more a story of the ownership and the people who worked there, than a technical explanation of the production of the pottery. 3 stars. ( )