A Spode bone china Bute shape Coffee Can decorated in gilt with a series of over-lapping ovals, dots, bands & lines. This gilt design was popular during the latter years of the 18th century & the earliest years of the 19th century and several manufacturers produced versions of it. Sometimes this design appeared on fluted & shanked cups.
Here you can see the distinctive Spode gilding down the kinked handle but unfortunately the Spode Museum Trustees cannot find this particular pattern in their records. The first 300 (approx) Spode patterns are missing & only a few are known so if you know of a piece which is marked with a pattern number & can be positively identified as a Spode shape then obviously both I & the Spode Museum Trust would be very interested to hear about it.
This particular Spode Coffee Can looks to be in very good condition for its age & although the design may be very early I suspect this piece was produced c1813-15 when Josiah Spode II had mastered bone china production & could produce pieces of faultless, pure white & translucent porcelain.
Clean inside.
Unmarked to its base.