Fabulous Vintage MCM Poole Pottery Twintone 15 Piece Demi Tasse Coffee Set Plus Matching Coffee Pot All in Colourway C54, Sepia and Mushroom, Streamline Shape, Circa 1955-59, Except the Later Contour Jug, Circa 1959-67

A possible impending house move has forced me into evaluating all the contents of my attic and some items will have to go, in my effort to downsize. I'm making progress but more items need to go! I'm moving on to some of my Poole Pottery Twintone items now!

For sale here is a Fabulous Vintage MCM Poole Pottery Twintone 15 Piece Demi Tasse Coffee Set Plus Matching Coffee Pot All in Colourway C54, Sepia and Mushroom, Streamline Shape, Circa 1955-59, Except the Later Contour Jug, Circa 1959-67

Colourway C54: Sepia (named after squid ‘ink’) is a milk chocolate brown, while Mushroom is the pale biscuity pink found on the underside of edible mushrooms. Due to the long lifespan of this colourway, spanning the two design shapes, (Streamline and Contour), there is a huge variety of pieces to collect in this colourway, making it very popular to collectors.

Included in the sale here are the following items:
6 small demi tasse/espresso cups (Streamline shape)
6 small saucers (Streamline shape)
Milk creamer (Contour shape)
Open sugar bowl (Streamline shape)
Small mushroom coloured serving plate (Streamline shape)
Matching Coffee pot (Streamline shape)

This is a fab demi tasse or espresso set with the small coffee cups standing just over 2 inches/ 5 cm tall and 2.6 inches/6.5 cm in diameter at the top. The saucers are 4.75 inches/ 12 cm in diameter. The coffee pot stands 6 inches/15 cm tall and holds 500 ml of coffee.

All the pieces are in excellent vintage condition with no chips, cracks, or crazing, except for one cup which has a tiny bit of glaze missing from the rim as photographed.

Selling all sixteen pieces together as a set.

I will have a number of other Pool Pottery Twintone lots in this C54 Colourway coming over the coming days, so keep an eye out if you are wishing to build a set or replace missing/broken items!

Now for the History Bit!!!
Poole Pottery (Carter, Stabler and Adams) produced two-coloured tableware from the 1930s but had to stop production during World War Two. When they re-launched the range in the late 1940s, they named it Twintone. Twintone was used on three shapes of tableware, many table accessories and a whole host of decorative ware right up to 1981.

Not all Poole tableware of the mid-20th century is Twintone, even if it appears to come in two colours. Twintone glazes are described as ‘semi-matt’ or ‘vellum’ because of their smooth feel and soft sheen, and they always come in two distinctive colours. Many Twintone pieces can be identified by the ‘C number’ on their base, which defines the colour combination.

When Twintone was launched in the 1940s, five pre-war colour combinations (with inside colour first) were used, three of which only lasted until 1950: C50 Pink and Seagull, C65 Magnolia and Shagreen, C85 Sky and Magnolia.
The two more enduring combinations, lasting as long as Twintone itself (until 1981) were: C57 Ice Green and Seagull and C54 Sepia and Mushroom.
In the 1950s, Further New Glaze combinations were added as some of the old colours were discontinued. Some were popular and lasted a number of years. Others were less so and only ran for a year or two.

The two main tableware ranges in which Twintone was produced were Streamline and Contour.

Streamline was the masterpiece of John Adams, a flowing Modernist shape designed in the 1930s and created in a full range of tea, dinner and coffeeware. The original Streamline shape was lsightly remodelled by Alfred Read in 1955.

Contour was designed in 1962 by Robert Jefferson. Nothing could be more different from Streamline. Contour had massive angled handles, sweeping spouts and elongated knops. Although tea, coffee and dinnerware were designed, the total number of shapes was fewer, owing to changes in life-style meaning that pieces were more versatile.