Japanese Exportware | Blue Willow | Antique | Play Teaset Items

I've been a fan of willow for most of my life, but until I started rescuing ceramics, I never knew that children's play sets were worth almost as much as their grown up counterparts. The complete play sets (those with teapots and jugs etc.) are the ones worth the most. But just because a set is not 'complete' doesn't mean that parts were lost or are missing. Most are sold separately, again just like their analogous grown up version.

This tea set is difficult to date; The bottom is stamped import, and thus we know it came from Asia, probably Japan (European goods to other European countries don't have this stamp, and the Americas didn't make these type of teasets). We also know it is fairly early transferware, as you can see from the slight manufacturing imperfections where the copper plate has slipped.

The original seller was approx 40 years old, and it was her mother's as a child (and the seller was never allowed to play with it!). Let's say her mother was 25 years older. That makes it at least 60-70 years old. However, transferware 70 years ago in 1950 was far more sophisticated than this example (they didn't use the traditional method at this point). Rather this looks as if comes from the early 1900s or even earlier. Even better, it's in very good condition. A collector's item if ever there was one.