Various Chinese Japan pattern Children’s Tea Wares, G.F. Bowers, Tunstall, Staffordshire, 1840s
Manufactured by the Staffordshire firm of George Frederick Bowers in the 1840s, these delicate porcelain children’s tea wares are decorated with the Chinese Japan pattern, comprising of chinoiserie birds, pagodas and flowers. The design is outline printed and then entirely hand coloured with enamels, including a lovely duck egg blue. Items such as these would have been used to teach children table manners, etiquette, and the gracious art of hosting. The cake plates have additional moulded decoration, and the fine handles on the teacups were certainly intended to be held by small fingers. The particular shapes shown here were registered by Bowers in 1843.
There are seven pieces in the set, forming two trios of teacup, saucer and cake plate, and also an extra cup.
A printed Staffordshire knot mark with the initials G.F.B to both cake plates, and various painted decorators’ marks.
Dimensions: Saucer – Diameter 10.9 cm; Teacup – Height 4.1 cm; Cake Plate – Diameter 15.2 cm.
Condition: Two cups have a minuscule, faint hairline (one to the rim of the cup, and the other to the underside). No other damage, and no restoration. From manufacture, there are typical minor potting, glazing and firing anomalies. The pieces display beautifully, with very little wear.
Staffordshire Porcelain, Geoffrey Godden, Ed. (Granada, 1983).
Price: £55 for all seven pieces.