Product Details

Sweet little Victorian tea-for-one in plum purple. A footed teacup and deep saucer printed with a Greek-key style band of daisy rosettes in oval frames, beaded and zigzag borders top and bottom, and a rosette medallion at the centre of the saucer. Neat, graphic, and very different from the usual scenic transferware; it sits beautifully next to mulberry and lavender pieces. | SPECS: Saucer approx 5.5 in diameter, cup approx 3.25 in across and 2.5 in tall. Maker: unmarked, English, c.1860s-1880s by style. Pattern: rosette and beaded band, unnamed. | HISTORY: Geometric border patterns like this came in with the mid-Victorian taste for classical and Gothic ornament, when potteries turned out simple banded tea services for everyday use. Purple transfer was printed in far smaller runs than blue or brown, which is why a matched cup and saucer in this colour is a find. Unmarked pieces of this type came from the many smaller Staffordshire works that never bothered with a backstamp. | CONDITION: