Vintage Aynsley Thistle Teacup and Saucer – Scots Pattern 15287, Swirl Fluted Body, Hand Painted Purple Blooms, Bone China England 1930s

Both the cup and the saucer carry the same pencilled number under the glaze — 15287 — which is Aynsley's pattern for Scots Thistle. This shop has another cup wearing that same number, and the pair make a small lesson between them: pattern number and shape are two separate systems in an English pottery. The number says what is painted; the shape has its own name, its own moulds, its own price. The same thistles turn up on quite different cups, and collectors who work by number end up owning several.

This is the swirl: the body is moulded in a spiral that runs from rim to foot, so the white china darkens and lightens as you turn it and the little thistles seem to be blown around with it. (The other is straight-fluted with an angular Deco handle — a different animal entirely.) Spiral moulds cost more and spoil more than straight ones; the shape was never the cheap option.

The thistles themselves are small and scattered thickly, hand-tinted, the purple heads shading dark to pale under the brush. Scotland took the flower as its badge after a Viking raiding party crept barefoot into a thistle patch and gave the game away with a yell — a weed with spines became a nation's emblem, and later the badge of the Order of the Thistle.

The green crown mark reads Aynsley, England, Bone China — without the Est 1775 that the firm added to its stamp from 1939, which puts this one a little earlier or at least in a different printing run. Green ink, in Aynsley terms, is the early ink.

One honest caveat before you fall for it: this cup rings dull rather than clear — see the condition note below. It is offered as a piece to look at, not to drink from, and priced that way.

For the Scottish shelf, a styling prop, the Aynsley collector who wants the pattern in both shapes, or beside its straight-fluted cousin — sound and usable — also in this shop.