Chintzware is having a huge resurgence in popularity just as it did in the very late 1990’s and into the 2000’s. Hugely popular when chintzware first was produced in English potteries from the late 19th century into the early 1900’s through the 1940’s, chintz became popular all over again. I had already found a few chintz transferware pieces while out visiting antiques malls with my friends in California, so I too was swept along in the craze…
Do you remember an issue of Victoria Magazine’s back in the 1990’s sharing Rob Lowe’s former wife’s chintz collection?? She had an enormous collection of chintzware that I would drool over and it has been a favorite of mine to collect ever since…
This sweet teacup set I ordered online from a lady in Washington and it is a
Royal Albert Crown China piece from around the 1920’s or 1930’s. The name of this pattern isn’t stamped on the back like other potteries did back then (denoting that it is an early piece from possibly even before 1901, the year potteries were required to begin production stamps per country).
My guess is it is a version of “Summertime” originally produced by Royal Winton and it came in different background colour-ways.
When English chintzware was first offered by the potteries located in the Stoke-on-Trent area north of London, the demand for all things chintz absolutely skyrocketed across the United Kingdom, the Continent, Australia and especially here in America! Transferware had been around for about 60 years at that point but these all-over floral china pieces were something entirely new and fresh.
Here is a photograph I took at our last home sharing our corner-round display cupboard. It held curios when I first bought this piece but later it became a china cabinet of sorts holding teacups and other china, which it has held now for years!
And here is a look at this teacup curio now here in Texas…
A tall stack of teacups with three chintz teacups in view
Top left – an unmarked teacup (possibly Eastern European or from Japan, 1950’s) with pink roses and vines which is part of a luncheon set including a cup and scallop-shaped sandwich plate with indent to hold the cup. These luncheon sets were popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s for serving guests at home and at events. Often these luncheon sets are found in more of a clear or colored carnival glass rather than chintzware like this one is.
Back bottom – Royal Winton’s reproduction of its original “Welbeck” tableware which is so pretty with its yellow background, sprigs of realistic dark pink roses, blue forget-me-nots with pink tulips and yellow daffodils.
This set was produced in 1995 when chintzware had its second wave of popularity (due in large part to Victoria’s chintz publications). Still a favorite and yes! you can drink out of these as long as their are no interior cracks in the glaze.
🙂
Top right front – Royal Albert’s Old Country Roses 1999 teacup and saucer with gilding on the teacup’s handle, rim and footed bottom as well as along the saucer’s rim.
Here is the luncheon plate leaning against the curio cupboard’s back glass. My best friend Janet gave me this set back in the early 2000’s for my birthday. She found it an an antique mall in Roseville, California.
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| Decorate Your Coffee Table for Fall |
Here I’ve paired Royal Winton’s “Welbeck” teapot with three other transferware decorated styles for a late summer-early fall look. “Welbeck” is the yellow background version of “Summertime,” the same floral chintz on a creamy white background.
This Arthur Wood and Son modern teapot was a gift from the ladies in my tea group from the Victorian Tea Society in California after we moved into our last home. I practically killed myself painting that long living room wall a blue-green (photo below), unpacking every box downstairs, and then hosting a tea just three weeks after we moved into the Big House in the spring of 2004. (Which meant cleaning the downstairs like a mad woman before the tea!). Good thing I was young then!
😉
I love that the ladies thought to bring me this modern chintz teapot on its bright cheery pale aqua background as a house-warming gift!
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| I do miss the size of this living/dining room! We swapped the two once and it was sooo cozy for winter. Loved the blue-green of this wall!! |
It was in use at a peacock tea I had 10 years later when I first started my blog in 2014 (I know this as my phone and instamatic cameras never took photographs this clear! Plus I had painted these chairs by then.).
The tablecloth I found in England in 2005 when I went to visit my brother and his family there. Linnea and I would leave the kids home and go thrift-shopping around Sawtry, where they lived, and to antiques stores for a couple of hours. The kids just wanted to stay and play and were plenty old enough to be on their own then. This was one of the pretties I brought home from that trip.
Here in this home chintzware is having another heyday and afternoon sunlight just brings out each piece’s beauty even more!
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| A study in b & w. |
~ Sparkle!!! ~
One of my other sisters-in-law Kim bought this dark pink chintz one-cup pour-over for me for Christmas one year. Perfect for carrying on a small tray to take tea into another room in the house or out-of-doors, it is a fun functional piece!
Anyone for tea?
🙂
Here is the “Summertime” teapot by House of Claridge. In the 1990’s, Gail Claridge created The House of Claridge and asked Royal Winton to reproduce their vintage chintzware prints in new china styles that she designed.
Did you spot the oops?
I joined an online email chat group from England back then which produced a newsletter for chintzware lovers. Emailing members and learning about the history of different and rare pieces of chintzware, transferware in general and just reading those newsletters was a lot of fun!
Any shares would be most appreciated!
🙂
If you’d like to check out some of my other posts on china patterns and the like, you might like these here and here.
One of my earliest tea posts written five years ago sharing about meeting the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson at Macy’s and the teaset and tray my husband gifted me for Mother’s Day that year.
Glad you stopped by,
Barb 🙂