November, 1915 
69 
b 
THE COLLECTORS' DEPART 
MENT OF ANTIQUES 
AND CURIOS 
Conducted by GARDNER TEAL! 
Readers cf House & Garden who arc interested in 
antiques and curios are invited to address any inquiries 
on these subjects to the Collectors' Department, House 
& Garden, 440 Fourth Avenue, Hew York, N. V. 
Inquiries should be accompanied by stamps for return 
postage. Foreign correspondents may enclose postage 
stamps of their respective countries. 
Above is one of Hall’s ‘Hampshire Scenery 
cup-plates, the original being in dark blue; 
below, a printed ware cup-plate 
COLLECTING CUP-PLATES 
O NE of the most interesting collections 
in the held of ceramics which the 
writer has had the pleasure of examining 
was one made up entirely of cup-plates by 
various potters, some hundreds in number. 
It is surprising how rare these particular 
bits of old china have become, considering 
their universal use when they were fash¬ 
ionable accessories to the tea-set. In the 
days of our great¬ 
grandmothers the eti¬ 
quette of tea-drink¬ 
ing was markedly dif¬ 
ferent from that 
which maintains in 
our own day. Then 
the tea-cup occupied 
much the position that 
t h e tea - bowl still 
holds with the 
Chinese, and the sau¬ 
cer that of the tiny 
Chinese cup. In other 
words — we blush to 
confess it! — our tea¬ 
drinking ancestors 
used the saucers of 
their tea-cups to cool 
their tea in, and while 
the saucers were so 
utilized, tiny plates 
(like the plates of a 
doll's tea-set) were 
employed as holders 
for the cups, thus to protect the polished 
tea-table tops or, perhaps, the trays of satin- 
wood from being stained by the moist cup 
rims. 
Just why, when so many of these little 
cup-plates were in use, so few have sur¬ 
vived seems a mystery. N. Hudson Moore, 
for instance, considers, among teapots, 
pitchers and cup-plates, that cup-plates are 
the most difficult to collect, and certainly, 
in proportion to the size of the objects, the 
most costly, but this authority does not ap¬ 
pear to explain why this may seem to many 
to be the case. The writer's personal theory 
as to the scarcity of the cup-plates is that 
these tiny subjects, being truly plates in 
miniature, were, when they fell into disuse 
(and before collectors of old china and old 
earthenware began to take an interest in 
them), given to children to play with, thus 
meeting the general destruction to which 
nearly all doll’s dishes of all periods suc¬ 
cumbed. This would seem both plaus- 
cl ’ r 
In center, a dark 
blue Davenport; 
to the left, a Ste¬ 
venson " Boston 
View" of the 
Park Square 
Theatre 
The original "Portland Vase" after mending, 
now nreserved in the Gem Room of the Brit¬ 
ish Museum 
"The Hyena,” in blue, one of Hall’s “Quadru¬ 
peds Series;" below it, a brown printed ware 
"Willow” pattern 
ible and natural. Nevertheless, despite fre¬ 
quent statements that cup-plates are of ex¬ 
cessive rarity, the writer has come across at 
least twenty in eastern antique shops during 
the past month, all of which, though not of 
the finest makes, were most interesting and 
most reasonable in price. Moreover, in all 
parts of the country where settlement has 
been early, the collector of old china stands 
ood chance of picking up cup-plates of 
all sorts. Even the 
glass ones are yet to 
be found. 
True it is that any 
exceptionally fine 
cup-plates, except 
where come upon as 
true “finds,” bring 
high prices. For in¬ 
stance, a 4" Lovejoy 
cup-plate brought $23 
at auction a year ago. 
and another fetched 
$36 at private sale. 
Certain other cup- 
plates which have 
come to the writer’s 
attention have been 
held for prices run¬ 
ning from $14 to $45 
apiece. Although the 
collector of moderate 
means may not ex¬ 
pect to indulge in 
many such purchases, 
still he is apt to run across fine pieces at 
bargain prices that will send his spirits to 
the level of true elation. First of all, how¬ 
ever, he must study the subject and learn 
to know a cup-plate when he sees one, for 
the successful collector is never a hunter of 
Snarks! 
Only two hundred and fifty years ago the 
East India Company considered the gift of 
a couple of pounds of tea a princely one to 
make the King of England ! In his diary 
entry of September 25, 1660, Pepys gives us 
an inkling as to how uncommon a thing tea¬ 
drinking then was. There he says: “I did 
send for a cup of tee (a China drink), of 
The work of Joseph 
Stubbs is charac¬ 
terized by bor¬ 
ders of scrolls 
and flowers as 
witness this view 
of the Philadel¬ 
phia Mint 
