Antique Porcelain Tea Bowl & Saucer New Hall c. 1795 Boy in the Window #425

  
This is an amazing antique hard paste porcelain tea bowl and saucer set made by New Hall China Manufactory of Staffordshire England sometime around 1795, and probably not much later than 1800. This pattern, called "Boy in the Window", is also pattern #425 as documented in "New Hall and Its Imitators" by David Holgate, published 1971 and shown on plate 103 in that book. The cup of this set, is also called a tea bowl, because it was before it was the style was to put handles on the cups, as is done on our modern teacups.

Also, the saucer is very deep, almost a shallow bowl itself, which is deep enough for (too) hot tea to be poured in a cooled off, which was the custom then. This set is in amazing over 200 year old condition. The hand painting and shading of the scenery is lovely. Notice the detail of the faces and the far away buildings in the distance.

I have seen other sets in this pattern where this attention to detail is lacking. There is amazingly little wear to the pattern, even the red design on the bottom of the inside of the cup is excellent. I do see a bit of wear to the design around the inside edge of the cup on the red and black and some fading or wear in places, so please examine the pictures. Looking closely with a high lumen flashlight from both sides, I see no chips, cracks, crazing or hiding hairlines.

Background on Newhall is fascinating (at least for a porcelain nerd like myself). This secret to making hard paste porcelain was discovered, then patented in 1768 by William Cookworthy, a chemist, who also discovered sources of two important materials, china clay and china stone, in England. I had always wondered why the English made bone china, and this looks like the reason. Spode experimented and is credited for developing the formula for bone china around 1790. But New Hall was already way ahead at the hard paste porcelain factory, and got better and better at making their products.

However there were advantages to bone china, one that it was a whiter porcelain than hard paste, plus it required lower temperatures in the firing process, so it was lesss expensive to produce. Less coal to heat the kiln and less breakage because the temperature did not have to go as high. So sometime between 1812 and 1814, New Hall seamlessly switched over to making bone china like the rest of the potteries. Somewhere around pattern #1000 is where the switch for hard paste porcelain to bone china happened.

New Hall continued in business until 1835. This cup is 3 & 3/8 inches in diameter, stands 2 inches tall, and holds 1/2 cup. The saucer stands 1 & 1/8 inches tall and is 5 & 1/4 inches in diameter. The set weighs 7 ounces. Please zoom in on the pictures and see the 360 degree view for a closer look. Any questions, please ask, and thanks for looking!