Japan Marked with Crossed Laurel leaves
From Mystic Tea Room
Here we have a bit of a mystery set. In the first place, although the insides are marked with transfers that copy the Cup of Knowledge sets made in England, the six-petal lotus foot, blue-pearl luster-ware glaze, and reticulated (pierced) saucer would inform any collector that this is a Japanese cup, even if it were not also given a back stamp maker's mark consisting of crossed Laurel leaves,and the words "Made in Japan."
Unexpectedly, the reticulated or pierced work on the saucer, which is quite characteristic of fancy Japanese gift wares made for export, takes the form of repeated Clubs, as if from a playing card deck. This would seem to imply that the cup shown here was from a bridge card set that consisted of four cups and four saucers, one each pierced with a design of the suits of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, and Spades. It s not unlikely that the colour of glaze would have varied for each of the four suits, as this was fairly common with both English and British bridge card sets. If this were a bridge card set intended as a fancy hostess gift, is also not unlikely that there would have been four sandwich plates, and, perhaps, a tea pot, a sugar bowl, and a creamer.
I await further finds from this series -- and any information that might reveal the name of the maker.
DIV-TLR-XXXX
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
