Maker: New Chelsea Porcelain Co.
This New Chelsea demitasse and saucer have beautiful pink cabbage roses painted freehand in enamel. Each bloom is subtly different. They are known as ‘Billingsley roses’ after William Billingsley (1758-1828), a famous English ceramist and decorator who perfected a technique for painting flower petals. In between the blooms are gilt leaves. In the centre of the saucer is a magnificent gilt medallion and the cup handle has a thumb rest in the shape of a flower head.
The cup and saucer are not marked but we know they were made by New Chelsea Porcelain Company between about 1919 and 1936. This is because we have seen an almost identical cup and saucer that have the New Chelsea mark used during this period. (The only difference is that our cup and saucer have wavy rims.)
Condition The cup is perfect. The underside of the saucer has a curved stress line in the glaze, but it does not carry through the porcelain, and may have occurred during manufacture. The saucer has no other faults.
Saucer Diameter: 11.7 cm Cup Height 5.9 cm; Diameter: 6.5 cm; Width across handle: 8.1 cm
Net weight: 132 g
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
Origin: Stoke-on-Trent, England
