Maker: Josiah Spode
Period: Late Regency
The Spode ‘Pembroke’ teacup and coffee cup, each with saucer, have superb High-Regency gilding – foliate swags and pendulous flower heads, suspended from acanthus leaves spread out like wings of a bird. All are balanced in perfect symmetry.
Spode introduced the Pembroke cup shape around the same time as the pattern, circa 1826. The teacup has an elegantly curved profile of a truncated hemisphere on a footed rim, with an ornate moulded handle that resembles decorative wrought iron.
The pattern number, 4448, is painted on all of the bases. The saucers are also impressed with a four-petal cross. In his book Spode & Copeland Marks, the late Robert Copeland stated that the mark indicated a Spode recipe for Felspar porcelain.
Condition Almost perfect antique condition. There is some barely noticeable rubbing to gilt detail on the saucers, and some surface glaze scratching on the white that is only visible on close inspection.
Teacup height: 5.3 cm; diameter: 9.4 cm; width, including handle: 11.4 cm
Coffee cup height: 7.4 cm; diameter: 7 cm; width, with handle: 8.9 cm
Saucers diameter: 15.2 cm
Net weight: 534 g
Medium: Felspar porcelain
Origin: Stoke-on-Trent, England
For background on the factory, see Spode and Copeland in Makers & Artists
