David Foord-Brown Antiques

British, Derby, ca. 1785–1790
Soft-paste porcelain with polychrome enamel and gilding. This elegant trio—comprising a teacup, a taller coffee cup, and a shared saucer—represents the height of luxury tea and coffee wares in late eighteenth-century Britain. Fashionable manufacturers supplied trios to allow households to serve either beverage using a single, shared saucer.

The center of each piece features a striking armorial crest: a full-colour heraldic phoenix rising from a ring of iron-red and golden flames. This crest is usually related to the Seymour family (the Dukes of Somerset). The central motif is framed by an austere, finely tooled neoclassical gilded leaf border, a decorative hallmark of the William Duesbury II factory period executed by premier gilder Thomas Soar.