A lovely demitasse cup and saucer set made by Coalport, England as part of their Kings Ware line in the Canton pattern. We originally had 4 cup & saucer sets in this listing but have only one of these left. You will also see separately listed for sale another cup and saucer set (listed separately due to a tiny bit of damage to this set) and an extra single demitasse cup (with no matching saucer). All of these pieces came out of the same home of a relative, who had received them years ago from another relative. All pieces are marked on the underside bases with the Coalport Porcelain Works crown and the words, "Coalport, England, A.D. 1750., Kings Ware, Canton." Based on this mark, these pieces were made between about 1891 and 1920. The Coalport Company, which is in Shropshire, England, is now part of the Wedgwood Group of china manufacture.

While referred to as china, these pieces are not porcelain as they are not translucent. They are pottery pieces or may be what is referred to as soft paste pieces, we are not sure. The base pottery color is white, appearing a bit off-white rather than a bright white. They have a lovely intricate black line pattern with hand-painted multi-colored highlights in red, green, blue and yellow and a hand-painted light brown line trim on the outer edge of the saucer and on the top rim and handle of the cup. The design interweaves flowers and leaves with a geometric motif including a Japanese pagoda-style building. This oriental-reminiscent style is often seen on these Victorian ceramic pieces, which are also referred to as transferware and Aesthetic Movement pieces. The transferware relates to the transferring of the intricate designs (the black line design here) onto the base china/ceramic pieces via a series of dots as one would do in printing, rather than hand-painting the full design. On the underside base of each piece there are some letters and numbers painted in a single color which would indicate to the manufacturer the individual who later applied the hand colored details.

Each antique cup and saucer sits about 2 1/2 inches in height. The round saucers flare upwards slightly from a smaller round base, with a top diameter of 4 inches and an underside base diameter of about 1 1/2 inches. The cup itself is about 2 inches in height, is straight-sided with a top opening diameter slightly wider than the base at 2 inches for the top and 1 7/8 inches for the base. Greatest width from the outside of the curved handle to the opposite side is about 2 3/4 inches. We have provided 8 images to show from all sides, cup and saucer separately, and close-up of the mark. Please note that the white "hot spots" are lighting reflections from the camera on the glossy surfaces. This lighting also "blands" out the colors a bit, making the base china appear a brighter white than it is in person and the colored highlighting less bold and dramatic than it is in person. These pieces look more lovely in person than we could show with our camera.

While showing images of just one of the original four cup and saucer sets, all are in similar lovely overall condition. These pieces all have crazing, with the amount of crazing varying. The cups generally show more crazing than the saucers. There are no major chips or cracks. On the saucers we do see one or a few very tiny rim flakes, but nothing major. All of the saucers seem to have a small round spot on the underside to which the top glazing layer has not adhered. Our guess is that this may be where the piece was held by some implement when the glazing was applied, leaving this area unglazed and looking whiteish (you can see this in one image, this is not a chip). There are stray black dots, some black smearing from the transfer process, some incomplete or worn transfer areas, etc., with this seen more on the cups than the saucers, with some of this visible on the interior bottom of the cup which must have been a difficult place for applying the transfer (there is an intricate pagoda building on the interior bottom of each cup). There are some stray small scratches and some design/painting wear on the pieces, but nothing bad. These pieces are in remarkably good shape for their age.

A neat addition to any collection of Victorian ceramics or Aesthetic Movement pieces, a collection of Coalport china or demitasse cups and saucers in general, or a collection of this exquisite Canton pattern.