Warming Up to Winter with Olde Avesbury

The weather in our part of the world has been so benign, so magnificent, for so long that the onset of Winter which surprises us now in mid-January comes as a big-fat shock. Looking at the leaden sky, we wonder when it will be sunny and warm again (weather pundits say at least a week, egad)... so to brighten the day and take our minds off of the impending storms, we dove into the teaware cabinet and brought out this warmly colorful cup and saucer: Royal Crown Derby's unabashedly over-the-top Olde Avesbury. Such a riot of color and pattern! What do you suppose was the impetus, in Stoke-on-Trent of 1932, for this unbridled outburst of hue and rhythm? The good folks of RCD say that it was an embroidery that was the inspiration for the design (which, by the way, is sometimes referred to as Olde Aves). Well gosh, if looking at fine needlework can bring them to such heights of passion... that's pretty impressive. Still more impressive is the fact that they still produce this pattern.

Over a reddish-brown transfer design, an abundance of pine green and chocolate brown enamels have been slathered to highlight the vegetation; more delicate applications of reds-to-purples, even a dash of blue, bring out the various birds in the design, which include pheasants ("cockatrices"), parrot-like birds, even a tiny robin or wren. Wisteria and roses add to the fabulousness of the scenes... sigh.

Trixie and I are playing that favorite of Tea Person's games, What to Serve on This Dish -- I just love to play this! Though dear Trix, resident Tea Maiden and ruler of the hearth, usually holds sway when it comes down to actually cooking the stuff.

No other pottery has made anything quite like Olde Avesbury... though there are other patterns that fall into this exhuberantly-avian category, such as Minton(s) Pink Cockatrice, or Asiatic Pheasants by Burleigh.

Back to RCD for a moment, since we are entering HM Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee year: if you click through this link you can see what RCD is offering in the way of collectibles for the occasion, which we think are mighty fine, possibly the best commemoratives out there. {If you are lucky enough to acquire any such baubles, would you let us feature them, here, on our weblog? Gratitude in profusion will pour forth...}

Bundling ourselves against the cold and rain (and rain and rain, and more rain still), Trix and I send our very warmest New Year greetings and best wishes for all of your 2012 teatimes,
xo, Dustin

Festivus Continues!

Clear and cold the day dawned today in our region, with plentiful frost below and a magnificent sky above -- a very nice beginning to this Festivus Day! We just passed the Solstice, then it was on to Hanukkah, Christmas, the advent of Kwanzaa, and it's nearly Tet and our Gregorian New Year... golly whose festival have I missed? Please do not take offense if I skipped mentioning your favorite celebration -- it's just that there are so many holidays on the books right now that even I, Tea Maven to the Stars, get muddled. Happy Everything, Everybody!! Much love, and tea, and excellent health and cozy abundance to you all.

Trixie set me up a swell Festivus breakfast tray today, as you can see in the pics at left... clementines, Friend-made cookies, and sweets of many kinds, ooh la la! And she found me this groovy antique cup and saucer set by Copeland Spode, in the much-loved India Tree {Rust} pattern, which I am so honored to accept as a present today. India Tree comes in a wealth of variations and has been made by oodles of potteries -- originally by Coalport -- so many that it can stagger even a venerable tea maven... but this set is Copeland Spode and of very fine quality, so I am feeling very pampered and adored by Trix today. Thank you to the always-treating tea maiden!

Most India Tree (also called Indian Tree or Tree of India by other potteries) has a black transfer base design with multicolored enamels hand-painted thereon... this also has a black transfer base decoration, but with a palette of hand-painted vermillion, deep red, and tan luster enamels to fill in the pattern. Cup and saucer are both edged in the deep red enamel, and the effect suggests an Indian Paisley, rather than the more Chinese-looking multicolor version (you might sense and describe it very differently, but this is how it strikes me, dear ones).

Because today is Christmas Day, it seemed right and good to splash out the reds! Red denotes auspicious beginnings in some cultures, and we like that a lot, besides it adds another layer to the meaning of the cup and saucer today. Layer it on, people! That's what tea time is all about, say we.

