Australian decorated bright white porcelain, gilded entirely in 22 Ct Gold (according to the sticker attached to the coffee pot from the same set) 22 Ct Gold is good quality, despite the small percentage of alloys that exist in its mixture (22K gold is only 91.67% pure gold) because these added alloys are essential to create strength and hardness.
ST KILDA CHINA
If you are interested in the background to this porcelain ware, best of luck! Stories abound and with not much in the way of fact behind those stories but a couple of things are 'for sure'.
The bright white porcelain 'blank' was imported (un-decorated) possibly from Japan or some people even suggest, England. I personally think that the former is far more likely and I have seen this exact same design marked underneath as "Made In Japan" but not with a makers name. The important thing is that the porcelain is of a very high quality but it is NOT Australian made. Many Australian ceramic suppliers used imported 'blanks' back in the 1960's ~ 1970's and then locally decorated the blanks e.g Westminster and Avondale to name just a couple.
Funny enough, the demi cups (these will be offered separately) have Avondale as their backstamp, not St Kilda China, although the design is identical.
The gilding is also of high quality, the thickness is evenly distributed and not "spotty" I have no idea how the gilding was done but I couldn't imagine it was by hand due to the very large surface areas - perhaps some form of dipping was used. A clue could be underneath, I can just see a brown coloured liquid has been applied to the porcelain over which the gold has been applied. Perhaps this brown liquid is some sort of substrate which makes the gold coating more stable with the porcelain underneath! N.O.R on this one (No Idea Really)
These seem to be pretty durable too ... after approximately 40 years the gold remains stable and intact with no fade, flaking or other such horrors although I must admit (as mentioned above) we used these perhaps a half dozen times and then put them away - you need dark glasses when sitting near these, others probably would not agree but we considered these quite gaudy!
We had and still have quite a bit of English china and porcelain to find new homes for but like our paintings, there are some that are simply totally out of character (for us). In a moment of madness we bought these some years ago (we had the complete coffee set). Well it's a personal taste 'thing', we love Art Deco and nice well made and hand decorated chinawares with beautiful English flowers but this type of china, covered in gold decoration was never really 'us' and after a couple of uses back in the 1970's, the coffee set sat in the display cupboards for years never seeing the light of day!
This type of design is not for us but that's not to say someone else won't love them .... they are now seeking a new home!
I will be advertising the coffee set 'piece by piece'
Here is the demitasse saucer .... ONLY
DLAT Rating: 7/10 (Darling Look At This!)
ST KILDA FINE CHINA - Demitasse Saucer
Design: Entirely Gold gilded with no other decoration
Porcelain (Kaolin) blank body and the body of the saucer has a 'twist' pattern which enhances the light reflecting off the gold gilding.
Circa 1960's ~ early 1970's
'Australian' porcelain ware although it's heritage is questionable, see some thoughts about the heritage in the notes above.
These are demitasse saucers (meaning small), often used on the Continent, some call them 'doll saucers'
Dimensions: 118mm diameter
Weight: 50g
BACKSTAMP DETAILS:
All text is printed (not handwritten) in gold (leaf?)
ST KILDA (text follows an arc)
FINE CHINA
AUSTRALIA (text follows a reverse arc)
There is a gilder's mark on each demi saucer, indicating the worker who decorated each piece
CONDITION:
Stunning, so much gold that the eyes hurt! Just don't drop it, only then will you realise it was porcelain (it will now be in little pieces all over the floor)
I have six of these demitasse saucers, the condition described below is general to ALL of them, specific notes about each individual saucer follows this general description
NO chips on any saucer
NO cracks on any saucer
NO damage to the decorative artwork - why? because there is no artwork as such, just gold gold gold!
Very Light wear noticed to the gold gilding on each saucer, I have taken a photograph of each saucer along with a letter to identify the saucer I am describing.
NONE of these marks are obvious to the casual view but a close up look reveals these tiny, light wear marks! In ALL cases these appear to have been from us rubbing the gold gilding too much, the wear is always on the top of a 'ridge' which is part of that swirling pattern.
DEMITASSE SAUCER DETAILED CONDITION INFO:
Here I am describing the wear to the ridges of the 'twist or swirl' pattern near the centre ONLY. There is no wear to the scalloped edges or rim. Each saucer has 15 of these ridges all 'flowing' into the centre of the saucer. It is extremely difficult to view all this golden glow to detect flaws but here is my best attempt at describing these...
A: 6 ridges with very light wear (porcelain can be seen at the top of the ridge where the gold has worn away) 8/10 in my view
B: Very similar to A:, only very light wear as mentioned in the A: description and in my view another 8/10
SORRY, I HAVE A NEW LOVING HOME NOW! (SOLD) C: Slightly better than A: or B:, again with only very light wear to the ridges, 5 of them and in my view 8.5/10
D: Similar to C:, 4 ridges show wear which is light and in my view this one rates at 8.5/10
E: Although only 3 ridges are showing wear to the gold, it is light and quite easy to see AND there are two little 'dots' where the Gold gilding is not smooth. This saucer rates at 6/10 in my view
F: 7 ridges with light, fairly easily seen wear to those ridges (where the white porcelain underneath can be seen). This saucer rates at 6/10
In summary, all saucers have very light ~ light partial wear with A ~ D being with the least wear and E & F just a little more wear but these saucers shine so much, it is a bit tricky to photograph the wear and the type of light also makes a difference when viewing these (my photographs were taken in daylight but if I went inside artificial light doesn't show the wear so easily)
Each saucer is now packed in sealed plastic with the identification letter so there will be no mix-up's!
