Roy’s sugar and creamer look like Sowerby enamelled Blanc de Lait (though Cottle seems to describe the technique as ‘stained’ rather than enamelled – perhaps some pieces were stained and some enamelled?).
Most of the of shapes that I have seen in stained or enamelled Blanc de Lait are shown in Sowerby’s pattern book IX (1882), but Roy’s sugar and creamer are giving me some problems at the moment.
The nearest pattern shape I can find is indeed Sowerby pattern 1616 (shown on page 12 of Pattern Book IX, 1882) – except that the floral patterns on the panels of Roy’s pieces are different to those shown on pattern 1616, and the handle on the creamer in the pattern book has ‘bobbles’ whereas Roy’s is plain.
Simon Cottle has a colour photo of creamer 1616 on page 54 of his book “Sowerby – Gateshead Glass” which is definitely in accord with the Sowerby pattern book drawing and shows the ‘bobbly’ handle and that the stained floral decoration has ten ‘daisy heads’ per panel compared to the five on Roy’s creamer and sugar.
Hajdamach (‘British Glass 1800-1914’) shows a sugar basin on page 352 (colour plate 43) with the description “Sugar basin in white vitro-porcelain enamelled with flowers, Sowerby, marked with the peacock’s head crest and the registration diamond for 19 October 1881, and the word PATENT, height 3 5/8 inches (9.2cm)”. It has floral panels with 10 ‘daisy heads’, just like Cottle’s 1616 creamer and the 1616 sugar in the Sowerby pattern book
The only problem with Hajdamach’s description is that there doesn’t seem to be a Sowerby design registration on 19 October 1881, though there is a Sowerby design registration (RD 365165) for 19 MAY 1881 – Parcel 9, described by Cottle and Thompson as ‘sugar’). It may be that Hajdamach has misread an indistinct month letter on the registration diamond – May = E and October = B, not dissimilar basic letter shapes. 1881 would seem a likely year for pattern numbers somewhere in the 1600s (e.g. 1616), as pattern 1568 accords with an RD 362734 on 1 March 1881, and pattern number 1672 accords with RD 374774 on 15 December 1881.
The other Sowerby pattern that has a sugar and creamer with floral decoration vaguely similar to Roy’s set is pattern 1446 (and that comes in plain variants and stained Blanc de Lait versions) but the actual shape of the 1446 sugar and creamer are quite different .
I will endeavour to trawl through the Sowerby pattern books and other standard Sowerby reference books over the next few days, but there seems to be a disparity between Sowerby pattern 1616 and Roy’s pieces - similar shape (and quite likely the same registration diamond) but different floral pattern on the panels (and, of course a ‘bobbly’ handle to the creamer instead of the plain handle of Roy’s creamer). Maybe Roy’s sugar and creamer are previously-undocumented RD 365175 / pattern 1616 variants.
Still not sure how any of this ties in with a Sowerby Patent though.
If Paul S. happens by this post, I wonder if he has the registration representation of RD 365175 (19 May 1881 – Parcel 9) to hand for comparison, please?
Fred.