C1820 Ridgway Tea Service: Teapot Cups Saucers in Pattern 2 Over 187 Antique British Porcelain

Here is a splendid set that displays boldly the glorious skills of the early nineteenth century decorators of British porcelain. The deep cobalt blue ground color is set off by large white reserves painted with colorful flower bouquets, with sumptuous gilded accents on the blue ground and surrounding the bouquets, as well as accenting nearly every available white area of the porcelain. It makes a great impression on the shelf of the china cabinet. This set includes the teapot, sugar bowl, rinsing bowl, nine cups and seven saucers.

Angela Grant’s very useful website “Ridgway Pattern Books” provides more information. This set was made by the firm of John and William Ridgway at the Cauldon Place Works. This particular pattern was introduced right around 1815 and she refers to these shapes as Ridgway’s "Grecian shapes" for tea services. I would date the set at around 1815 to 1825. I’m sure it stayed popular for some years.

But that description doesn’t hold true for the teapot. It is an exact match, but it is a replacement made in the 20th century by Royal Crown Derby. The teapot is made from a different porcelain body and is marked as shown with their red mark for 1931. All the other pieces, when marked, have the very early Ridgway pattern mark 2/187. It appears that the owner of the set asked RCD to create a teapot to replace the original one, which had probably been broken. The workers at RCD did a masterful job. Looking at the set, it’s impossible to tell from the decoration that the teapot was added later. In the last photo is the c1820 sugar alongside the 1931 teapot. You can't tell them apart.

The teapot is ten inches long and the only piece of the set that has any chips or damage—just a small repaired chip under the tip of the spout (shown) and a section missing from the interior flange. The large bowl shows some gilding wear on the upper edge. Several saucers have slight wear to the gilding, and the handles of some cups have gilding wear, mostly from being stacked on top of one another. The photos will show you the extraordinarily fine condition of this set, and we hope you enjoy looking and admiring even if you don’t purchase this set for your collection.

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