A rare and early Worcester coffee cup of ‘Scratch Cross’ type, circa 1753-54

Of plain shape with grooved loop handle, a ‘Smoky Primitive’ transfer print in black of ‘The Fortune Teller’, hand coloured in bright enamels.  The scene depicts a peasant woman with a baby on her back, reading the palm of a fashionable lady and her companion, a boy to the left, and a large house in the distance.

Height 6.4cm

Incised line to base

Condition:  very good, no chips, cracks or restoration. Very slight kiln speckling above the footrim.

See Bonhams, The Watney Collection, Part 1, 1999, p.94 for a discussion of early transfer printed cups.  Lots 179 and 180 in that catalogue are compared as they each have slightly different versions of the print.  Lot 180, which is an uncoloured version of the Worcester cup shown here for sale, is thought probably to have been engraved and printed in Birmingham, while lot 179 is more likely to have been printed slightly later in Worcester, and has additional detail including ducks on a pond near the boy.

For a similar coffee cup to that shown for sale here, see Bonhams, December 2020, where lot 168 from the Ralph Kenber Collection is described.  It is suggested there that although there are a small number of coffee cups with this print, they would appear to be left uncoloured save for the example shown in this Kenber Sale.  However, here is another example of these very rare cups.

£1,750