Vintage Paragon Teacup & Saucer – Teal Green, Cabbage Rose, Gold Filigree, Single Royal Warrant, Blush Interior, Bone China, England 1940s

A Paragon bone-china teacup and saucer in teal green and gold — a moulded, gently swirled body in a deep apple-to-teal green, a blush-pink interior, and a cabbage-rose reserve framed in gilt filigree at the centre of cup and saucer. The handle is an ornate gold-lined scroll; the moulded ridges of the body catch the light as the cup turns.

It is a richer, more theatrical cup than its plainer cousins. The green is deeper and cooler than a mint, the interior warms to a soft blush, and the cabbage-rose bouquet — a red rose with blue and a violet sprig — sits in a white reserve ringed by fine gilt scrollwork. The gilding is the work here: the filigree frame, the gold along the moulded rim, the line down the scrolled handle.

Turn it over and the marks place it precisely. The base carries the full British royal arms with By Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen, China Potters — Paragon, England, a single royal warrant, dating the set to the 1940s. Beside it, written by hand in ochre, is the pattern number A·2668 — with an F on the cup and a P on the saucer. Those single letters are the paintresses' marks: the women who hand-finished each piece initialled their work, which is why cup and saucer carry different letters and why the reserve has the slightly individual quality of hand-finishing rather than a purely printed centre.

A cup-and-saucer for the Paragon and royal-warrant collector, for the cabbage-rose and grandmillennial cabinet, for the cottagecore / old-money tea table, or as a Mother's Day, wedding, or housewarming gift with real weight to it.