I'm not altogether sure the saucer and cup are from the same set -- the well of the saucer indicates a different cup, the shape with a wider diameter and a squat circular pedestal foot, whereas this cup is smaller and has no foot* -- either way, tea tastes great from it and both pieces cheer me immensely (another thing that tea time is all about!). I just love the tan luster enamel, it catches and amplifies the light so subtly and warmly... they thought of everything, those Stoke-on-Trent potters.

Did you know that on our Facebook page you can not only post comments (which we LOVE), but you can, if you wish, post photographs? Absolutely. Trix and I really want to know what you get up to when drinking tea, so please consider sharing pics with us when the mood strikes you.

Raising my lovely new-to-me cup in your honor today, lovelies, and wishing you every good thing today and always,
xo, Dustin {with a wave from Trixie}

* additional research shows me that multiple cup shapes/sizes were matched with the same saucer. Hmm.

Luck of the Draw

Some time back, we found an absolutely beautiful large creamer or small sauce boat (you get to decide which it is... we use it for cream, sauce, even the occasional posy!), all hand painted with bouquets of flowers along the red-orange-purple continuum. To spare you scrolling through the archives, a picture of the bulbous beauty can be seen at the bottom of this post. Why mention it today? Because we have been very, very lucky and stumbled over a cup and saucer set in the very same pattern -- the name of which we have yet to ascertain -- whose images you can see splashed along the left side of these words.

These handsome pieces were made by Grosvenor, at that time part of Jackson & Gosling Ltd, in the middle of the 20th Century for a company called Sheraton Designs. The cup size is generous, with a wide-open bowl and an elegant tall foot. The saucer curves upward, suggesting old-fashioned saucers, which were bowl-like and used for actually drinking tea from, rather than just being supports for the cups. Although painted with fine brushes and ringed with delicate images, these are sturdy pieces that we are confident to hold and use.

If you recall when we told you about our Grosvenor-Copeland(s) "Craigavon" set (about a hundred-thousand years ago), it may mean something when we say that these are the exact same shapes -- same potteries, same molds, same delicacy and accuracy of decorating skill... definitely swoon-worthy.

Prices vary widely around the vintage marketplace for Grosvenor/Sheraton/Copeland(s) items, as some vendors know they are the best quality and charge accordingly, while others don't seem to recognize the names and underprice to our advantage. The avid teaware hunter with the luck of the draw is amply rewarded!

We shall certainly let you know when we finally find out the name of this pattern and Sheraton Designs itself... in the meanwhile you can find us drinking tea, pouring sauce, looking at posies, and otherwise entertaining ourselves in the company of these pretty pieces.

May your Festivus celebrations continue with joy and abandon! Blowing you tea-stained kisses {Trixie adding her enthusiastic wave from behind my shoulder},
xo, Dustin

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like... Festivus!!

Isn't it just? Everywhere we turn, it's Holiday, Holiday, Holiday, so why not get into the swim? thought we... consider us well and truly swimming. Our lovely friends help immensely by baking seasonal cookies {see pictures}; our job is to select coordinating teaware with which to honor their sweet labors. Oh and then to eat the cookies.

I hope that we selected well today: what you see here is a cup and saucer set by Royal Worcester and a cake plate by Mintons. Regular readers of our weblog know that these venerable ceramics houses send (or sent) their goods forth from the Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent, the industrial heart of England. When these items were made, armies of craftspeople sat at benches all the day long, tiny brushes in hand, carefully dabbing enamel glazes onto transferware pieces with alarming precision.

To look at them now, in our era of machine production, is to look back to a time of intense human effort and focus, a time of reverence for quality and craft. Those days were by no means easy or simple, and the people who made these items could hardly afford to own them (the 99% and the 1% struggled even then!), but the labor of individuals was of value, and people who had things did tend to take good care of them and not toss them away every year.

