VOGUE CHINA HISTORY: (None Actually!)
We had (and still have) a lot of very nice English fine china and porcelain items from all of the well known and not so well known potteries, this piece falls into the later category.
In fact we found it impossible to know which works produced these Vogue pieces of fine china. Shelley had a vogue series during the depression years but in our opinion there is no way this is product from Shelley and certainly not in the style of art deco. Interesting that the backstamp is all gold, not ink based as is normal - we have only seen this on the Australian pieces we have or had and they were based on Japanese blanks anyway! I have seen one exception to this where the backstamp was black ink but then again it could have just been a poor photograph!
But the backstamp clearly indicates they were made in England and we have seen other Vogue (pink) with some patterns or decoration but not these pink pieces, they are pink pink and pink (with gold gilding to the rim)
I have scoured the internet for information but alas no makers information has shown up and even the stated period of release is questionable in our minds. Many ads indicate the 1950's or before but these pink pieces 'feel' more like a 1970's product where decorative china made way for plain colours, although often those colours were gawdy and not 'gentle' such as these pieces.
Remember Mum's kitchen back in the 1970's? Solid yellows, orange, reds were everywhere - even the kitchen cupboards! Oh and now that I am reminiscing, I am still haunted by those chinaware fish blowing bubbles stuck up on the wall (in a row of three often, each fish being slightly smaller than the one previously) above the bath! But I digress ... on with the description of these Vogue (pink) cake plates.
DLAT Rating: 6/10 (Darling, Look At This!) Meaning, yes they look pretty and 'soft' but nothing startling.
VOGUE CHINA - Saucer
Made In England
Design/pattern: Pink (all pink with no decoration)
Scalloped edging with heavy gold gilding applied
All pink coloured fine china
Translucent (slight), meaning if held to the light you can see the shadow of your fingers through the china, faintly. The plate actually feels quite heavy for 'bone china' at 120g
Dimensions: 140mm diameter
BACKSTAMP INFO:
Very simple backstamp design, no graphics, no crowns, no anchors etc
Gold metallic print (like a gold leaf or printed using a technique such as 'pad printing')
(Text arranged in a small circle)
PINK
Vogue (flowing writing)
BONE
CHINA
MADE IN ENGLAND
There are NO artist or gilder's marks at all
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Each saucer is very clean
The very soft pink is very 'soft' and 'fluffy' like a light blush baby pink, there is very little variation in the colouring across the top and underneath. In some lighting it can look quite 'washed out'
On two saucers there is NO discolouration but ...
the remaining two saucers have these very light (but noticeable) small discolouration marks. These are located right where the cup sits. I have carefully cleaned them but the marks do not reduce and looking very closely, I think they are actually UNDER the glaze.
NO cracks at all with ANY saucer
NO chips on ANY saucer
Two saucers do have a couple of small 'fleabites' on the underside though - not terrible but you can feel them more easily than see them.
NO wear at all observed to the gold gilding on ANY of the saucers BUT I noticed what at first I thought was some wear or even a chip but when looking closely I can see that the gilding artist wasn't very precise and missed some parts of the scalloped edges. Craftsmanship is a below average as far as the gilding goes.
NO crazing (dry and wet tests) - the glazing does have some 'flow patterns' from the rim down underneath.
These slight glaze 'runs' and the imprecise gold gilding do point towards china that was not 'top quality' china such as from Royal Albert or Shelley to name just a couple - it was aimed at the ordinary domestic tableware market most likely.
NO knife or scratch marks to any of the saucers observed - I looked for these very carefully.
All of these points to me add to the feeling that this Vogue chinaware originated in the 1970's period, the glaze is in such good condition, the lack of cut marks and the lack of even light wear to the gold gilding - these things lead me to believe this is actually quite 'young' chinaware. The quality is good but not startling too, I know everyone describes their china as 'beautiful' but quite frankly (for us) this Vogue pink china is quite boring and of an average quality craftsmanship.
