Booths | Mandarin | Six-Cup Teapot & Two Trios | Transferware Chinoiserie with Hand-Applied Colour | Circa 1906

China that took its decorating cues from the Emperor's palace and its structural cues from engineering — Booths Silicon China was built to last, and this piece obliges.

Booths of Tunstall, Staffordshire, registered their Silicon China body in 1906 — a dense, hard-wearing semi-vitreous earthenware that sits closer to stoneware in character than to conventional earthenware, and which resists the crazing that plagued lesser bodies of the period rather less successfully than Booths advertised, though it ages with considerably more dignity than most. The Mandarin pattern belongs to the chinoiserie tradition that English potters had been mining since the eighteenth century, drawing on Chinese famille rose compositions and re-interpreting them for the domestic British market. The pattern centres on a naturalistically rendered arrangement of peonies rising from a scholar's rock — the distinctive blue and green perforated garden stone that recurs across Chinese decorative art as a symbol of refinement and permanence — surrounded by trailing stems of further blooms and small scattered flowers. The border is a warm rose pink diaper ground interrupted by shaped white reserves, the whole edged in gold. It is a confident, well-composed pattern that wears its chinoiserie influences without apology.

The teapot is of generous globular form with a straight spout, loop handle, and domed lid with a gilt-tipped ovoid finial. The body carries the full Mandarin composition on both sides — a central peony and scholar's rock grouping in red-orange and pink with bold green foliage, scattered smaller blooms in yellow and pink across the remaining ground, and the pink diaper border running around the shoulder and repeated on the lid. The lid interior shows the characteristic celadon-toned glaze of the Silicon China body. The two trios are each composed of a teacup, saucer, and side plate, all carrying the same pattern consistently. The teacup is of a slightly angular, flared form with a gilt angular handle; the interior rim carries the pink border and small floral sprays. The saucers and side plates both show the full central rock and peony composition, the plates being of scalloped outline with the pink diaper border running to a gilt edge. Across all seven pieces the transfer print is sharp and the hand-applied colour is fully present and well-registered.

The set presents in good used condition appropriate to its age. Crazing is present throughout, as is inherent to the Silicon China body and consistent with pieces of this period; it is not a fault but a characteristic of the ware. Gilding on the teapot handle shows wear along the outer edge and at the base of the spout. The cup handles show light gilding wear on the upper ridge. No chips, cracks, or restoration are visible on any piece.

Key Details

• Maker: Booths, Tunstall, Staffordshire, England
• Pattern: Mandarin
• Backstamp: Booths | Crown | Silicon China | England | Mandarin (printed in ochre)
• Shape: Globular teapot with domed lid; flared teacup; scalloped saucer and side plate
• Pieces: 7 — one six-cup teapot with lid, two teacups, two saucers, two side plates
• Material: Booths Silicon China (semi-vitreous earthenware)
• Period: Circa 1906
• Decoration: Transferware chinoiserie with hand-applied polychrome colour; pink diaper border; gilt edge and handle accents; central peony and scholar's rock composition
• Condition: Good used — crazing throughout (inherent to body); gilding wear on teapot handle outer edge, spout base, and cup handle upper ridges; no chips, cracks, or restoration
• Buyer profile: Collector of English transferware; chinoiserie china buyer; Booths collector; buyer seeking a decorative and usable antique tea set with genuine age and character

The scholar's rock has survived the crazing, the gilding wear, and approximately one hundred and twenty years of English weather — it is not about to be troubled by a South African summer.