Are we better people because we seem to have embraced some acceptance of impermanence of material goods? Were those who went before us better because they revered the products of human manufacture? Yes, no, maybe... chewy stuff to think about while drinking beautiful tea (itself a product -- then as now -- of amazing human manufacture!) and admiring teaware such as this.

I can tell you this much: I am prepared to accept the impermanence of the cookies on the plate... for they are already being happily, gratefully digested by Trixie and myself, along with cupsful of a soothing infusion of New Vithanakande Estate FBOPF-Ex Silvertip "Spider Leg" (our beloved V-Tea Spider!). Home-baked cookies deserve no less.

Blowing you tea-stained kisses, and sending fervent wishes for Festivus happiness your way,
xo, Dustin

Dustin comes home and plays with the computer again

Hi kids, how I have missed you! While Trixie has been entertaining you on Facebook and such, I have been traveling the globe in my capacity as Tea Maven to the Stars... and while I cannot divulge exactly which stars to whom I have been mavening, rest assured that your faithful Dustin has indeed been well and truly star-struck at times (never spilling one single drop of tea, however).

Always glad to be back with you, though, and thank you for being here! Gosh. Today Trix is letting me play with the design tools on the computer again -- something she knows that I need to practice if I am to take my mavening to the next level. Today's play includes pictures of our pretty dishes and fabrics (big surprise!), because we agreed, T-gal and I, that if one is going to learn new things, one ought to ease into it by working with familiar touchstones... or something. Ain't we lucky that we can count pieces of hand-painted Spode and Royal Stafford among our "familiars"?! Yes, I think so too.

These images are the first in a set I call "The Darjeeling Limited," so named in a nod to a film I like very much, and, of course, to the tea it invokes. Sort of a Raj-tastic theme going on... Ooh-La-Raj! More to come. Okay.

Blowing you such a backlog of tea-stained kisses on this blustery November day,
xoxo, Dustin

Ecco the Equinox

Have we arrived at Autumn? Goodness, how the seasons pass. The light, the light... it is magnificent, it makes everything and everyone looks so beautiful! Quite a delight to get the picture-taking-devices and step outside and Compose... It may well be that, in Spring, a youngster's fancy turns to Luv; but in Autumn the kid prefers Texture -- in sights, in sounds, and in flavors. Thank Providence, then, for the amazing variety of teas from which the kid (or we) can select infusions with all kinds of Texture.

When we talk about Texture in a tea's liquor (the liquid infusion), people sometimes call the feeling you get when you drink it mouthfeel... but I have to tell you that such a term makes me think that someone is about to stick their fingers in my mouth (a sensation I would not like); better, says Dustin, to call it texture, and to pay attention to it and learn to discern the different textures of different infusions when you drink them. It is a fun and rewarding pursuit.

Another term for the way a tea's liquor feels in your mouth is body. That, we think, is a very nice term... body and texture are not exactly the same thing, but close enough for government work so you can use one instead of the other if you prefer. The point here is to become aware of what goes into your mouth via teacup, and to take note of your preferences. Happiness in life boils down to being able to reproduce pleasurable responses (it's true! Science has proved it) -- and who doesn't want to be happy?

Much discussion can be heard about a tea's ability to "stand up to milk." This is actually a reference to a tea's body, the intensity of the infusion... an infusion with a higher percentage of dissolved tea solids (vs. water) will have a stronger body; whereas an infusion with a lower percentage of dissolved tea solids (vs. water) will have a lighter body, and will, according to common wisdom, NOT "stand up to milk." That being said, if you like a light-bodied infusion even with milk, you just go ahead and enjoy it, because it's going into your mouth and you ought to like what you put in there. {On the issue of "milk in first" or "milk in last" I shall keep mum, and in so doing avoid the inevitable scuffle.}

If you like a light texture or body in tea, you might really enjoy white teas and many herbal tisanes. If you like a medium-bodied tea, some Ceylons (from Sri Lanka), lighter Oolongs from Taiwan and China, Nilgiris or Second-flush Darjeelings from India, or not-quite-fully oxidised black teas from Nepal might fill your mouth with joy. For an unmistakable mouthful of body and texture, nothing beats darker Oolongs, or fully-oxidised teas from Yunnan and Keemun (Qimen), China, or the heartiest of the hearty -- black teas from Assam, India. There are thousands of teas, from dozens of countries (isn't that amazing?), so what I have mentioned is just the smallest smattering of the merest hint of the tiniest scratch of the surface of the tea pantheon.

