Period: Regency
Maker: James & Ralph Clews
This delightful large Empire-shape breakfast teacup and saucer by James and Ralph Clews is hand-painted with an old woman holding a wicker basket in a rural setting. The elaborately decorated border is in the ‘841 pattern.’
James and Ralph Clews were active for less than two decades, from about 1815 to 1834, at a pottery in Cobridge, a village in what is now Stoke-on-Trent. Their porcelain production was even shorter, from about 1821 to 1825.
The Clews brothers specialized in blue transfer-printed earthenware, and served mainly the American and Russian markets, styling themselves ‘Potters to her Imperial Majesty, the Empress of all the Russians.’ Popular subjects were ‘Zoological Gardens,’ ‘American Views’ and their ‘Doctor Syntax’ series.
Clews porcelains are much less well known, probably because they were unmarked. Many are in their 841 pattern, of which other versions of appear on 19th Century porcelains of many other British makers. The pattern’s basic elements, according to Michael Berthoud, are “a deeply scalloped blue border containing roughly rectangular yellow panels containing a gilt flower or anthemion.” There is also a ‘melting’ inner edge.
The 841 pattern and its imitators tend to have painted scenes in the centre. These may be rustic figures, scenes from Dr. Syntax or Don Quixote, or occasionally, with some other factories, sprays of enamelled flowers instead of figures.
Condition Good. No damage or repairs. The saucer has some stacking wear and light gilt rubbing. A small amount of enamel has worn from the painting in the recessed central well, mainly from contact with the foot rim of the cup. Some gilt rubbing on the cup, mainly to top of the handle and rim edge. Inside decoration is in good order. A couple of pin-prick sized losses of enamel from the clothing of the old woman. A small raised bump in her shawl is from a manufacturing impurity in the glaze.
Cup height: 8.5 cm; rim diameter: 11.8 cm; width, including handle: 14.2 cm
Saucer diameter: 17.5 cm
Weight: 436g
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
Origin: Stoke-on-Trent, England
