Vintage 1930s Blue Willow Child Toy China Tea Set Nippon Bussan 12 + Extras Nr For Sale

---

Vintage Antique Blue Willow Child Toy China Tea Set

12 pieces + Extras - Made inJapan circa 1930s

• Background: This was Mother's favorite tea set. She was born in 1927 and played with it, as a child, in the 1930s. You will note that the size of the cups, etc. is just right for a child (not an adult or a minature toy size). This is how little girls in the early to mid-century 1900s learned to serve and pour tea and I guess, dinner since there was a tureen! (See the History of Children's Tea Sets below)
• Manufacturer/Decorator: The pieces are marked "Made in Japan" and there was a box which got thrown away during the estate move. It had said Nippon Bussan. (see photo)
• Items included: All are in excellent condition, no chips, cracks, etc. unless noted below-but they have been used..the dinner plates are brighter then the saucers...please see photos:
• 2-pc Teapot with lid 3.5”H , 5.5” wide with handle (you can't see it but if you run your finger around the spout you can feel a rough spot)
• 2-pc Sugar bowl with lid 3” high, 4” wide (the inside of the rim of the lid has spots on it - see photo)
• 1 Creamer 2.5” high and 3” wide
• 3Saucers 3 5/8” in diameter
• 3Cups 1 1/4” high and 2.5” wide
• 3 Dinner Plates and 4 1/4" diameter
• Extras: tureen lid, saucer wtih chip, cup and handle that needs to be glued, one dinner plate with flake, one broken dinner plateI am pricingthis low and letting you guys set the market.
• THANK YOU to nanalulufor the following wonderful Blue Willow Guide:
• 
  

  BLUE WILLOW is the the most famous & most popular china pattern ever produced. It seems as if everyone's grandmother had at least a piece or two. This guide will give you some background on the history of Blue Willow china, familiarize you with some of the companies that produced or still produce it, as well as hints on how to buy & sell Blue Willow China on .

  THE HISTORY OF BLUE WILLOW

  I have seen credit given for the willow china pattern given to at least two different people. One would be Thomas Turner who is said to have introduced the famous design in about 1780. The original copper plate for his design was engraved by Thomas Minton and is still preserved at Coalport China. The most reported story says that the willow design was the creation of Josiah Spode, a derivation of an original Chinese pattern called Mandarin. Spode developed his willow pattern sometime around 1790. The traditional willow design always features a large beautiful Chinese home with willow tree, small bridge with 3 figures, a humble servants house at the foot of the bridge, a small Chinese boat & of course the famous love birds above the willow tree. The romantic lore of the design could have added to it's popularity over the years. The story goes something like this.......

  The Legend of Blue Willow

  Long ago, in the days when China was ruled by emperors, a Chinese mandarin, Tso Ling, lived in the magnificent pagoda under the branches of the apple tree on the right of the bridge, over which droops the famous willow tree, and in front of which is seen the graceful lines of the fence. Tso Ling was the father of a beautiful girl, Kwang-se, who was the promised bride of an old but wealthy merchant. The girl, however, fell in love with Chang, her father’s clerk. The lovers eloped across the sea to the cottage on the island. The mandarin pursued and caught the lovers and was about to have them killed when the gods transformed them into a pair of turtle doves. These are seen gazing into each other’s eyes at the top of the design. A lengthy and old Staffordshire poem of the pattern concludes with the verse: "In the oft quoted plate two birds are perceived, High in the heaven above: These are the spirits of Chang and Kwang-se, A twin pair of ever in love".

  Companies That Produce Willow China

  Due to Spode's obvious success with the Blue Willow design, many, many pottery & china companies went on to produce some version of it. Here is a list of manufacturers that I am familiar with that produced or still do produce Blue Willow.

  • Adams
  • Adderly
  • Alfred Meakin
  • Allerton
  • Barratt
  • Booths
  • Buffalo (restaurantware & hotelware)
  • Burslem
  • Churchill
  • Coalport
  • Cuthbertson
  • Homer Laughlin
  • John Maddox & Sons
  • Johnson Brothers
  • McCoy Pottery
  • Myott
  • Made in China
  • Made in Holland
  • Made in Japan
  • Maruta
  • Moriyama Pottery (Japan)
  • Norcrest
  • Ridgeway
  • Royal China
  • Royal Doulton
  • Royal Wessex
  • Scio Pottery (Ohio)
  • Spode
  • Staffordshire
  • Syracuse China(Restaurantware & Hotelware)
  • Wedgewood

  • Wood & Sons

    VARIETY OF WILLOW ITEMS

  As the popularity of Blue Willow grew & grew over the years many companies begin to make a variety of merchandise to coordinate with the customer's china pieces. You can find just about anything in Blue Willow including but not limited to: glassware, wallpaper, linens , tablecloths & towels, flatware & cutlery, picture frames, piggy banks, cookware, enamelware, fabric, tins, needlepoint pillows & kits, planters, candles, switchplates, items for bed & bath, soap dishes, even paper products including paper plated & napkins!

  Besides numerous price guides written to aid collectors, there is a child's story book entitled BLUE WILLOW by Doris Gates. You might enjoy recipes from The Blue Willow Inn Bible of Southern Cooking.

  In 2005 there was even an animated short movie made in New Zealand that tells Blue Willow's story of love & family betrayal.

