Blue Willow is one of the most widely reproduced patterns in English ceramics history, originally developed in the late 18th century as a Chinoiserie design borrowing loosely from Chinese landscape motifs — pagodas, willow trees, a bridge with figures crossing it — and by 1917, when Royal Worcester produced this service, the pattern had already been in continuous production across multiple factories for well over a century. This set brings together everything needed for six people: cylindrical demitasse cups sitting in deep saucers, a matching coffeepot, and a pedestal-footed tazza for serving alongside.
The porcelain itself is genuinely thin, trimmed with gilded edges that add a bit of formality against the blue-and-white transfer decoration. Fourteen pieces surviving together as a complete, matched service is worth noting in itself, since coffee sets from this period tend to lose individual pieces to breakage or separation over the decades far more often than they survive intact.
Saucers - 8.5 cm diameter, 1.5 and 2 cm tall Cups - 5 cm tall, 4.5 cm across the top Tazza - 5.5 cm tall, 25.5 cm across the top Coffeepot - 19 cm tall, 17 cm spout to handle, 8.5 cm across widest point
Condition notes
Good overall antique condition. Crazing and light wear to gilt commensurate with age and use; one saucer slightly lower than the others; two cups have hairline cracks, one of these also has a fleabite to rim; one cup has crack and chip to rim; losses to rim of coffeepot; small losses to white glazing on the coffeepot's spout; large crack along the edge of the tazza and a chip to the underside.