Of course (you knew there would be an "of course," didn't you?) if you do naughty things like smoke, or drink lots of strong coffee, or eat enormous quantities of hot peppers daily, your mouth will simply not register many of tea's nuances... in which case you must chart your own tea-texture course, and I wish you well! If, on the other hand, your palate retains an average amount of sensitivity or better, what fun you will have tasting teas while concentrating on texture and body.

I haven't mentioned scented teas until now -- indeed, there are scented teas of lighter and heavier body/texture; but if you want to get accustomed to how your mouth registers tea textures without the distraction of added scents (nose and mouth being so closely connected), please do some texture-testing with unscented and unflavored teas for a while, before moving on to scented ones. That's Dustin's recommendation, not a dictum...

I'm off to find Trixie so that we can share a pot of glorious, full-bodied, tantalizingly-textured high-end Golden Yunnan, and wish you each and all a very Happy Autumn, with piles of pretty leaves, apples and pears and figs galore, and as many vessels of tea as your heart desires, all shared with people you love (so you must love yourself if you are going to drink alone),
xo, Dustin

Creating a Stir: spoons for tea {part one of several}

It's not all bone china and porcelain around here, no sirree -- if that were the case, we would have to stir the moo into our tea with our delicate fingers, which (if the tea is hot enough) would be painful, so fuggeddaboutit! Besides, any chance to lug out the silver chests and choose from among Trixie's treasures is a chance worth taking, so let's...

At left is a pair of unrelated, yet equally attractive, small spoons -- one silverplate (the shinier one), the other sterling silver (with twisted handle). Spoons of this size (shorter than 5 inches) are often called demitasse or coffee spoons, since the moniker teaspoon has already been taken by our standard place-setting spoon.

The silverplate spoon is in the Cardinal pattern, which was patented by Rogers and Hamilton in 1887. It has a leafy scroll on the handle, and a column of embossed ovals on the neck which are bookended by small crown-like flourishes. It's a very neat late-Victorian pattern, one that is definitely looking ahead to the Twentieth Century.

The sterling spoon, on the other hand, shows the maker's hand -- on the back of the neck is a mark "ATK 830.5" -- 830.5 giving us a clue that this is older Scandinavian sterling (American sterling almost always bears the number 925, or the word "Sterling," or both). I haven't been able to find out anything about the maker of this spoon yet, but it sure is fun to stir my tea while searching... Take a peek at the bottom image, which shows the back of the spoon handle-tip where the owner (or a pal) hand-pricked initials with what appears to have been a needle... I believe the letters are "G. S." Well, dear G.S., thank you for taking such good care of your twist-handle spoon, because I really enjoy using it in the Twenty-First Century... By the way, a twisted handle gives added strength, besides looking really, really awesome.

A tip to those who love silvery, shiny objects but may be new to scouting: a silverplate piece will weigh more than a sterling piece of the same size, because the base metals -- the blended metals onto which the silver coating is "plated" -- are heavier than pure silver. Vintage sterling often has a duller finish, or almost a "blush" on the finish, vs. new or very good-condition silverplate which has a truly white-silver shine -- this is because sterling is softer, and gets a lovely patina of small scratches which create a hazy glow (ooh!).

Care instructions -- you know Dustin! -- please HAND WASH always, especially older pieces. Wash in gentle suds and towel dry right away. A couple of other tips: do not leave silverplate pieces in SALT or ACID for very long, as the plating can corrode; and use your silverware because loved silver is happy, shiny silver.

Sterling can be quite expensive (price is often calculated by a combination of metal weight plus the intricacy of the piece/fame of the maker), but silverplate usually runs cheap because  a) people don't like what they can't throw into the dishawasher, and  b) badly-worn silverplate is all too common, with base metal showing through, particularly on the backs of spoons and on fork times.

