Vintage Paragon Gardenia Teacup & Saucer – White Bloom on Black, Powder Blue, Lucky Horseshoe Border, Double Royal Warrant, England 1940s

A Paragon Gardenia teacup and saucer from the double-royal-warrant years — a great white gardenia opening across a black medallion at the centre of cup and saucer, set in a soft powder-blue ground. Around the rims runs a black-printed garland of blossoms and tiny horseshoes, the old English token of luck, which made cups like this a favourite gift for brides.

The flower rewards a close look. Its shading is built entirely from fine black stippling — thousands of small printed dots that gather into grey along each petal edge — while the orange-red stamens and apple-green leaves are touched in by hand in enamel, so no two examples colour quite alike. A ring of printed eyelet lace edges the black medallion, like a doily beneath the bloom. The cup is the wide-mouthed, low-bowled cabinet shape Paragon favoured in this period, raised on a fully gilded pedestal foot, with gilt lines at the rim, waist, and scrolled handle.

The base carries the mark collectors look for: the full British royal arms with By Appointment — H.M. The Queen & H.M. Queen Mary, Fine Bone China, England. This double royal warrant — Queen Mary's granted in 1933, Queen Elizabeth's in 1938 — appears together only from 1939 to 1949, dating the set precisely. The saucer adds the hand-written ochre pattern number A621/6, the suffix marking this powder-blue colourway of the Gardenia series, with a decorator's numeral below.

A cup for the Paragon and Gardenia-series collector, for the black-and-blue grandmillennial shelf, or as a wedding, bridal-shower, or Mother's Day gift that carries its little horseshoes of luck around the rim.

• Type: Teacup & Saucer Set
• Maker: Paragon China Co. (Atlas Works), Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, England
• Era: Circa 1939–1949 (double royal warrant mark)
• Pattern: Gardenia, A621/6 — white gardenia on black medallion, powder-blue ground, horseshoe garland border
• Shape: Wide-mouth cabinet cup on gilt pedestal foot, scrolled handle
• Size: Cup ~3.75" / 9.5 cm dia × 2.25" / 5.7 cm tall; Saucer ~5.5" / 14 cm dia (approximate)
• Material: Fine Bone China
• Decoration: Stipple-shaded transfer gardenia with hand-tinted enamel; printed lace and horseshoe borders; gilt rims and foot
• Markings: Full royal arms, By Appointment H.M. The Queen & H.M. Queen Mary, Fine Bone China England Regd; hand-written pattern A621/6

Condition
Very good vintage condition. The gardenia, black medallion, and powder-blue ground are crisp and vivid inside and out. Light gilt wear to the pedestal foot band and along the handle ridge, consistent with age; a small factory glaze fleck sits beside the saucer's backstamp on the underside. No chips, cracks, crazing, or repairs on either piece. Please review all photos as part of the condition record.

Ships carefully packed from Canada. Combined shipping available. Orders to the United States ship duty-paid — all import duties are prepaid, so US buyers pay no extra fees on delivery.
Questions welcome — happy to provide additional photos of the mark or any area under direct light.

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