Description
Heading : A Fine Worcester Porcelain Two-handled and Lidded Chocolate or Caudle Cup with Saucer
Date :1768-1776
Period : George III
Marks :Underglaze blue ‘Chinese square’. Albert Amor label
Origin :Worcester. England
Colour : Cobalt blue grounds. polychrome enamels and gilding
Pattern : Floral sprays on white reserves within highly elaborate gilt-scroll and open brocade type borders against overall reserves of deep cobalt
Features : The deep saucer. cup and cover all share commonly-shaped rims with five repeating pairs of curved lobes and a point. very like the outline of a classic ‘Tudor rose’; the bowl has Ridgway-like handles with an additional spur and substantial lower terminals; the cover has a flower-head finial with layered petals
Condition : Very minor gilt loss on the rim. Some cobalt blushing above the gilt ring just below the rim of the cup; a shallow. 6mm chip out of the flange of the lid and the tiniest of nibbles from one of the finial petals
Restoration :None
Dimensions : Height of cup 12.2 cm to top of finial. saucer 4.7 cm deep and 14.8 cm diameter
Weight : 461 grams
Reference : The Dictionary of Worcester Porcelain Volume One.1751-1851 (John Sandon. 1993) page 113
Sandon concludes that pieces of this nature were either caudle or chocolate cups. Both were hot. sweetened drinks with the former being more of a restorative tonic for invalids rather than a luxurious treat. In its original. ethnic South American form. drinking chocolate was bitter and enhanced with chilli.
It has long been mooted that anything with a contoured rim was not to be put to the mouth for fear of spillage. and that we should think about using a spoon. However. both Sevres and Meissen – from whom Worcester took a great deal of inspiration – produced ecuelles with both contoured and flat rims.
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