Friends [re]united

My town's four charity shops are a constant source of fascination for me, even without buying a thing. But yesterday I pounced on the left-hand cup and saucer, labelled Polish, £4. Although it isn't a perfect match it's exactly the same style as  the one on the right which is a relic from my childhood. Back in the early 60s, I imagine,  my parents purchased, from where I don't know, a tea set that was used daily for years. I always loved it but never knew its provenance. All that remains of it now is a battered teapot stained by many brews, a sugar basin (still in use), one chipped plate and the cup and saucer. 

So they came from Poland! And now I've googled I realize that anyone who knew anything about ceramics could have told me that the old tea set, marked simply Foreign, was a typical example of Boleslawiec stoneware. This town, formerly in Lower Silesia and known then as Bunzlau, has been making pottery since the 13th century and using these characteristic Pfauenauge (peacock's eye) spongework patterns of spots in cobalt blue, with green and russet, since the 1830s. Production ceased during the last war but the tradition was carried on by displaced potters in Germany until the factories were re-opened by the Poles. My parents must have got hold of one of the earliest post-war batches but the design still being made, see here.

The new cup and saucer seems slicker and more commercial  than the old one which is  rustic and home-spun in comparison but it's given me great satisfaction to marry them up and to discover their history, which is part of my history too, after a fashion.

Fancy a cuppa, anyone?