Pattern 282 Spode bone china French Cabinet Cup with Cover & Stand this was introduced by Josiah Spode II c1801. The design is all hand-painted and was probably copied from a Japanese Export Porcelain original. The type of decoration is known as Kakiemon & it was developed in Japan during the mid 17th century.
Minton had produced this pattern c1798 as their pattern number 64. There were very few copyright laws at this time & any popular designs were soon copied by other manufacturers & Josiah Spode II was no exception.
The shape of this cup is French however & was known as a Tasse Trembleuse. It was designed with a well in the centre of the saucer, which could be quite deep sometimes, to enable people who suffered from trembling to carry & drink from a cup without spilling the contents.
This was another very popular design and Josiah Spode II used different parts of this design on subsequent patterns.
If you are extremely fortunate you may find a piece in this pattern marked on its base as 'Stoke China' which is the original name for Spode's bone china. It quickly became known as bone china because of the high bone ash content & the name 'Stoke China' was only used for the first couple of years.
This Japanese design is known as the 'Tree of Life'; it is a gnarled central tree with many blossoms & with two bands of further decoration around it. The inner band can be seen on Spode's pattern 714 & the outer band appears on his patterns 586 & 1009 (both illustrated) plus many others.
The design was so popular with Spode's customers that it was completely reproduced 12 years later as Spode's pattern 2038 once his Stone China ceramic was introduced c1813.
This particular example is in very good condition
Nice and clean inside
There are no pattern numbers or decorator's marks on the cup or the cover but this is usual for early Spode bone china
But a gilt pattern number '282' appears on the saucer base. Generally pieces marked in gilt were early & this practice was changed c1806 or a couple of years later, due to cost reasons & instead they used iron-red enamel for marking pattern numbers.
This piece came to me from someone in Stoke-on-Trent who had previously worked at the Spode factory.