Period: Late Victorian
Maker: T.C. Brown, Westhead-Moore & Co.
This startling Brown-Westhead, Moore trio shows the craze for Japanese art and design that gripped Europe in the late 19th Century. Japan fever or ‘Japonism’ often produced odd combinations, as in the trio’s orange and rust mass of foliage and flowers that stands out so boldly against the pale yellow. In nature, several of these plants do not grow together. One does not see Japanese wisteria trailing from Japanese cherry, or most incongruously, Japanese chrysanthemums bursting into bloom at the top of trees! The mismatch most likely would have escaped notice in Victorian England, when Brown-Westhead, Moore’s daring design would have scaled the height of fashion.
Japanese influence can also be felt in the delicate eggshell thinness of the cup and saucer, of which we have another example for sale in a different pattern.
The pattern number painted on the bases, K973, indicates a date of around 1882.
Condition The saucer is perfect apart from very minor loss of black enamel on the border band of gilt flower heads. The plate has similar loss of black enamel on the border band and some gilt rubbing to the dontil edge. The cup has heavier rubbing to the black enamel in the border band of gilt flower heads near the top rim. There is also some gilt rubbing to the handle, and minor gilt loss (few millimetres) to the band around the foot.
Cup height: 6.7 cm; width with handle: 9.3 cm
Saucer diameter: 14.1 cm
Plate diameter: 17.6 cm
Weight: 375 g
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
Origin: Stoke on Trent, England
For background on the factory, see Brown-Westhead, Moore & Cauldon in Makers & Artists
