Rockingham style - the real thing
You often see porcelain that is called "Rockingham style". This usually applies to a certain elaborately shaped Rococo Revival style tea service. Today I have the real thing: a very large tea service made by Rockingham in the 1840s.
Rockingham was the pride of Yorkshire, and although a relative latecomer to the production of porcelain, they quickly caught up with the Staffordshire factories and created very high quality wares that became a favourite of King William IV. He ordered a large dinner service with them that took 600 people six years to complete - and that ultimately ruined the factory because it took too many resources away from daily sales. By the time that dinner service was finished the King had died so Queen Victoria used it instead for her inauguration dinner.
This tea service was made at the time that people were very much into entertaining at home, and every good lady of means would have owned several tea services that would also include coffee cups. This is such a service, superbly gilded and painted and beautifully potted in the Rococo Revival style, making every detail look like it was grown in nature.
The teapot has the famous Royal Crown as a finial - a proud sign that Rockingham supplied the court. The interesting gilt pattern is an imitation of the famous Worcester Flight & Barr "seaweed" patterns, and the flowers are a wonderfully strange combination with that - but the more I look at this, the more I love it.
Did you notice that some of the items have whiter glaze than others? Presumably those are replacements of a later date. Of course items would break, and then they needed to be replaced. These were potted and painted exactly the same, but with a whiter glaze that didn't craze as much.
You can find all my items in my shop here, and there is a page with all my tea and coffee services here. If you always want to see the latest additions, follow me on Instagram... I post pictures and a story every single day.
Happy weekend, and let your tea set rock! ☕️💐
This week's new treasures:
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