Carlton Ware Rouge Royale Demitasse Cup & Saucer - Style 1582- Hand-Painted Rare

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Description

Most Carlton Ware Rouge Royale pieces — beautiful as they are — were transfer printed, the pattern applied with consistency … Read more Most Carlton Ware Rouge Royale pieces — beautiful as they are — were transfer printed, the pattern applied with consistency and efficiency across a production run. This cup and saucer is different. Style 1582, hand-painted, which means that the swallow in flight and the trailing willow branch moving across both the cup exterior and the saucer were put there by someone with a brush and a steady eye. No two hand-painted pieces from this period are identical. This one is, in a very real sense, the only one exactly like it that exists.

I have searched. I cannot find another Rouge Royale piece in this style with this swallow and willow motif documented anywhere — not in active listings, not in the collector references I work with regularly. The style 1582 designation combined with hand-painting and an undocumented pattern puts this in genuinely rare territory.

The Rouge Royale series is among Carlton Ware's most celebrated work — that deep, lacquer-like crimson ground with gilt detailing is immediately recognizable to anyone who collects English pottery seriously. On a hand-painted piece the effect is heightened. The brushwork has warmth and movement that a transfer simply cannot replicate.

Marked Carlton Ware on the base. Condition is very good with minor wear to the gilt, honest and expected for a piece of this age. No chips, no crazing. The painting itself is crisp and present.

For the Carlton Ware collector, the Rouge Royale specialist, or anyone who understands what hand-painted means in the context of a production pottery. This is the kind of piece that does not come around often. See less