Vintage Queen Anne Black Teacup & Saucer – Silver Wheat Sprays, Platinum Rim & Handle, Footed Scalloped Shape, Bone China, England 1950s

A footed teacup and saucer in deep matte black, drawn over with wheat in fine white line — two stems inside the cup, three across the saucer, and a great deal of black left empty around them. Rim, foot and the whole scrolled handle are finished in silver rather than gold. The edges wave in scallops. It reads as graphic rather than floral.

The silver is the point. Almost all English bone china of this period was finished in gold; platinum fires at a different temperature and cannot go through the kiln alongside gilding, so a silver-trimmed line had to be run on its own. Look at the foot and you can see how thickly it was laid — against the black it flashes rather than glows. The wheat was painted in white enamel directly over the black, not reserved out of it: each awn is a separate stroke, the grains short flicks, the leaves two curved passes of the brush. Tip the cup and faint brush marks show in the black ground, laid on by hand rather than sprayed.

Circa 1950s to 1960s. Both pieces carry the same wreathed crown mark — Queen Anne over Fine Bone China and England — used by Shore & Coggins of Longton until the firm was absorbed in 1966. The restraint of the design belongs to the same years, when most English china was still covered edge to edge in flowers.

Longton, Staffordshire. Wheat had been a quiet favourite in English decoration since the Victorian harvest tables, but here it is drawn flat and linear, the way a mid-century designer would treat it rather than a Victorian one. Black and silver together were sold as the modern alternative to a gilded floral cup. Cup and saucer carry matching marks and are an original pair.