Compagnie des Indes
Today a mystery... Is this a Caughley teapot, or is it Worcester?
This beautiful little pot was made in the 18th Century, possibly as early as 1770, possibly a bit later, around 1785. It has the simple and pleasing "globe" shape with an adorable flower finial, and bears a bright "Compagnie des Indes" pattern of pink flowers and a pink latticed rim. This pattern was popular on Chinese Export porcelain, and the early British porcelain factories quickly imitated it.
I bought this teapot as Worcester, but for some reason never felt completely sure about it - the flower finial is slightly different from other Worcester pots I have had, and the pattern is slightly different than usual: it is without the usual gilt laurel wreath around the flowers.
I then found several identical pots that an expert told me were made by Caughley in Shropshire, not Worcester. Is it? Personally I don't know that much about Caughley, except that they always worked together very closely with Worcester, Chamberlains and of course were the forerunner of Coalport. I did change the attribution anyway, as it seems likely to me - but I could be wrong!
Did Caughley do a very good imitation of the extremely popular Worcester pots? Or is this indeed a Worcester pot, but did they decide for some reason to leave out the gilt laurel wreath? I welcome any comments - please share your knowledge!
This lovely pot is for sale in my shop, along with several other pots and tea services, see below.
Where to find things
You can find all my teapots here, all my tea services here, and all my available stock is here. If you always want to see the latest additions, follow me on Instagram... I post pictures and a story several times a week.
Happy new year to everyone, and get some flowers to make it through this cold winter!
This week's new treasures:
