Antique Hammersley Fine Bone China Pen Tray, Bird of Paradise Chinoiserie, Gold Rim, Made in England, Circa 1900–1920

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… We slipped over to Nantucket just before the season descended — quiet streets, raw wind off the harbor, and … Read more … We slipped over to Nantucket just before the season descended — quiet streets, raw wind off the harbor, and a summer house sale at a grand old shingle cottage whose contents were being dispersed to the world. This was among them.
The desk as a room within a room — and every proper desk had its pen tray.
This narrow, elegantly proportioned bone china pen tray by Hammersley & Co., Stoke-on-Trent is decorated in their classic chinoiserie manner: a vivid bird of paradise in flight — gold, green, and cobalt — perched among flowering branches of pink peonies and blue cornflowers, trailing a long gilt-edged rim the full length of the piece. The ivory ground glows. The colors remain sharp and true.
Hammersley, established 1887, produced some of the finest decorative bone china of the Edwardian era. This is exactly the sort of thing that lived on a well-appointed writing desk in a summer house for a century before finding its way back into the world.
A pen tray today makes an equally distinguished catch-all for rings, a watch, a money clip — the nightly ritual of the well-organized man.
Dimensions: 8.5"L 2” W .5” H
Condition: Very good antique condition. Minor gilt wear at rim consistent with age and use.
Origin: Private Nantucket estate See less