A beautifully painted Clarice Cliff Demitasse/Coffee Can and Saucer in the timeless and ever popular Autumn Crocus pattern. Dating to 1932, it carries the black 'Crocus Hand Painted Bizarre by Clarice Cliff Newport Pottery England' backstamp.
Painted in strong colours, the saucer has a band with three individual panels of delicately painted crocus flowers against a cream honeyglaze ground. The cup has two panels of crocus flowers around the body. The green rim and base band and earth-colour lower band are virtually unmarked on both the cup and saucer and extremely well and evenly painted. The cup's interior rim is painted in a striking bright yellow, with green lip.
In almost pristine condition, there are no cracks or crazing, and the flowers show no sign of oxidisation which can be seen on many Crocus pieces, particularly on the purple and occasionally the blue flowers. There are the tinyest couple of pinpricks on the brown band on the cup which can barely be seen, but the cup probably came out of the pottery like this.
With the cup in the saucer, it is 2½ inches (6.5cm) tall, the cup is 2 inches (5cm) in diameter and the saucer is 4 inches (10cm) in diameter. There is the tiniest of frits on the underside rim of the saucer.
Small is indeed beautiful in this piece, and you get an awful lot of hand painted crocus for the size. Considering these pieces were intended to be used every day, the quality and condition of this duo are something to be seen.
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