Never heard (or seen) a tennis set before?
These were an innovative concept for the ladies who liked their 'cuppa tea' and would like to have their cake and eat it too! The big problem for the lady was how would she juggle a separate cake plate, saucer and teacup. To solve this problem, chinaware makers came out with a special cake plate/saucer combination so now the ladies could hold their teacup and cake with one hand. It was common to see the ladies at Wimbledon with these 'tennis sets', thus the name.
Royal Albert were not the only makers of a 'tennis set' but Royal Albert was the ONLY bone china to have if you wanted to be part of 'society' ladies group.
Yes, we have owned the tennis set for many years! It was a fun thing to use for special occasions, not Wimbledon but the 'lady of the house' liked to watch Wimbledon, Australian Open and even the Melbourne Cup day while taking a sip and devouring a slice of cake with her special tennis set. We all move on in life and now we don't see a need for this tennis set any longer.
The teacup has already been bought by another, they just wanted the teacup, so now we are left with the lovely plate/saucer and these are SO hard to find now.
You don't see these come up for sale very often and the prices asked are (in our view) quite extraordinary (see HERE) but we guess it is the combination of the fabulous Royal Albert along with the difficult to find tennis set.
The teacup showing in one of the photographs is ONLY ILLUSTRATIVE, it is actually not even a Royal Albert teacup but it is of the correct size.
DLAT RATING: 9/10 (Darling! Look At This!)
ROYAL ALBERT - Tennis Set (Plate/Saucer ONLY)
Design: Tenderness
Transferware
Circa 1970's ~ 1980's (we purchased the Tennis Set new back in the early 1980's but believe the pattern had been in use by Royal Albert since the 1970's)
Quite thick bone china (300g weight) but it remains translucent, meaning you can see the shadow of your fingers through the china when held to the light.
The backstamp is as shown in one of the photographs, the photo makes it look a little like a sticker but IT IS NOT! The photograph of the backstamp was a bit dull so I have tried to enhance it slightly so it could be viewed more easily - it is transferware and UNDER the glaze.
Dimensions (widest points): 223mm x 157mm
The teacup that matches is quite small (compared to a standard teacup) not demitasse but smaller than normal. The base of the teacup must not be more than 50mm diameter. Of course if you have or find the correct Tenderness teacup, no problems.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
CLEAN
NO chips
NO crazing
NO discolouration to the base white china or the design
Careful visual examination of the decoration shows no wear or 'knife cuts'
The heavy gold gilding around the outer scalloped rim has been applied (it looks to be by hand) with a feathered/splatter effect and is ALMOST perfect, just one very small area on the edge where it has been knocked, taking off the gold gilding. This is NOT a chip (running the finger over the spot does not reveal any 'roughness') although you can see the white china underneath. The size of this damage is 2mm length.
Even with this small imperfection, this piece remains a truly excellent (and attractive) example of ROYAL ALBERT quality and craftsmanship
Lovely for display but (once a teacup is found by the new owner) we would encourage actually using this fine china, it's a fun thing and certainly not something your friends are likely to have!
