“Oriental” tea cups & saucers, c.1840

A pair of English pearlware cups & saucers with an Oriental motif. The cups are 2-1/4″ tall and the saucers are 5-3/4″ in diameter

The orange transferware decoration of a Chinese man jumping rope is embellished with over painted highlights in pink, yellow, blue and green.

Three out of four pieces are broken and repaired with metal staples

Although these staples are not attractive to most people, they certainly do the trick in keeping the broken pieces intact

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5 Responses to ““Oriental” tea cups & saucers, c.1840”

  1. BB says:

    Question: How were the staples put on? Did they have special drills? Is glue also applied?

  2. Peter Francis says:

    Hi BB, like you I had no clear impression of how a 19th-century person with a damaged pot might have gone about getting their pots stapled, until I found in France an old postcard photograph showing two Parisian pavement “china menders”, busy drilling holes and applying rivets. This evening is the very first time I’ve discovered this wonderful website – I have a lifelong collection of Irish “Make Do’s”, but if I can ever work out how to upload a picture I’ll send you a good copy of the postcard.

  3. Joan Ewe says:

    Lovely. Wish you could still buy these handles at the store!
    A modern set I found but nowhere near as wabi sabi at:
    http://toildrop.com/2014/01/handle-with-care/

  4. Tommie McKee says:

    I just want to thank you for helping me identify the timeline of several cups and saucers that I have had packed away. They have all the same colors, but with a different chinoiserie pattern. The orange is “flowed” in the same way that some of the old blues did. Altogether delightful.

  5. Thanks for your comment. Glad I could help!

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