Pattern 878 Spode bone china Bute shape Coffee Can introduced c1805, it is hand-painted & decorated in an Oriental Imari style. The iron-red enamel has become a little more orange & there is plenty of gilding to look wonderful in candlelight. Both Coalport & Minton produced their own versions of this design, Minton's was pattern number 206.
This design looks very Georgian & Josiah Spode II is no-doubt working very hard to catch the eye of the Royal Family as that endorsement was the ultimate accolade.
The usual Josiah Spode II gilding pattern down the kinked handle
Plus the odd stray enamel & gilt blemishes which hand decorating always ensures - that's quirks & character to my mind.
This coffee can is a little worn on the side opposite the handle revealing that the owner liked to hold it with one hand and steady it with their other hand - it was a very precious object after all!
Inside is clean & fine, but a tiny speck of orange enamel has got onto the top of the handle and a bigger blob found its way inside the handle lower down.
A nice clean base still with no decorator's marks or pattern number on here which is usual for this early Spode II period c1810 once porcelain production had improved from its early beginnings.
A Spode bow handle, beaded, bucket shape Pot Pourri Basket in this same pattern 878 can be seen at the Spode Museum Trust here: http://www.spodemuseumtrust.org/history-of-spode.html
Here is a matching pattern 878 Spode New Oval shape bone china Creamer looking magnificent. This shape was introduced c1805 at Spode. The extra gilding against the white porcelain really sings out.
It still has the stray enamel spots & kiln dust specks
You can imagine how wonderful a whole service would have looked particularly in candlelight.
Here is a slightly different style of gilding down the handle with the leaf shaped gilding in pairs.
Almost clean inside
This creamer has its pattern number '878' in red enamel but it is very faint & almost worn away
I like to herd my Spode New Oval shape Creamers together, so here are patterns 1220, 878 & 967
