Vintage Staffordshire Sandland Ware Covered Butter Dish, Cream Jug & Bowl Set (c. 1940s-1950s)

The Set

A Staffordshire Sandland Ware set comprising a lidded butter dish with its tray and a matching open bowl.

Each piece is molded earthenware, glazed to a smooth, glossy finish and decorated by hand. Bold stylized floral motifs are set against a creamy white ground, with silver luster highlights picking out the botanical detail and the rims.

The butter dish has a domed lid with a handle and sits on its own tray. The bowl repeats the pattern in open form.

History & Provenance

The pieces are marked as Sandland Ware, produced by Lancaster & Sandland Ltd. of Hanley, Staffordshire, England, in the pottery district long associated with quality English ceramics.

Lancaster & Sandland Ltd. operated in Hanley from 1944 until 1968 and was known for its earthenware under the Sandland Ware name, which became collectible on the strength of its designs and workmanship.

These pieces date from approximately the late 1940s to the 1950s, from the period when post-war English pottery was made to be both useful and decorative, and when silver luster was a favored way of dressing up a modest earthenware body.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Small English earthenware of this period is among the most usable antique china there is. It was made for daily service, it is not precious, and a covered butter dish still does exactly what it was made to do.

The silver luster is what lifts it. Against the cream glaze it reads as a metallic line rather than a color, which lets the set sit beside silver and glass on a table without competing.

Displayed on open kitchen shelving, in a dresser, or brought out for a table, the set gives a room a note of mid century English domestic life. Collectors of Staffordshire and of luster ware will know the name.