- Museum number
- P243.1
P243.2 - Object
- Teacup and saucer, Bristol Porcelain Factory, hard-paste porcelain, about 1775
- Description
- Tea cup, part of a set with saucer P243.2, English, Bristol, c. 1775. Hard-paste porcelain decorated in enamel colour with gilding. The cup with fluted bowl and wavy rim, with scroll handle, decorated in camaieu emerald green, a continuous festoon of green flowers suspended from a gilt line around the body of the cup, gilt dentil edge around the rim, gilt band around the foot, gilt highlights on the handle, inside a single green flower spray with leaves.
- Materials
- Porcelain
- Inscription
- X 1 in overgaze blue
- On display?
- Yes
Further description
- Simple name
- cup
saucer - Subject
- Floral
- Dimensions
- regular: 4.9cm (w)
Teacup and saucer
Bristol Porcelain Factory
Hard-paste porcelain, about 1775
P243
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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