Old Pottery Egg Cup to Identify, Please

I've been getting nowhere on other forums with identifying this old, shabby pottery egg cup with what I take to be sponged blue decoration. It came in a large lot of blue and white egg cups, and was the only one of this type of pottery, most were delicate porcelain. (I may post some unidentified ones later!) I know it is in terrible shape but I would really like to know more about it, and particularly if you can suggest any search terms which would help me research it. It can't be as old as it looks, since egg cups were mainly made for the upper classes from the late 18th century, and this more "cottage ware" type of pottery one should be much later, I imagine mid-19th century onwards but I really don't know. It might be much more recent but just incredibly badly treated, or maybe with a glaze very prone to crazing. Can any of you lovely helpful people out there give me any leads on it?

 

I'm not a big pottery person, but the sponge ware technique looks a lot like Bennington Pottery work. Might be worth a look.

 

are we the 4 th choice.............

 

That looks like early Bourne Denby. I'd have said early 20th.

 

Yes, the shape and finish are very like Bourne Denby, who still make goblet-like egg cups similar to this one. But the deterioration is very odd, and to date to the 20th century would mean it had been really badly treated, as if it had been put in a dishwasher and then in a freezer and then buried in the ground . . . I was wondering if it was something earlier, a pottery style which Denby then continued years later. If it weren't for the terrible crazing I would think it a really good object, I have a few Denby pieces, none with crazing! Perhaps I will try to find a Denby collectors' club and ask them, if one exists.

 

Thanks for this. I've looked up Bennington and see that they are in Vermont, whereas I am in the UK, and very little American pottery or china has made it to the UK over the years, unlike the massive exports in the other direction. (That applies to people travelling with ancestral china too!) It is also a bit more even in colour than Bennington, but I will keep a look-out for that firm when trying to identify pottery, you never know your luck!

 

Hi, that does sound rather bad, doesn't it, but I have just acquired a large collection of egg cups, and have been trying them out first on the Facebook egg cup collectors' forum. People have liked to see them on there but haven't recognised any of them, since they were mostly made as part of table services rather than as collectable egg cups. This forum has proved invaluable in identifying all sorts of items, perhaps I should have tried it first! There will be more egg cups to come . . .

 

Might have been stuck in a box outside for a while, that would do it.

 

I don't think we saw the base or asked if it's marked so is it marked?

I lightened it a bit because I kept seeing flower patterns and some sort of pattern around the base. Probably just me however it clearly does have a painted band around the top.