Antique Porcelain Table Wares & Dinner Services: Coalport, Davenport, Royal Crown Derby, Minton, Rockingham.
Antique Porcelain Table Wares & Dinner Services: Coalport, Davenport, Royal Crown Derby, Minton, Rockingham.
This is a section devoted to the items which are used at table, with the exception of plates. The odds and ends of services that survived the violent hands of the under-the-stairs staff were offen kept for decoration and the tureens and dishes occasionally appear on the market separately. Their value now lies in their appeal as decoration -the larger and more elaborate they are, the better. Coats of arms of recognised families are a plus factor whereas monograms and, to a fesser cxtent, crcsts, detract from the price.
Dinner services are a strange market and the prices they fetch need so me explanation. Taking for example one of the thousands of ironstone services made by Mason and bis imitators in the first half of the nineteenth Century, one would find that an odd plate might fetch 50p. at an auctjon suitable only for decoration. A set of a dozen plates would creep up to perhaps 1 a plate but no more since for use at table one needs all the tureens, vegetable dishes, side plates, etc. However, in services containing a dozen of
everything, tureens, etc., the total number would be around one hundred items and the price could have jumped to 123 a piece. The chance of someone coming a cross exactly the pattern for which he is looking in any one sale is extremely remote so that most services are bought by dealers who may have to hold them as stock for m any years before a purchaser buys them. The result is that to avoid tying up too much capital they do not spend as much on a service as it should warrant.
Belleek.
A pair of centrepieces from the service of a design ordered for the Prince of Wales, palely-coloured and nacreous-glazed. The prices of this
service seem to be more unpredictable than most Belleek, identical pat having fetched in one season between 150 and 1,200.
Belleek c.1880.
A fine uncoloured centrepiece, the good nacreous glaze showing off the sharp casting to the full. Typical sea-life influence with the figures from sea mythology, a young Triton, a mermaid and a hippogryph.
Coalport c. 1825.
A brightly decorated service of soup tureen and cover, two sauce tureens, covers and stands, nine meat dishes in sizes, fruit bowl, twenty-four dinner plates, ten soup plates and ten dessert plates, each painted with iron-red and gilt chrysanthemums. Single plates 812. This is the type of service which could well be split by a dealer after purchase to sell as individual or pairs of plates, as they are very attractive in small doses, a whole service being, perhaps, a little overpowering.
Coalport. 1830.
A fine service of a fruit stand, two sauce tureens, coven and stands, ur shell-shaped dishes, four lozenge-shaped dishes, two square dishes d eighteen plates. Each piece with a different landscape scene eluding figures within a bright gilt border. Single plates 1520. A nation in the border it known with the national emblems in gilding: is would raise the price to 25-30 a plate.
Coalport c. 1860.
A finely painted dessert service of twelve plates, two tall and four low stands, each with a different fruit within gilt and coloured border enclosing a crest of a squirrel. As with ail stands on feet, watch for restoration or signs of gluing at the junctions of foot and dish. The piece was made in two parts and stuck with slip before firing and this remains a weak point; the glaze often settles in a crackled ring here and the clear adhesive is almost invisible.
Davenport c. 1805-15. Longport in red Script.
Pierced dessert basket, painted with a Chinese garden scene in colourful enamels. Gilt twig handles. Early Davenport porcelain marked ‘Longport* is quite rare.
Basket and stand 50-80.
Davenport c. 1830-1840.
A good service of twelve soup plates, twenty-four dinner plates, twelve side plates, two sauce tureens and covers, two vegetable dishes and covers and nine meat plates, each piece well painted with sprays of flowers and with gilt border.
A fine botanical service with a different flower within scroll borders in blue and gilding. Comprising fruit stand, two sauce tureens, covers and Stands, four oval dishes, four rectangular dishes and twenty- four plates. This works out at about 2025 each for a plate, to 50 -80 for a tureen. If the flowers were named the price could be half as much again.
Davenport 1870-1886.
Davenport made both very high quality porcelain in the 1840s-1860s, often unmarked, and also mass produced wares for the lower end of the market. Tliis continued to the end of
the period but one meets less and less of the better items. Dessert service of a high tazza, two low tazze and twelve plates 200-300.
First quarter of the 19th century Painted crossed baton and crown
A good quality service with an attractive design of coloured roses and garlands of cornflowers and gilt leaves, the 1796 pattern. Price for soup tureen and cover, two sauce tureens with covers and stands, two vegetable dishes and covers, seven meat dishes in sizes, twelve soup plates, twenty-four dinner plates.
1220-1300 the service.
Royal Crown Derby 1882-95.
Printed crowned monogram and date codes.
