A stunning 1930s Art Deco Susie Cooper coffee set decorated with orange and brown banding. Restraint, fitness for purpose and a careful consideration for shape and pattern are Susie Cooper hallmarks, to which this rare 1930s Rex coffee set in cream and tango orange stands testament. The Susie Cooper trademark signature is on the underside of each piece, and the set includes a coffee pot (bearing her early signature leaping deer logo), sugar bowl, and six cups & saucers - and all in wonderful condition. Rex refers to the coffee pot shape, and it is rare to find Cooper's signature orange banding on this shape, as Rex was generally assigned to her more prolific "Dresden Spray" pattern. 

History

Susie Cooper (1902 – 95) was at the forefront of British Industrial Ceramics for over sixty years, and is now recognised as one of the most important and influential ceramic designers of her generation. She revolutionised tableware in the 1930s by producing elegantly designed, functional and cost-conscious earthenwares. Cooper took her cues from the current trend for modernism. Friend and architect Serge Chermayeff - co-designer of the 1935 modernist De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill - was one such influence. The emphasis was on functionalism, the dynamic relationship between form and colour, and the restraint that should be practiced with regard to decoration. Few of the Staffordshire potteries found favour with this new approach.  Susie Cooper was the exception. Her early works, such as this Rex shape coffee set, are now much sort after by collectors.

Material: glazed earthenware in cream and aerographed orange with fine brown banding

Manufacturer: Susie Cooper pottery, Wood & Sons Ltd, UK

Design shape: Rex

Year of manufacture: c.1938

Coffee pot dimensions: Diameter 12cm  Height 16.5cm  Width from spout to handle 20cm

Condition: no chips, no hairlines, no repairs, all great. Just a few very tiny nicks to the saucer edges, yet these appear to have been done when it was made, as they are glazed over. There are a couple of minuscule nicks to two coffee can rims - see last image - and some crazing to the glaze, which is very common with 1930s Susie Cooper tea and coffee wares. Other than that, everything is perfect. Please note it is without a cream jug. 

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