HISTORY & NOTES:
Johnson Brothers began their pottery in 1883 and became one of the major high quality works in England, eventually (in 1968) becoming part of the Wedgwood Group of companies.
This chinaware (semi porcelain) is yet another of our beautiful "breakfast & afternoon tea" sets which were passed down to us through the generations, originally purchased in the 1950's, just after "The War" by my parents living in England at the time.
The second world war had just been "finished with" and people were looking for things to make them feel good, brighten up their lives after all the trauma fighting with the "Huns" (a carry over expression from the Brit description of the "foe" in World War I)
"Cherry Blossoms" was a perfect pattern back then, representing "new life, new opportunities"
Since those days 70 years ago we used this chinaware just a few times for those "special occasions", particularly around Springtime and the condition of the pieces reflects this ... they have been well cared for and seen very little use!
Our family have always called these the "Cherry Blossoms" although that pattern name is not on any of the pieces, there is no pattern indicated on any piece except the egg cup saucers which are quite frankly a bit of a mystery to us ... read my description specific to the egg cup set HEREfor details about this mystery!
One of the major china replacement suppliers does show this pattern (no longer available alas) and indicate it is what they call pattern number JB734. We think this is THEIR pattern code and not that of Johnson Brothers.
If you would like to take a look at the "replacements" website, please go HERE
ALL decoration (artwork and gilding) is handcrafted with no transfers used at all
This advertisement is for the SUGAR BOWL ONLY .... but HERE you can see a selection of the other pieces that we have left
DLAT RATING: 7/10 (Darling, Look At This!)
JOHNSON BROTHERS - Sugar bowl ONLY
Made In England
DIMENSIONS:
Shape: Round bowl (no handles)
Mouth diameter: 109mm
Height: 73mm
This bowl holds a LOT of loose or cube sugar
Pattern: Cherry Blossoms (JB734)
Weight: 200g
GENUINE and ORIGINAL
Hand decorated/painted - this is an original creation with the artist and gilder markings clearly visible on the underside of the base. Don't be fooled by replacements using transferware techniques, these originals have become quite collectable and "rip offs" abound because the counterfeiter can make good money
Circa 1940's ~ 1950's
Opaque (meaning that when held to the light, you CANNOT see shadows of your hand through the china) This is not "fine bone china" but nor is it "stoneware" and Johnson Brothers used to call this their "semi-porcelain"
Two tone base colouring - Natural Cream colour and a light Grey colouring with a slightly darker Grey band between the two colours. This two-tone finish is only on the outside of the sugar bowl, inside it is completely Cream.
The artwork spans both areas of colour.
Cherry Blossom (OUR pattern name as it is not indicated on the piece) is a pattern dominated by a motif of gentle Pink blossom flowers with fresh Green leaves on a Brown tree branch. There are three separate pieces of artwork, one is dominant with the other two being smaller designs.
Gold gilding (heavily applied by hand) is around the top scalloped rim and inside the bowl.
BACKSTAMP DETAILS:
Green/Blue stamp with artist and gilder's markings
COSMETIC CONDITION:
NO cracks
NO chips
NO discolouration
NO crazing observed (both wet and dry tests)
NO artwork damage/scratching or significant wear
But nothing that is over 70 years old is perfect! (Not even my Mum at 86 years old!) This is the reason that this sugar bowl has a DLAT rating of 7/10 and not 9 as with the other pieces.
Gold gilding is damaged, it is a bit strange (to us). Whereas normal handling wear is fairly easy to spot in gilding, both rings of Gold gilding have a strange effect ... at random intervals there is a small gap in the gilding, as though very small sections are missing! The occurrence of these sections of missing gilding is random but all the way around the gild work, on both rings. The gaps are up to 1mm in length, with the gilding just abruptly stopping then there is the gap with no gilding (not even partial) and then the gilding is fine again - so the Gold gilding line sort of looks like - - - - instead of a continuous line - peculiar!
There are no cracks or chips, it is just the gilding that is involved.
None of our other pieces have this effect and we cannot for the life of us understand when this damage may have occurred. The only process that we thought MAY have created this damage is that someone unintentionally put it through the dishwasher at some stage! Dishwashers must NEVER EVER be used for your old china or porcelain ware cleaning, the environment inside those machines is far too hostile to the product finish.
A friend also told us that there are folks who specialise in repairing Gold gilding but we have not gone down that path ...
A very nice sugar bowl but "let down" by the Gold gilding damage!
SPECIAL INFORMATION:
We have a number of different pieces of our Cherry Blossom pattern available. Each piece is advertised separately BUT if purchasing more than one, and total order value conditions are met, discounted prices apply automatically when the code CHERRYBLOSSOM is used in the checkout area of the website.
