Manufacturer: Bawo & Dotter, Elite China
Lovely ornate vintage or antique double handled cup and saucer or bouillon cup & saucer made by Bawo & Dotter with their Elite Limoges China mark in France.
The Elite green white ware mark appears on the underside base of both pieces, showing "ELITE" underlined, then a capital "L" and "FRANCE" beneath this. The capital "L' is very faint on both pieces, but you can tell this was meant. This mark was used by Bawo & Dotter for Elite china after 1900. The pieces both also show a red decorating mark, three fleur-de-lis symbols with "LIMOGES, FRANCE" beneath. While our research did not turn up this exact mark, Elite china was known to use a red decorating mark which incorporated three fleur-de-lis symbols within a shield from the late 1800's into the early 1930's. Based on this we think this red mark could be a variation of that, and would guess the decorations on these pieces were also done under Elite china, but can't promise that. However, it seems reasonable that these are minimally vintage pieces, and possibly an antique china cup & saucer set, made ca. the first third of the 1900's.
White base porcelain (these pieces are translucent) or bone china. These are both decorated with swags or curves of very pretty small pink roses interspersed with their green leaves (occasionally there is also a spot or tint of yellow on some of the roses, this is repetitive on these pieces so we know it was intentional but is very light, this yellow is much more visible in the zoom magnification of the images than you will see in person). The decor is on the saucer, exterior of the cup and two opposing interior sides of the cup near the upper rim. There are two upwardly curved handles on the other two sides of the cup. When made there was molded into the porcelain a raised dot beading around the top edge of the saucer and the lower outer base of the cup. The saucer outer edge is scalloped. There is gold line trim on the outer rim of the saucer (in some spots this gold was applied larger/more, perhaps this is a painting error or smearing), top smooth rim of the cup and on the handles. All decoration except the gold trim appears to be transfer designs.
Saucer has a slightly lowered or indented section in the middle for seating the cup, with molded lines in the porcelain extending upward from this on the sides in a ray fashion. Saucer measures about 5 3/4 inches diameter and sits about 7/8 inch in height. The round cup also has these molded line ray sides (noticeable more from the exterior of the cup than the interior) before meeting the narrower base. Top opening diameter of the cup is about 3 3/4 inches with a total width to the outside of the handles of about 5 1/4 inches. The cup sits about 2 inches total height. The two pieces together sit about 2 3/8 inches total height.
We've provided 8 images to show from varied angles & close-ups, including one of the mark, with one image shot both with and without the camera lighting. The camera light creates white "hot spot" reflections and slightly changes the pink color to the roses. The image without the light is a closer representation of the pink color which you will see in person, it is a slightly richer pink color than the lighted images show. Please use the zoom feature to examine closely. Together these two vintage pieces weigh about 7 1/2 ounces unpacked.
Very nice overall antique condition with no large flaws, but these pieces do show some age and age wear. There is no crazing, cracks, major scratches (we are not seeing any scratches, but it is likely there are some small ones just from cleaning over the years). While no large chips, we can see some very tiny chips on the underside base rim of the saucer on which the piece sits, nothing to worry about. There is gold trim wear, a little bit visible along the outer edge of the saucer, with the top rim of the cup showing more wear throughout but still mainly there. The gold trim on the cup handles is occasional, not an all-over gold, and while we can see gold paint wear here, we don't think these were originally all-over gold (these do still have an attractive look). Overall we would guess the gold on these two pieces is still 80-85% still there, but you can see there is gold wear. We can see some circular spots on the roses decor and some places on the green leaves which are either incomplete original transfers or some age wear, but the roses & leaves overall still look very good and are definitely overwhelmingly there. There are some pit/pin dots and raised dots in the porcelain on these pieces as made, some dark pin dots, some stray transfer dots, a few light spots, and perhaps other minor age wear.
There are also two small lines on the underside of the saucer near the base it sits on that form two sides of a small triangle, but there is glazing over these so we know they were made in manufacture but not sure why (these are not cracks but impressed lines, perhaps a mold flaw). There is a similar one small impressed line on the underside base of the cup, also glazed over.
Very pretty older Limoges cup & saucer set which would be eye-catching on display and a great addition to any collection of cups & saucers, bouillon cups & saucers in specific, or Limoges china in general.
Please Note: If you are interested in more than one cup & saucer or other items, please contact us before inputting the order. We'd be pleased to combine multiple items for shipment in one box, if possible, to save you on postage. The system won't automatically combine shipping, and will quote as if each item is shipped separately. We would be happy to provide the combined shipping costs for you. |