A Vauxhall Coffee Cup, circa 1756-58
This Vauxhall coffee cup is polychrome printed and hand-coloured with butterflies and bouquets of flowers, including a pink and a yellow rose.
Vauxhall was one of the first English porcelain factories to employ a technique of printing on porcelain. A method peculiar to Vauxhall in the mid-1750s was that of ‘polychrome printing’, where two or more colours were applied to a single copperplate and transfer-printed. Additional details could be added by hand with enamels. The process proved to be too laborious and expensive to be adopted elsewhere.
Condition: Excellent – no damage or restoration, just the slightest wear to the printed outline in a very few places. The attractive bluish glaze, so typical of Vauxhall porcelain, adds to the charm of this delightfully tactile piece.
Dimensions: Height 6 cm
Ceramics of Vauxhall: 18th Century Pottery and Porcelain, Roger Massey, Felicity Marno and Simon Spero (The English Ceramic Circle, 2007).