Wedgwood “Mayfair” Saucers on the Embossed Wellesley Shape, Made in England, c. 1934–1950 (Set of 5)

The Piece

Twelve saucers in cream-coloured earthenware, carrying the same moulded border as the Mayfair dinner plates but compressed into a smaller round, which makes the relief read denser and richer.

The rim runs in three registers: an outer ring of raised ovolo beads, a band of fruiting vine and flower swags with small figures set into the foliage, and a fine beaded string closing it off. All of it is left in the white, so the pattern is carried entirely by light and shadow.

Inside that sits a shallow circular well with a raised ring at its centre — the seat a teacup drops into. Printed into the middle of that seat is the Mayfair bouquet: a deep pink cabbage rose or a ringed yellow-and-red bloom depending on the piece, with a peach, purple grapes, a lilac aster, small blue and red flowers, and green foliage on fine brown stems.

The bouquets are not all identical. Across the group there are at least two arrangements of the same elements, which is what happens when a decoration is applied by hand over a run of years rather than stamped from one plate.

History & Provenance

The backstamp is the same one the Mayfair dinner plates carry, and it dates these the same way.

Printed in brown: MAYFAIR above a scrolled cartouche reading WELLESLEY, then WEDGWOOD, MADE IN ENGLAND, and U.S.A. PATENT D.93217. WELLESLEY names the moulded shape and MAYFAIR names the decoration applied to it. Alongside sit the marks of the people who handled each piece — a hand-painted pattern code in red, a teal ring, a small stamped device, and an impressed code in the clay.

That patent number is the anchor. US design patent D.93,217 was filed on 13 June 1934 and granted on 4 September 1934 to John Edward Goodwin of Stoke-on-Trent, Wedgwood's art director, assigned to Josiah Wedgwood & Sons. A granted patent number printed on the back means these cannot have been made before September 1934.

The far end of the range is an estimate, and we will say so rather than dress it up. Wedgwood ran the Wellesley shape for decades and backstamps outlive the patents they cite; this one expired in 1941. So the window runs from a documented floor to mid-century.

These are saucers, not bowls or small plates, and it is worth being exact about that. The raised ring in the centre of the well is a cup seat — it exists to stop a teacup sliding. No cups are included, and we are not going to describe these as anything other than what they are.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Twelve matching pieces of pre-war English earthenware is a number you almost never see, and it is the number that lets you actually entertain. Most surviving vintage china comes in fours and sixes, which is why sets like this get broken up. This one has not been.

Saucers without their cups are the best-kept secret in table styling, because they are cheap, they stack, and they are exactly the right size for the jobs a plate is too big for: a tea bag, a slice of lemon, olive pits, a scoop of ice cream, a single macaron, a candle, jewellery on a nightstand, a bar of soap. Under a plain modern cup or a glass tumbler they instantly make the setting look considered.

The border is the reason to choose these over any plain white saucer. Moulded relief left in the white reads as texture rather than pattern, which means it sits under any colour scheme and any cup, modern or antique.

They also pair directly with the Mayfair dinner plates listed separately — same shape, same decoration, same backstamp. Bought together they build a service; bought alone they still stand on their own.

A note on use and care: crazed glaze is finely cracked and porous, so it takes up whatever sits in it. Hand wash only, in warm water with mild soap, and dry at once. Never soak them, never run them through a dishwasher — heat and detergent drive staining into the crazing permanently, which is exactly what happened to some of the dinner plates. Do not microwave. Use them for short-contact service and display rather than for storing food, and slip a paper or felt round between each one when stacking.