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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ca wood, post: 192055, member: 3523&quot;]Thank you all for your interest in my post and for your help. the curator from Coalport China has responded via email and I thought you may be interested in her opinion.</p><p>&quot;I am not surprised you have struggled to identify this cup and saucer, as for one thing, the design is unfinished, for the other, the saucer is not the right one for that cup! They have been put together later.</p><p><br /></p><p>The design on both is Indian Tree, probably Coalport’s most prolific standard design. It began in the early 1800’s, when it was not technically possible to print a multicoloured pattern. Many factories including Coalport got round this by printing an outline pattern using traditional copper plate engraving and printing on to tissue paper. The inked tissue&nbsp; was applied to the fired china and then washed off, leaving the outline. The china was glazed and re fired to seal the outline under a coat of shiny transparent glass. This is, of course, the stage your cup and saucer have reached.</p><p><br /></p><p>The next step would be to start filling in colours on the design, each colour fired at a different temperature so the hottest firing colour, blue, would be applied to hundreds of items, then go for firing. Next the green would be applied, and so on. The painting was done by young girl apprentices, called paintresses. This meant that a very decorative effect could be achieved more cheaply than a totally hand painted design by a skilled artist.</p><p><br /></p><p>The cup should have a larger and plain edged saucer, from the backstamp it dates from between 1891 and 1921.</p><p><br /></p><p>The saucer looks more like a little pin dish, as it doesn’t seem to have a well for a saucer. From the backstamp it will date around 1900. Coalport decorated several different styles of china with Indian tree patterns, the pin dish is what is described as the Antique shape.</p><p><br /></p><p>I will send some pictures separately to illustrate these.</p><p><br /></p><p>I hope this is interesting, and I wonder when the cup and dish were put together – it could have been a long time ago&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks again for all your input. I shall have to work out what to do with it now[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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