Royal Kent Rose Bouquet Floral China Teacup Trio

Well this beautiful vintage teacup set in front of you is made by Royal Kent. Royal Kent is an interesting china brand, just let me show you the china marks on this, there you go. Unicorn and a lion on a shield with Royal Kent in pink, bone china across the top, made in Staffordshire, England, with a few decorators marks on there. And if you just look at this and think it's reminiscent of Royal Albert, you won't be going far wrong. And the reason we say that is, although it was a sub-brand of Allied Potteries during the sort of 70s and 80s, what they did during this period of time was rehash a lot of the earlier china design and patterns. And if you think this is a, not full Montrose, but very nearly a Montrose shaped teacup, it's reminiscent of the production lines that were running parallel to this, producing the Royal Albert pieces. And in terms of the quality and production, transfer design, it's very, very close to Royal Albert in its quality. Bone china, white glaze, plain rim with gilt, nice detailing around the handle and base plate, this little bit of moulding here with this sort of slightly bulbous Montrose-ish shape. It's not full Montrose, pantaloon sort of shaped cup, but it's very, very close. And again, the saucer, beautifully decorated, three panels of pink and red roses with a plain rim with gilt, good condition, it's used vintage, it's not absolutely cabinet, this has been used at some time, same period Royal Kent marks. And onto the side plate, again, glazed reflection on that, very close to mint, isn't it? Hardly a knife mark on there at all. Lovely gilt retention around the three panel of rose bud and blossom decoration. A very pretty set if you're a rose fan, wanting something English, late 20th century, Royal Kent, very good quality bone china manufacturer, not one of the big ones because they only produced probably a couple of dozen patterns during the course of this sub-brand being produced for various markets. But the they didn't use pattern numbers or names, Royal Kent, which is a little frustrating. We have to sort of describe them as they are rather than ascribe them numbers or names. Very rarely on Royal Kent will you find even a decorator's number or mark, which you may well find on other brands. They didn't do that. I think one of the reasons was because they were reusing existing china patterns, which had already been issued on historic previous brands or were still being used on some others. And quite a few, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we went through the Royal Albert pattern reference online and found something, if not identical, then very, very similar to this, which had been produced at some period in its previous life under the Royal Albert or TC Wild brands. So interesting history, lovely china, nice condition. We've got a teapot coming through on this line, six trios and milk jugs and sugar bowls, I think, so opportunity to put a complete English tea set together for somebody if you're interested in doing so. But I think these will probably sell as trios in mix and match or Harlequin sets because they're absolutely gorgeous. So description link on YouTube will take you through to the Vintage and Antiques website where we've got these trios going on sale together with the other pieces in this Royal Kent pattern later on this morning. Thanks for watching.