This is spectacular full tea service for four made by New Hall around the year 1810. The service consists of a teapot with cover, a sucrier with cover, a milk jug, four trios each consisting of a teacup, a coffee can and a saucer, a cake plate (saucer dish) and a slop bowl. The set is decorated in the super-charming and popular but very rare Elephant pattern.
 
The set is in absolutely perfect condition, which is incredibly rare!
 
PLEASE NOTE: THE NUMBER OF TRIOS IN THIS SERVICE HAS BEEN REDUCED FROM SIX TO FOUR, AND THE PRICE HAS BEEN REDUCED ACCORDINGLY. IT IS NOW AN 18-PIECE SERVICE.
 
We have several individual cups and saucers available, as well as one more plate, please see separate listings or ask if you are interested.
 
The New Hall factory started as a cooperative of several Staffordshire potters making use of the porcelain license of Bristol Porcelain Company after this went in demise. It quickly grew out to be a leading porcelain maker, and the first to make true porcelain in Staffordshire. New Hall is mostly known for its huge output of its typical "hybrid hard paste" porcelain, as New Hall had adapted the original hard paste recipe from Bristol in order to save on production costs - a frugal Staffordshire improvement on the first hard paste porcelain recipes, which were quite difficult and expensive to produce. Once Josiah Spode had standardised bone china this quickly became the standard. New Hall was late to take up bone china but after 1814 they made it their main output, and they made some very high quality items.
 
This set is made in this typical "hybrid hard paste" porcelain, as New Hall had adapted the original hard paste recipe from Bristol (formerly Plymouth), but adapted it slightly in order to save on production costs. You can tell this by the way the porcelain is less milky than bone china. As this hybrid porcelain was slightly cheaper to make and very popular among customers who were used to the more stony Chinese Export porcelain, New Hall was a late adapter of bone china, which was already used by most other factories around the time this set was made.
 
This set has a beautiful teapot in the "new oval" shape but with an unusual handle, which was more often used on a different type of teapot. The entire set is decorated with a gorgeous and very charming pattern called the Elephant pattern. The dominant colour is a delicate underglaze blue, with an overglaze decoration of orange buildings: a pagoda on a hill with a fortress-like entrance gate at the foot of the hill. A pomegranate tree with beautiful green foliage and puce pomegranates stands in the courtyard behind the gate. In the foreground stands an adorable elephant. The pattern was then finished with rich gilding, particularly on the tree over the elephant - he seems to be shielding himself from the sun.
 
The serving items of the set are marked with the pattern number 876, which dates it to about 1810.
 
CONDITION REPORT The entire service is in perfect condition without any damage, repairs, crazing or even wear - it seems to have never been used in any significant way.
 
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1800s, and this meant that china from that period can have some firing specks from flying particles. British makers were also known for their experimentation, and sometimes this resulted in technically imperfect results. Due to the shrinkage in the kiln, items can have small firing lines or develop crazing over time, which should not be seen as damage but as an imperfection of the maker's recipes, probably unknown at the time of making. Items have often been used for many years and can have normal signs of wear, and gilt can have signs of slight disintegration even if never handled. I will reflect any damage, repairs, obvious stress marks, crazing or heavy wear in the item description but some minor scratches, nicks, stains and gilt disintegration can be normal for vintage items and need to be taken into account.
 
There is widespread confusion on the internet about the difference between chips and nicks, or hairlines and cracks. I will reflect any damage as truthfully as I can, i.e. a nick is a tiny bit of damage smaller than 1mm and a chip is something you can easily see with the eye; a glazing line is a break in the glazing only; hairline is extremely tight and/or superficial and not picked up by the finger; and a crack is obvious both to the eye and the finger. Etcetera - I try to be as accurate as I can and please feel free to ask questions or request more detailed pictures!
 
DIMENSIONS teapot measures 27cm (10.5") from handle to spout and stands 17cm (6.75") incl. finial: sucrier 18.5cm (6.5") wide and stands 14cm (5.5") incl. finial; milk jug 14cm (5.5") from mouth to handle and stands 9.5cm (3.75") high; teacup 8.2cm (3.25") diameter; coffee can 7cm (2.75") diameter; saucer 14.2cm (5.5"); cake plate 20cm (8") diameter; slop bowl 14cm (5.5") diameter and 8cm (3.25") high.