This is a rather extravagant tea service serving four, made by the Bloor Derby factory between 1825 and 1830 in the wonderful "Witches" pattern in the Imari colour scheme.
The set consists of a teapot with cover, a sucrier with cover, a milk jug, a slop bowl, and four true trios each consisting of a teacup, a coffee cup and a saucer.
We have some more separate trios available in this pattern, please see separate listing or send us a question.
The Derby Porcelain factory has its roots in the late 1740s, when Andrew Planché, a Walloon Huguenot refugee, started making simple porcelain toys shaped like animals in his back yard. In 1756 Staffordshire enameller William Duysbury and banker John Heath started a new porcelain factory with Planché and this was to grow out to the largest factory of its time, buying up the bankrupted Chelsea and Bow factories, as well as the stock of several other workshops including that of James Giles. The combination of various traditions, porcelain making skills and sophisticated clients enabled Duesbury to create one of the best porcelain factories of the 18th and 19th Centuries, which after many ups and downs is still operative today.
In 1811 the factory came under the ownership of Robert Bloor, and this started the "Bloor Derby" era. The company was in financial trouble and Bloor had to find a way to turn it around. He found a huge stock of items that had been rejected over the years, but that were perfectly fine to decorate and sell. This tea service was probably part of that hoard; many of these older items were beautifully painted with dark or busy patterns to hide any imperfections.
The "Witches" pattern is a wonderful pattern inspired by the Japanese Imari style, and it received its name from the famous "witch marks" that could be found on the doors of old houses around Derbyshire. The marks looked like flowers consisting of double "V"s (for the Virgin Mary) and were meant to ward off evil spirits, or witches. You can see the floral motif in this pattern, which looks similar.
All items carry the red hand painted crowned Derby mark with batons. There is a collectors label with elegantly written "Derby c. 1825" included.
CONDITION REPORT The set looks stunning and bright and is in fairly good condition, with following faults: the tip of the teapot has been restored; all serving items have various degrees of crazing; of the saucers, 3 are crazed; of the teacups, 3 are crazed, and the coffee cups all have crazing on the outside bottom, but not on the inside. There is wear and some very slight stress cracks here and there, but apart from the teapot spout no other major damage or repairs.
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1800s, and this meant that china from that period can have some firing specks from flying particles. British makers were also known for their experimentation, and sometimes this resulted in technically imperfect results. Due to the shrinkage in the kiln, items can have small firing lines or develop crazing over time, which should not be seen as damage but as an imperfection of the maker's recipes, probably unknown at the time of making. Items have often been used for many years and can have normal signs of wear, and gilt can have signs of slight disintegration even if never handled. I will reflect any damage, repairs, obvious stress marks, crazing or heavy wear in the item description but some minor scratches, nicks, stains and gilt disintegration can be normal for vintage items and need to be taken into account.
There is widespread confusion on the internet about the difference between chips and nicks, or hairlines and cracks. I will reflect any damage as truthfully as I can, i.e. a nick is a tiny bit of damage smaller than 1mm and a chip is something you can easily see with the eye; a glazing line is a break in the glazing only; hairline is extremely tight and/or superficial and not picked up by the finger; and a crack is obvious both to the eye and the finger. Etcetera - I try to be as accurate as I can and please feel free to ask questions or request more detailed pictures!
DIMENSIONS (diameters): teapot 29cm (11.5") between handle and spout; milk jug 16cm (6.25") between handle and mouth; sucrier 18cm (7") between the handles; slop bowl 15.5cm (6") diameter, teacup 8.8cm (3.5") diameter, coffee cup 6.6cm (2.6") diameter and saucer 13.8cm (5.5") diameter.
Bloor Derby tea service, Witches pattern Imari, ca 1825
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We always aim to have happy customers so if you have an issue with or questions about your item, please contact us and we will do anything we can to resolve the issue with you!
