Date: circa 1876
Period: Late Victorian
Maker: George Jones
This George Jones coffee cup and saucer are an English porcelain design icon. With its distinctive 7-shape handle, the angular cup anticipates Art Deco by half a century. The hand-painted and hand-coloured wild roses are also daringly modern in their boldness of scale and full use of the white as a canvas. The contrast between the pink petals and the sharp prickles of the rose is particularly effective.
The bases bear a design registration lozenge with numeric and letter codes for 29 May 1876. This was the date on which George Jones & Sons registered their ‘Tall Chad’ shape. The pattern number, 4588, is also painted in purple on the bottom of the cup.
‘Tall Chad’ features in several books on British ceramics, including Staffordshire Porcelain edited by Geoffrey Godden, plate 701 on page 527, A Compendium of British Cups by Michael Berthoud, plate 1311 on page 219, and George Jones Ceramics by Robert Cluett, plates 251-257.
CONDITION Mint, except for some damage to the saucer bottom. There is a chip, 1.2 cm across, on the underside of the rim (see photograph). The chip is invisible from above but can be seen when the saucer is viewed from the side. Near the chip, also on the base, is either a small stress hairline or scratch in the glaze – it does not extend to the rim or pass through the porcelain body to the top of the saucer.
This and another ‘Tall Chad’ coffee cup and saucer are being sold either individually or as a pair.
Cup Height: 6 cm; Width: 8.7 cm, with handle; Rim diameter: 6.6 cm Saucer Diameter: 13.1 cm
Weight: 181 g
Origin: Stoke-on-Trent, England
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
