Category: Vintage Homeware
Gorgeous Gossamer
Sometimes you find china that’s just a little bit different to the usual florals and patterns and it’s lovely to have a few pieces that stand out from the crowd and make you smile when you see them. This delightful tea set by Royal Albert called “Gossamer” does just that! It was made around 1950 and has what’s known as “smooth shape” cups. There are 6 teacups, saucers and side plates in blue, green, grey, pink, yellow and orange with a larger serving plate, a sugar bowl and a milk jug. Strangely it seems that there was never a teapot made for the set (but please do let us know if you have one!) but through the 1960′s and 70′s the factory made another set called “Gossamer” in plain white which did have a coffee pot!
The coloured Gossamer pattern was also made right through the 60′s and 70′s but with a more sculpted shape (known as Lyric – shown below) and with a gilded pattern on the inside rim of the cups – (you can tell the difference in the dates – a brown/orange backstamp is from the 50′s and a black backstamp denotes china produced during the 60′s and 70′s.)
Started by Thomas Wild in around 1894 as a family business in Longton (one of the 6 towns that 
make up the famous Stoke-on-Trent “Potteries”), Royal Albert produced a huge number of different patterns and shapes of china but was always inspired by the English Country Garden and our national flower, the rose. Many of you may be familiar with the “Old Country Roses” pattern shown below. We have lots of this in our own collection and it’s always popular with our clients and works beautifully when mis-matched with other china.
(Many thanks to www.royalalbertpatterns.com for the photo below and for those of the backstamps and the Lyric design).
Pot to the Kettle Never Kettle to the Pot!
We’ve shared this wonderful vintage You Tube video before but it’s so much fun we felt we just had to share it all over again – it’s guaranteed to cheer you up when it’s raining constantly and the wind seems to be doing it’s level best to level everything! It’s a gorgeous peice of social history – check out the hair styles, the furniture and the absolutely HUGE teapot – and we completely adore the Tea Instructor – one of the scariest men ever – those eyebrows and he never blinks – never!! We think the 6 steps to making a proper cup of tea should be laid down in law and tea should always be sold in the biggest tea chest you can carry by people with the most glorious 1940′s cut glass accents – it would be so much more fun than trying to find a decent tea at the local supermarket. And please – if you learn nothing else from watching this little video do ALWAYS remember – take the pot to the kettle NEVER the kettle to the pot – Gran would be proud!