Vintage Tuscan Happy Anniversary Teacup Saucer – Gold Script Inside Cup, Gilt Lace Border, Hand Painted Flowers, Bone China England 1950s

A cup with something to say, and the discretion to keep it to itself. The anniversary greeting is written in gold inside the bowl, where it stays hidden until somebody lifts the cup to drink.

That placement was a neat piece of commercial thinking. A pottery could keep one shape and one gilt pattern in stock, add a line of script at the last moment, and send the same cup out as a birthday, a golden wedding or an anniversary — with the greeting on the inside, the thing remained a proper teacup rather than a souvenir. It is why these sit far more happily on a table than most commemorative china does.

The gold is the expensive part, and it was not simply printed on. The trellis was laid down first and then gone over by hand, which is why the mesh stays crisp where a transfer alone would thicken and blur, and the small flowers dropped into the gaps are enamel, painted over the glaze one at a time. Even the pattern number under the saucer was written in gold by hand — about as close to a signature as production china comes.

Tuscan was the trade name of R. H. & S. L. Plant of Longton, whose winged crown went on their china from the 1920s until Wedgwood absorbed the firm in 1966. Nothing has carried that name since.

Heavy gilding of this kind is the first thing to wear away, so a matched cup and saucer that have kept theirs intact are worth taking when they turn up. Lovely for an anniversary, and lovely in a cabinet that could use a little more gold.