HISTORY:
Yet more of our beloved, collected Meakin chinaware's, this piece was bought by us back in the 1980's from a deceased estate.
The major factors that influenced our buying was the colour, very unusual for a piece of J&G Meakin and the condition - particularly the glaze.
Meakin ware is well known for their cream base colours and even some of the "Willow like" Blue designs but at the time, we had not seen Meakin in this Sky Blue colour.
Additional to this unique colouring was the condition, it shocked and astounded us! It is quite normal for ceramics around 80 ~ 90 years old to have crazing lines (fine cracks in the glaze), especially for Tureen's such as this which are subjected to changes in termperature (soup, cooked vegetables even casseroles) - this Tureen is devoid of all such crazing.
J & G MEAKIN - Tableware
Circa 1930's ~ 1950's
Material: Ceramic
Tableware: Table Tureen With Lid
Base colour White
Tableware series: Celeste (we believe, see below)
NO flowers
NO fancy artwork
NO Gold gilding at all
Design: no fancy artwork design at all, just a complete overall Sky Blue wash.
This Tureen does not scream "look at me look at me" but simply says "Ma'am, would you like more vegetables?" in a rather refined manner.
Although the backstamp does not indicate this ... we have seen other pieces identical to this Tureen and they were backstamped CELESTE and others also had Glamour printed on them
The backstamp on the underside is very simple and there is no mention of the pattern or design name on this Tureen.
This Tureen is from the very well know J & G MEAKIN "SOL" (meaning Sun) Series (Registration 391413 which relates to the SOL trademark NOT the pattern)
Circa late 1930's ~ 1950's
DIMENSIONS:
Tureen inside: 7" diameter x 3" deep
Tureen outside: 9.5" diameter x 6" height (including the lid fitted)
The Tureen has a carry handle on each side, wide and flat (easy to hold although watch those burn't fingers!)
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED (but you would barely know it!)
CLEAN (extremely)
Sky Blue wash has been evenly applied over the whole tureen, no light/dark variations which we have seen on other ceramics of this type.
NO chips
NO cracks
NO ceramic damage
Glaze is in exceptional condition, high gloss and not a hint of crazing at all - hard to believe how old it is!
FLAWS NOTICED:
Nothing (no matter what you are told) is perfect, I noticed a couple of minor flaws ...
Tureen base: inside the tureen is a White whispy mark, like a cloud, that I don't think should be there but it seems to be under the glaze and non-removeable.
On the underside I can see two small fleabites only
Tureen lid: topside there is nothing, on the underneath on the rim I can see what appear to be a further two fleabites - again not serious but there none-the-less
A pleasant, unusual Sky Blue table tureen from J&G Meakin
