A beautiful teacup and saucer in perfect antique condition, made by John Ridgway between 1836 and 1840. The set is decorated with the printed and hand coloured "Madrigal" pattern, which is interesting in its origin; taking its inspiration from Florentine Renaissance decorations (hence the name Madrigal, which means an old song form from the Renaissance times), but applied in the Japanese Imari colour palette of cobalt blue, iron red, orange and gilt.
Ridgway was one of the pioneers of English china production alongside other great potters such as Spode, Davenport, Minton, Coalport and others and they created very high quality tea and dinnerware. Ridgway had a tradition of a very wide-ranging offer of china products, anything from the most sublime dinnerware to humble toilet pots. It is notoriously difficult to identify their wares and this is one reason their beautiful tea and dinner wares are often underestimated.
The saucer is marked with the iron red printed full Royal Arms mark including the pattern name "Madrigal". There is no pattern number but we know that this is the pattern 2/6167.
Documentation: an image of a teacup in this pattern can be found in plate 1042, page 174 of Michael Berthoud's "A Compendium of British Cups".
CONDITION REPORT In perfect antique condition without any damage, repairs or crazing, just some light wear.
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): cup 9.5cm (3.75"), saucer 15cm (6").
