Happy New Year's Eve 2018 and 2019 Enters

Happy 2019!
Greeting you with an antique postcard... one of the only ones I have ever had with something tea related on it...
so cute!

Aukd Lang Syne rings out 2018...
It has been the most difficut one for us for 10 years, so am glad to see the back of it and are looking forward to a better year in 2019, Lord willing!

I always love it when I can find variations on the Auld Lang Syne transferware...it has been made by several companies. The above is a huge cup and saucer from the 1930s from the archives of Antiques And Teacups,

And this is a Wedgwood cup orphan in not the best shape from the 1890s that always sits on my desk, as I can't part with it...damaged or no!

And this one is a Copeland Spode version from 1910.

So wishing you the BEST of ...

Cheers!

Edwardian Beauty in Amazing Places...Should be at Downton Abbey

As I was opening the blinds this morning I was struck anew by the amazing Victorian into Edwardian era penchant for making ordinary things extraordinarily beautiful...

This is sitting in the living room here...but it didn't start life there....it belongs on  the bedroom, bath room or dressing room of an English home of some consequence...do you know what it is? It's about 12 inches high by 12 inches in diameter....it's variously called a waste bucket or slop pail, regardless of the fact that it is the finest English porcelain, by Copeland Spode, and gorgeously decorated with lots of metallic gold accents and trim.

Before indoor plumbing, and even after, bedrooms often had pitcher and bowl sets in the bedrooms or dressing rooms for washing...not sinks and running hot and cold taps....the water carried up each day by hard working servants. Then the used water needed somewhere to go...and here it is.   The waste water was then carried outside and onto the garden usually.  This was made by the mark, between 1904 and 1907, in the height of the Edwardian era...think Downton Abbey, just before the first World War, and would have been an extremely expensive set...

I had gotten an entire set in England with pitcher, bowl, covered soap dishes, covered brush dishes, etc, but most of it didn't survive the shipping in good condition.  But the set was so gorgeous I salvaged what I could....

The pitcher has a rim crack, the bowl split in two...but sits on top of my bedroom armoire anyway....and this waste bucket, although it has a large crack down one side, sits in the living room...I have thought of putting a plant in it, but it has a liner that I couldn't use then....

You can see the crack on the top left...sigh...the design is just so beautiful! Utilitarian, pedestrian, unglamorous...and just plain beautiful! 

So regardless of it's less than glamorous use, it was still made with a meticulous eye to beauty....William Morris would approve...his saying is the motto for my Antiques And Teacups at Etsy website...

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” William Morris, 1834-1896

Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Royal Chelsea Teacup, Antique Pitcher And Bowl

Hello and welcome to the first Tuesday Cuppa Tea in June. Amazing! I finished the antibiotics I was taking for the sinus infection just last Friday and am feeling so much better! It's a joy to think of sharing a tea time with my friends!

Just to start and set the stage for my choice this week, here is my favorite page from the June entries in A Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden...

And so my teacup today is a Royal Chelsea, England cup and saucer in a pattern called Golden Rose, pattern number 3983A...

Royal Chelsea was a Staffordshire, England firm that started in 1912 as New Chelsea Porcelain company...which became New Chelsea China Company in 1951  acknowledging the changes in materials used in their wares that occurred in the 1930s.

New Chelsea also made Chelsea China in the 1930s and Royal Chelsea in the 1940s until the pottery closed in the 1960s. Their quality and workmanship was outstanding, with a lot of hand done and enamel overpainting. I have always loved their quality...

This teacup has the wonderful trim technique called "sponge gold" or "sponged gold" which is made by 22 or 24kt gold being applied with a sponge to the rim either in a wide band like this example or a narrower band. The technique is costlier and more time consuming than the usual brush lined gold trim. Sponged gold is the sign of an expensive and superior teacup. Just lovely!

I was trying to decide what to share today, and remembered my pitcher and bowl set that I have had for years and treasure although damaged....It sits on the top of an English armoire in our bedroom....

The pitcher is in good nick...as the Brits say, with only an old tight hairline...but the rest of the set didn't fare as well. The set is by Copeland's Spode and dates to 1904, and was a complete toilet set. But the shippers did a bad job, and when it arrived from England the bowl was split into 3 pieces...and it's substantial porcelain...and the brush holder, soap dish and several other pieces were smashed. 

I still have the slop bucket and insert which is quite large...but has a large crack and I salvaged this lid of a covered dish. I just love the pattern! Just Exquisite!

I just couldn't bear to part with the pieces. So...they are treasured even if flawed...just like us, aren't they? Precious but not perfect! And still lovable and of worth!

So thanks for joining me this week. Here is the linky for your tea related posts...please be patient because it seems to be quite slow sometimes. I am redoing the list of blogs but please visit the others who have linked. Have a great week!

An InLinkz Link-up