tankard
- Museum number
- 1921,1215.46.CR
- Description
-
Tankard; porcelain; cylindrical; shaped claret border; fruit and flowers, gilt decoration of flowers etc near the rim; initial letter; Hope Edwards Service. The surface shows signs of having been abraded with acid and the decoration has been added during the 19th century.
- Dimensions
-
Height: 5.50 inches
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
-
Was in the Frank Lloyd coll. before 1910
-
A. Dawson in Jones 1990
Redecorated Worcester mug
The decoration of this piece, with its extensive area left white and especially the initial E, is highly unusual. It has appeared in at least one publication as an important example from the Worcester porcelain factory, supposedly as part of the Hope Edwards Service. However, the surface has been abraded, an effect visible to the naked eye on close inspection, indicating that the original decoration has been removed, probably using hydrofluoric acid, and replaced with a more desirable scheme.
For well over a century there has been a collectors' market for Worcester porcelains. The existence of a large number of redecorated pieces is acknowledged. As this mug entered the British Museum in 1921, it was probably 'improved' in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
Literature: R. L. Hobson, Worcester Porcelain, London 1910, p. 90, pl. LIX, 5; R. L. Hobson, Catalogue of the Frank Lloyd Collection of Worcester Porcelain, London 1923, no. 166.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1921
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1921,1215.46.CR
