Teacup travel

What do you do if you can't go travelling yourself? You look at images of far away places, and listen to the stories of those who did go. Today we have a teacup that is like a postcard from the year 1810.

In the late 18th and early 19th Century wealthy people in Northwestern Europe had the funds and time to travel to far away places, and it was the beginning of a new curiosity into far-flung landscapes. Travel was frowned upon for ladies, so it was usually the young lads who would do the "Grand Tour", visiting the ancient treasures of Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultures. At home, people were increasingly living in smoke-filled cities and those who could, would escape to their country houses in the beautiful British countryside, appreciating nature with a newfound enthusiasm.

Landscape painting became a thing, and porcelain painters realised that you could make fabulous tableware services with landscapes, each item showing a different one. The teacup I am showing is from such a service. Are these British landscapes, or Italian? We don't know; the mountain could be in the Dolomites, or it could be the Peak District; the lake could be Lake Como, or it could be Lake Windermere. But it certainly represents the fashion for landscapes of the early 19th Century and would have thrilled a group of ladies hosting some charming gentleman returning from their Grand Tour.

This very rare teacup and saucer was made by Barr Flight & Barr in Worcester in about 1810, and apart from its very elegant gilt border motif and gorgeously delicate salmon ground colour, each item carries a panel with a beautiful landscape. The teacup shows a vast mountain landscape, with two figures in the foreground looking out over the valley and the mountain in the distance. I found the same mountain on a plate shown in Henry Sandon's book "Flight and Barr Worcester Porcelain 1783-1840" (plate 60, page 77).

The saucer has a completely different landscape: on the edge of a lake, with two sailing boats in the distance, you see a fishing boat with three fishermen readying their fishing gear at the shoreline, some trees in the background.

If you zoom in on the pictures you can see the very fine brush strokes of the paintings. The Derby factory kept track of the work of their artists in the late 18th Century, and great artists like Zachariah Boreman would have trained up lots of younger ones - have a look at the wonderful Boreman coffee cup that I have available as well (with a river landscape shown here). The Barr Flight & Barr factory did generally not list individual work, so we don't know the artist of this set - but it clearly is in the same tradition.

The paintings are in monochrome sepia. However, the absence of colour is not a lack; in fact it creates a rich, emotional feeling to the images, just like with good black and white photography.

It is rare to come across such a superb teacup set... and apart from some light rubbing, it is in perfect structural condition. You can find it in my shop.

Where to find things

You can find cups and saucers here, and you can find all my available stock here. If you always want to see the latest additions, follow me on Instagram... I post pictures and a story several times a week.

Happy weekend everyone, and do some teacup travel! ⛰⛵️

---

This week's treasures:

---

#gentlerattleofchina #antiqueporcelain #finebonechina #finechina #antiqueshop #englishantiques #antiquing #decorativeantiques #interiordesign #interiordesigner