This scenic cup and saucer caught my eye because of its branch handle. It was just like the one on the “Young Girl with Vinok” cup that I posted back on July 5. I attributed that cup as Russian Private Factory. I assumed this ‘new’ cup was the same.
Besides having the handle in common, both were finished in much the same way. I had no idea that both it and the saucer would turn out to be marked. Each has the Gardner Factory incised ‘g’ from the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The Russian Private Factory attribution for the Vinok cup was correct and now we know which one.
I am not so certain this ‘saucer’ is a saucer. It is more what we would call a ‘bread and butter’ plate today. The two pieces may have been together from the original set but they were not made to go together like this. I would expect the matching saucer for this cup to carry over the same design motifs, not just the gold lines.
The g mark on the cup is a bit confusing to read. This is because it was incised through the glaze on top of some other marks that were incised into the porcelain body. Two layers of marks. The g on the saucer-plate was incised directly into the body with glaze over.
Both pieces are surprisingly heavy when compared with their contemporary equivalents. Made to last as their close to two centuries of survival can attest.
Still translucent in spite of the thickness as can be seen in the image where the landscape is illuminated from the interior.
The hunt for the handle continues.
Cup diameter 11.9 cm, height 8.3 cm.
Plate diameter 18.7 cm.