A large composite service for dinner, dessert and tea: 12 soup plates, soup tureen and cover, 24 dinner plates, eight meat dishes in sizes, two sauce tureens, covers and stands, eighteen dessert plates, twelve pudding plates, twelve side plates, twelve cups and twelve saucers, two tazze, two lozenge dishes and two handled dishes. Large services of this type frequently have different date codes as the family added what they needed and included replacements. It is unlikely that another service would have the same composition as listed here but it does give a guide to a typical make-up.
Derby Crown Porcelain Company 1890. Printed monogram, retailer’s mark and date code.
A muffin dish and cover from a service of twelve large plates, side plates, cups and saucers and two serving dishes. Each piece has pastel-coloured and gilt wild flowers, grasses and butterflies by John Porter Wale and the monogram CHS. It is this last which resuit s in the low price of 100120 for the set. Collectors dislike anonymous monograms.
Hill Pottery, Burslem (S. Alcock) c.1840.
A good quality Service from an uncommon factory, which, despite the name, made some fine porcelain. The flowers in panels on a pink ground scattered with yellow flowers and gilt scrolls. Service of eighteen plates, three high and two low bowls.
A ’spot the deliberate error piece’. It is worth studying the proportions of this tureen, cover and stand as an object lesson to be on one’s guard when buying. If it looks a little uncomfortable, read no further. What has happened is that the body originally had a foot which has parted company, the edge has been ground down and now rests fairly happily on the (intentionally) detachable base. Still a good quality arid satisfactory object but liable to wild fluctuations in price, hence the wide quote.
A turquoise-ground salver painted with two fighting stags in the centre. A large decorative item and therefore popular for display. Both Coalport and Minton achieved great success with the turquoise glaze they were using in imitation of Sevres in the middle of the century, Minton’s being less prone to black firing specks.
Minton 1851. Impressed name and date code.
A clumsily-moulded figure holding a shell for use as a sweetmeat, or sait, uncoloured but for touches of celadon. Compare with the Worcester figure page 98. Pair with male.
Minton 1870
Impressed name, printed retailer’s mark, date code A fine quality service but not decorative enough for display and the crest makes it less desirable for table use. The borders are in turquoise with matt and burnished gilding. Service of twelve soup. dinner and dessert plates, soup tureen, cover, stand, two vegetable tureens. covers and stands, sauce tureen, cover and stand and six meat dishes in sizes, 100-200.
Rockingham 1830-42.
This type of C scroll moulding on the rims of plates and dishes is typical of late Rockingham but only by a careful study of the details of the scrolls can it be differentiated from the many other C scrolls of other factories. The part service comprising eight plates, one comport, two quatrefoil dishes and one tazza.
The service 400-1450.
Swansea c.1815-1817.
A fine service probably painted by D. Evans and in bright deep colors
Pair of sauce tureens, covers, stands 600-800.
Large centre dish.
Swansea.
A fine pierced fruit stand, the bowl and base both with cut lozenges and hoops, with fruit and flowers painted by David Evans and with good gilding. Altogether a rare and desirable piece.
Swansea Early 19th century.
An uncommon Swansea tureen of the same form as those illustrated in the service on page 308 on a pale green ground which adds considerably to the price. The scarcity of larger pieces from Swansea services generates much interest when they do appear on the market. It should be remembered that collectors display their collections in cabinets and need to break up rows of plates with more interesting shapes.
Worcester, Flight, Barr and Barr.
A sauce tureen, cover and stand with a rose within gilt scrolls on a green ground. Not a particularly exciting piece but the gilding is of good quality and green is a very saleable colour, blue ground 120-150, yellow 250-350.
Royal Worcester 1898.
Printed crowned circle, registration.
A game service of twelve plates, a large meat dish, two small dishes and a sauce tureen, cover and stand. Each piece with a printed outline brightly coloured and gilt, of a different game bird, the border sepia. Despite the partial mass-producfion a well produced service, odd plates.
Royal Worcester 1912.
A typical mass-produced service of the period and comparable to similar services made today. Printed basic variation of the Indian tree pattern with hand colouring. Price for twelve soup plates, twelve fish piales, twelve side plates, twelve dinner plates, soup tureen, cover anc stand, two vegetable tureens and covers, sauce tureen and cover and gravy boat, six meat dishes in sizes. 1150-1200 the service.
Unattributed 1850
Badly cracked through the base. An interesting piece for the registration of design mark on the base for 1850. indicating the style of the period, and for the technique of well printed puce outlines for the well coloured flowers. A high qualhy production altogethet. Perfect 70-90, 35-45 (damaged).
Tags: 19th century, ANTIQUE, antique porcelain, basket, Coalport, Davenport, Derby, Dessert, dessert plates, dessert service, Longport, minton, monograms, nineteenth century, PLATE, porcelain table, POTTERY, ROCKINGHAM, royal crown derby, S. Alcock, table wares, tazze, Tureen, Tureens, turquoise, vegetable dishes, Worcester