- Museum number
- P150A
P150B - Object
- Coffee cup and saucer, Chelsea Porcelain Factory, soft-paste porcelain, 1756-1769
- Description
- a) Cup and b) Saucer, English, Chelsea, c, 1759-60. Soft-paste porcelain decorated in enamel colours and gilding, translucent glaze. The cup fluted with wavy rim, edged in gold, plain handle (broken and mended), the body decorated in enamel colours with botanical flowers, a mallow and a blue flower, with leaves, the saucer fluted and decorated in a similar manner with two botanical specimens.
- Materials
- Porcelain
- Inscription
- Gold Anchor
- On display?
- Yes
Further description
- Simple name
- cup
saucer - Subject
- Botanical
- Dimensions
- regular: 6.3cm (w)
Coffee cup and saucer
Chelsea Porcelain Factory
Soft-paste porcelain, between 1756 and 1769
P150
Bequest of James Calder, 1944
Plants and flowers were a major source of inspiration for the designers of eighteenth-century porcelain. They were painted in underglaze blue, brightly coloured overglaze enamels or gleaming gold. In naturalistic rococo pieces moulded flowers and leaves form decorative finials, handles and even entire objects.
Early pieces copied Chinese and Japanese designs: the so-called Indianische blümen [Indian flowers] of Meissen. Later, native European flowers, known at Meissen as Deutsche blümen [German flowers] were copied from books of botanical illustrations. In England, the Chelsea Factory produced many striking pieces moulded in the forms of flowers, leaves and even vegetables.
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