• The most valuable Blue Willow items are the early English, Staffordshire & Spode pieces. The Mid Century Made in Japan pieces are growing in popularity as well & can command a good price on unusual styles.

  The willow design is also made in red (sometimes called red transferware, or pink willow), green, brown & multicolored.

  RARE John Maddock & Sons Multi Colored Willow Plate C1896

  Thanks to

• A History Of Childrens Tea Sets
  
  Here is an article by Emile Decker on an exhibit that gives an interesting background to toy tea sets. Please note the term Faience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed earthenware on a delicate pale buff body.About Toy Tea-Sets
  When faience and porcelain became widespread in the nineteenth century thanks to scientific and technical progress, their use was no longer restricted to making tableware and decorative vases. Faience and porcelain were also used certain types of toys, and European faience factories started to produce toy tea-sets and doll's accessories, in addition to their usual production.A toy tea-set is made on a small scale for children to play with their dolls. This toy fascinates even adults for many hidden reasons. When such sets were made in porcelain or painted by hand, these objects were given to little girls as precious gifts. Because of their fragility, they were sometimes only used on special occasions under the supervision of parents. In our emotional memories of childhood, they belong to the world of games with, perhaps, a hint of the forofferden.These toy tea-sets, now collectors' items and a topic of research, are still surrounded by an aura of mystery. It is rather difficult to trace their origin due to a lack of documentation. Some of these pieces are so small that there is no space for identification marks.Tableware or toys?
  There lies the ambiguity of the doll's tea-set. It belongs to the world of toys but the art of making it is irrevocably linked to the skills required in handling its material, whether it is copper, pewter, tin, silver, faience, or porcelain. In the nineteenth century, France, together with England, was one of the leading producers of faience in Europe. While porcelain was for a long time the prerogative of Germany, as England was in the case of faience, the situation in the eighteenth century changed, and the French revival raised national production to a peak.The toy tea-set has now become a pretext for a journey back into time, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the Second World War, when plastic replaced the fine faience and porcelain of these marvellous children's toys. Admittedly, contemporary toy tea-sets continue to be made in ceramic, but the quality is not equal to the former production. Aware of this difficulty, certain toy manufacturers have reproduced the toy tea-sets of our grandmothers to suit modern tastes, but these seem to be intended more as decorative objects than useable.A brief history
  The ancient Greeks had dolls, balls and rattles. Dolls were also very widespread in Rome. Potters have always thought of the pleasure of children by making miniature ceramic objects for them. The first records of tea-sets as toys for children appeared in the sixteenth century. They were made in pewter and copper, and came from Germany, a country known for producing toys in wood and metal. Until the end of the first half of the nineteenth century, France turned to Germany for many of its sales of toys. This trend was subsequently reversed and for a while the quality and attractive appearance of French toys superseded German supremacy in the industry of knick-knacks. Before the era of the toy tea-sets that came out of the kilns of faience and porcelain manufacturers, there was a period when they were made in gold and silver, in pottery and pewter, in metal and copper. Silversmiths placed all their savoir-faire at the service of the young princesses of Europe. Although the fashion for doll's tea-sets in faience and porcelain goes back to the eighteenth century, it was not yet an established phenomenon. First of all, because ceramic objects of a high quality for children were made only for wealthy customers, and secondly because these toys did not reach the height of their popularity until one century later, with the industrial revolution. Reports on the Exhibitions which were held throughout the nineteenth century indicate that the vogue for these toys goes back to the 1850's.The Universal Exhibition of 1855 seems to have been the starting point of their expansion. The toy industry went through an extraordinary growth in less than twenty years and became an economic activity in its own right.The Arrival of Plastic
  In 1865, the appearance of celluloid and bakelite on the market announced the arrival of plastic.During the period between the two world wars, new, ambitious materials emerged, for example, rhodoid invented by Rhône Poulenc, which was similar to celluloid but not inflammable. The advantages of plastic is that it is strong, safe, inexpensive, comes in many colours, and is easy to machine and mould. Dolls were the first toys to be made in this material. The first celluloid dolls made in the late nineteenth century announced the end of the baby dolls with porcelain faces. The famous Bluette doll (1905-1960) is a fine example. The same applies to toy tea -sets.After having fought against iron, the fight against plastic was finally lost by the ceramic industry in the early 1960's. This exhibition of toy tea-sets in faience and porcelain is therefore all the more rare and interesting.Emile Decker
  Curator of the Museum of Sarreguemines.
  

• We are downsizing FOUR generations of items so we are and will be listing lots of lovely well cared for items that need a new home. Will be "super" wrapped for the trip to you and I am happy to ship immediately upon payment (we try to keep shipping costs as close to actual costs as possible.....USPS rising rates are more than they used to be!)
• Please email us with any questions
• See our other sales at store for related items.

• We do the best descriptions possible, based on our experience and knowledge (with input from dealers where possible); however, all items are sold AS IS. See our 100% positive response for being honest and keeping our buyers happy

Please note:

· We prefer paypal (they also take credit cards).

· We do ship immediately upon payment. Buyers are asked to respond or pay within three days.

· We do not ship internationally for these items.

This item has been shown times. Vintage 1930s Blue Willow Child Toy China Tea Set Nippon Bussan 12 + Extras Nr: $14