~ Booths Scale Blue Pattern Porcelain Egg c1900 ~
A beautiful and unusual example Booths Scale Blue pattern wares, a trinket box in the form of an egg.
Produced in the early 20th century Booths ‘Scale Blue’ pattern is based on the famous Worcester blue glaze. The works feature vignettes with exquisitely hand-painted birds and flowers.
As the name suggests, the piece is decorated with a rich blue scale pattern. It features cartouches with white grounds filled with beautifully hand-painted exotic birds, flowers and insects. These cartouches and the edges of the piece are finished with foliate style gilt decoration.
The ‘egg’ comes in two halves and has a plain white glaze interior to both parts.
There are a couple of small hand-made marks to the piece on the underside, one mark seemingly the letter ‘P’. There are no actual ‘Booths’ factory marks but this is quite common on the ‘Blue Scale’ items that were produced. Other companies at this time did produce similar pattern items but on the whole these did have their own factory marks, so the absence of any marks on this piece is an indication that the piece is a genuine ‘Booths’ piece.
~ Dimensions ~
The piece measures 6.5cm (2 ½ inches) by 10cm (4 inches) with a height of 5.5cm (2 ¼ inches).
It weighs 108.5g.
~ Condition ~
There is a little crazing to the glaze in parts and a little wear to the gilding around the edge where the two halves meet and rub together. There is a small smudge of paint or similar to the lower half but this is minimal and barely noticeable.
Otherwise, the piece is in a lovely condition with only very minimal wear to the finish in parts but no damages, cracks or chips.
~ Booths Ltd ~
Booths Ltd were a company based Tunstall, Staffordshire from 1891-1948, specialising in producing high quality earthenware items. The company followed on from earlier companies such as Thomas Booth & Son and TG&F Booth.
In 1948 the firm merged with Colcloughs, and in 1955 with Ridgway, forming the short-lived Allied English Potteries, later taking the name of the Royal Doulton group.
The company produced many, now collectable patterns but are probably best known for the highly collectable Real Old Willow pattern. Having said that Booths’ most highly prized pattern is actually ‘Scale Blue’.
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