POLL 2 - Vote For Your Favorite Teacup!!!

[Victoria]

-Voting closes at 8:00 PM PST Wednesday Nov 19TH-

Please join us in voting for your favorite teacup!

Be very careful with your choices we will not be able to fix or correct any voting errors!

Voting is open to any registered member.
There will be TWO polls and the top vote getters will then go into a FINALIST POLL.
You may vote in BOTH polls!

Please also vote in our first poll located here:

Poll #1 - http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=7059

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Here's my first attempt to post a picture and enter the teacup contest (thank you Adagio and Victoria).

Lovely cutouts encircle the saucer, roses appear inside and out, with gold edging on both cup and saucer (and handle). No discernable maker's mark. It serves a lovely cup of Darjeeling.
#1

Here's my 2nd entry in the contest. This set is just for show and gets gentle treatment because the paint is thick (which creeps me out when trying to drink from it) and there are a few chips. But it's my fanciest and I had to show it here, too.

Handpainted, cobalt blue wave on edges and foot of cup with gold flourishes, pattern inside the cup is identical to the saucer, outside of cup has blue and pink flowers that don't really show here (poor photo skills!). No discernable maker's mark.
#2

And finally, my 3rd entry.
Not as beautiful as my Royal Albert or Mikasa, but I couldn't NOT enter it. This is the cup I reach for when I need a bit of pampering - ever reliable Allerton, Pink Willow. (Technically it's Red Willow, but in person it looks a bit more pink.) Next to it in the photo are my sole pink willow plate and favorite Blue Willow teapot.

Fell in love with the Blue Willow pattern as a child when Mom would serve hot chocolate in blue willow mugs. For college graduation, my parents gave me a complete Blue Willow dinner service (& teapot!) with instructions that it was to be used every day ("Better to wear out than to rust out.")...29 years later it's still what I use every day. Over the years I've collected a number of odd pieces and recently have started thinning them out, but the Pink Willow cup and saucer remain ever dear to my heart.
#3

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My three submissions:

Royal Albert "Chelsea Bird" England. This is by far my favorite teacup. It is very thin, very well made, with silk smooth finish on the porcelain
#4


UCAGCO Japan. An ebay find, I was looking for dogwood, and this was so unusual (and cheap!) I couldn't resist. It is "occupation" china, made for the cheap export market (or sailors looking for something to take home!) Clearly not of as fine quality as the Royal Albert, but unusual and delicate nevertheless.
#5


Royal Standard (pattern unk.) Poppet helps with the judging. One of many "Royal" companies that churned out china in England. Also very thin and delicate, with a fine, smooth finish like Royal Albert.
#6

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Well here are my oddball entries.

The first is my plain white cup. This cup is very shallow and has a very unusual open and modern feeling to it. I love the very simple yet unusual form of this cup.
#7


My second cup is my Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles cup. It has an image of Syaoran on the the saucer and Sakura and Mokona on the cup itself. It's also indented to form a heart when filled with tea, much like Victoria's avie.
#8

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I inherited these cups from my mother, who passed away in 2003. She loved her cup-and-saucer sets, and left me nearly two dozen. I gave away or sold several, and kept the ones that I (and she) loved the most. The "Hazel's cups" series is devoted to those most special cups:

Submission #1: a beautiful cup edged with gold and filled with pink roses. This is a bone china set by the English manufacturer Royal Albert, pattern unknown:
#9


Submission #2: a gold-and-white cup by England's Royal Cauldon with Greek keyfrets along the edge - hence the pattern name, "Greek Key". The saucer broke several years ago, but I was thrilled to find a perfect replacement on eBay in 2008:
#10


Submission #3: an elegantly frilled blue-and-white cup. This is the appropriately named "Dainty Blue" pattern by Shelley of England:
#11


A close-up of the edge of "Dainty Blue". Perhaps this is where I got my taste for blue-and-white (sometsuke) Japanese wares:

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Here is my #1: My grandmother's china, a Noritake made in Japan, I don't know the pattern name. She always told me it was made in Occupied Japan, but the inscription does not indicate this... I know she did get it during the war. The weight is feather-light, and I love the slope of the lip of the cup and how it sits against the mouth as you take that first sip... and I love that she wanted me to have these dishes, one of her most prized possessions. The colors are very soft, but still vibrant despite the age of the pieces and the fact that they were actually used quite a bit... my camera skills are limited, so I did one close-up of the pattern itself so the colors would be more distinct... they seemed muted in the full shots.
#12

Ok, #2: My mom's china, Old Ivory. Similar to my first one, this cup has a perfect curve at the edge, and sits perfectly on the bottom lip to sip out that first taste of tea. It's also very light and thin, and I tried to take one pic of the translucency of it, but I am not photographically gifted. I've grown up seeing this china my whole life... very sentimental to me. It's classic, simple, delicate, not too froo-froo, and I love the shape of the handle on the cup.
#13

Thanks for looking!
Sarah

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This is the only china I have. The pattern is called "Empress," from Crown Victoria.
#14