Rare Silver Overlay Mountain Scene Poly Brown Transferware Cup & Saucer Pastoral Jenny Lind

$49.99

Brand AJ Wilkinson

VERY Rare Silver Overlay Teacup & Saucer

BROWN POLYCHROME TRANSFER WARE CUP AND SAUCER

Royal Staffordshire Jenny Lind by AJ Wilkinson / Clarice Cliff Dinnerware

For consideration is this scenic cup and saucer from Royal Staffordshire in the Jenny Lind pattern.  The pattern depicts people in Victorian dress looking through a telescope towards the mountains.  

The brown transfer is hand painted in shades of green, gold, blue and burgundy, all under glaze so it is permanent. There is a silver overlay design around the inner rim/wall of the piece and around the scene itself. The glaze has a greenish hue. These are VERY RARE and hard to find! They are a wonderful, wonderful addition to any transferware collector, but especially to those of you who collect this pattern. I seldom come across the pieces with the silver overlay. 

Condition is excellent.  No chips or cracks, mild crazing in the glaze.  Appears to have not been used.

A.J. Wilkinson (Arthur J. Wilkinson, Royal Staffordshire Pottery) was a pottery or potbank at Newport in Burslem, owned by the Shorter family since 1894. A sprawling complex of bottle ovens, kilns and production shops, it lay beside the Trent and Mersey Canal, the artery which provided it with coal and the raw materials for earthenware. In its heyday it employed 400 manual workers.

The pottery had formerly been operated in turn by Hopkin & Vernon, Hulme & Booth, Thomas Hulme, Burgess & Leigh, and Richard Alcock, who enlarged the works extensively. On Alcock's death in 1881, the owners became Wilkinson & Hulme and in 1885 to Arthur J. Wilkinson.

The works at first produced earthenware for the home market, but later operations concentrated on white graniteware for the United States. Wilkinson introduced gold lustre on graniteware so was one of the first to introduce this overlay type pottery with metals.  In about 1896 A. J. Wilkinson took over the Royal Staffordshire Pottery in Burslem.

The pottery was managed by Colley Shorter, an affluent Victorian and his brother Guy. Colley, whose full name was Arthur Colley Austin Shorter (1882-1963).  He moved in exclusive circles and had a taste for antiques and fine furnishings. His second wife was the famed ceramic designer Clarice Cliff.

In 1920 Business had expanded so much, that the firm of A.J. Wilkinson was able to take over another neighbouring pottery which came to be known as the Newport Pottery Co.

In 1964 The factory was sold to Midwinter.

*last 3 photos show some of the other pieces I have with the silver overlay and green hued glaze