H97.101.16

The cups and saucers in this collection come from Della's Tea Cup Cafe, 7309 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland, which was established in February, 1967. The cafe is noted for, and decorated with, a very large collection of tea cups. Some of the cups were purchased by the owner, others were presented to her as gifts, while still others were made for her. A: cup is of shaped porcelain, a slightly warped six-sided flute, that has been glazed with a white interior and a pink exterior; at the grooves between each of the six sides are glazed mauve stripes. The cup has been hand painted with metallic gold with a single stripe at the lip, tiny dots outlining each of the mauve stripes and in the form of floral branches, probably Cherry Blossoms, that are placed between the stripes and extend downward through the upper half of the cup; the petals of the flowers are painted in baby blue. The handle is curved and slightly warped and is also decorated in metallic gold. The bottom of the cup is marked with the manufacturer:"Limoges,France," and the local store or dealer:"Raphael Weill & Co., San Francisco." B: saucer is of the same materials, shape, and color as the cup. It is also warped, with the edges curling up unevenly. Many of the metallic gold dots that outlined the mauve stripes are rubbed off. The bottom is marked in green: "Limoges, France," and "Raphael Weill & Co., San Francisco." The donor remarked: "[This is] the cup I really like the most; I say 'most' but I really like them all. I think this is so clever; just look at that. The colors... the colors, you know its hard to get the colors. I was just wondering how in the world they'd get that deep a color and put it in... and it all just doesn't run together. They glazed it. There is a possibility that they glazed under it. It's something."

Used: Della's Tea Cup Cafe | Della Hardmon Guess | African American | Drinking | Raphael Weill and Company | San Francisco | Lynn Neighborhood