You know what I would love? I would really be jazzed if you would take a picture of your favorite spoon-for-tea and post it on our Facebook page! Yes, please. And if you do, Trix and I shall send you a teeny, tiny present. Absolutely.

Until soon -- blowing you a tea-stained kiss,
xo, Dustin

Second Saturday Sipping Salon: A Couple of Cups

Today I feel like sharing pictures not of ONE teacup set but of TWO -- in part to emphasize how grateful both Trix and I are for the tea-stained camaraderie you bring here, and in part because you may not have seen at least one of these sets before, in which case I hope you will enjoy the chance to see something delightful and new.

Sometimes it's nice to sit in solitary reverie with one cup, one head of thoughts, perhaps one handicraft to occupy the hands when not drinking from the cup... and sometimes it feels ever so much nicer to lay a second place at the tea table, or on the picnic blanket, or next to you on the famous monument steps... just to know that you are not alone in your lifelong quest for Great Tea Experiences... Who says both sets must be the same? A multi-place table setting with matching dishes does indeed have an elegance, an organization about it that can't be beat; if, however, your taste takes you to the realm of qurikdom now and then, come along and mix it up with the best of 'em.

Today's examples are by two of the most venerable houses in British ceramics history: Dorothy Perkins by Copeland Spode, and Kutani Crane by Wedgwood. The D. Perkins design is a magenta transfer on white bone china; every leaf, flower, and decoration that is not magenta transfer was applied by hand with delicate strokes of tiny brushes, including the apricot lustre enamel on the scalloped edges. This is a mid-20th Century set.

The Kutani Crane, meanwhile, is a polychrome transfer -- a very, very well-done assemblage of multicolor decals, if you will, with the only hand-applied color being the dark brown edges and handle accent. This pattern was recreated from an earlier design and was made by Wedgwood from 1971 through 1998. This cup shape is called Leigh, and it reminds us of a perfect egg.

Different techniques, different feel to each set, but both are wonderful to see up close and to drink from (especially if Trixie makes the tea that goes in them, because she is what the English call a dab hand at the tea-making). These are not flimsy pieces, they are made to last, and -- if you keep them well away from the automatic dishwasher! -- can be used often and enjoyed, as we plan to enjoy them, for decades to come. (Go Stoke!!)

The last image shows how we make best use of our sets! With tea-stained late-Summer good wishes to you all,
xo, Dustin

Bling for the Blog, or Trixie Designs a New Logo

Gosh, what a Summer! In addition to having tea in the garden (often), writing weblog posts (less often), and cleaning up the office (far, far less often) there has hardly been time to acknowledge the passing of the season. And yet... Trixie, in her role as Tea Maiden and Chief Designer of Stuff, managed to squeeeeze in time to make us a brand-spankin'-new logo, which you can see up there at the top of the page, and at left. What do you think?

It's quite a different style for us -- we usually mine the woodcut and engraving archives for our art (in fact, I have been chasing Trix around the office with one such groovy old image in my hand for the past month) -- but it's a new era here at The Tea Drinker, and we thought a new look would help us to remember that.

Trix says that the curlicues on the big T remind her of steam rising from a cup; and that the different angles of text, and the circle-within-circle design, suggest the Enthusiasm with which we Infuse... she's so imaginative! Oh yes, it's also supposed to remind people of a passport stamp (presumably because we are going places!)... What I say is: well done, Tea Maiden, now let's sit down and have us a cuppa and a treat; all of this thinking and proofing has left me parched.

I raise my cup to YOU, lovely followers of our humble weblog, with extra-potent thanks for your constancy, participation (both right here and on our Facebook page), and kindness -- and if you, too, are planning great new things, we salute you!
xo, Dustin

p.s. -- have you visited our friend TeaWeatherGirl yet? I know she would love to meet you!

Thursday's Thirst: He said it first

 My, my, that's a fine description of a tea drinker if ever there was one!

I could not have said it better myself.
xo, Dustin