Vintage Aynsley Peacock Feather Saucer – Orphan Saucer, Pale Green Ground, Swirl Fluted Shape, Gilt Scalloped Rim, Bone China, England 1930s

A saucer on its own, ringed with peacock feathers — each turning on a turquoise eye, fanning out in grey and rust, finishing in a dark green curl. Behind them lies a pale yellow-green that follows the spiral fluting, and a thin bright green line closes off the white well at the centre. The scalloped edge is washed in gold. Sold without a cup.

The feathers are printed rather than painted — hold the rust and grey barbs up to the light and the halftone dots of the transfer are plainly visible, worth saying honestly. What was done by hand is the ground: the green was laid in with a brush, and it thins and deepens as it crosses each rise of the fluting, pooling slightly in the hollows. Look at the outer edge of the colour band and you can see where the brush stopped and started. The gilding follows every scallop of the rim, with the small waver at each peak that hand-work leaves. The blank itself is the spiral-fluted shape Aynsley used for decades, which lets light run around the piece rather than straight across it.

Circa 1930s to 1950s. The green crown mark reads AYNSLEY over ENGLAND and BONE CHINA, which brackets it after the firm's earlier blue and black marks and before the later addition of "Est 1775." Peacock feather borders were at their most popular on English bone china in the 1930s, which anchors the front of that range.

Longton, in the Staffordshire potteries. The peacock arrived in English decoration by way of the Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and never quite left; by the 1930s it had been redrawn in the flatter, more graphic manner you see here. The saucer displays well upright on a stand, with the full feather ring visible at a glance.