With such beautiful weather for February, I have begun envisioning possible Spring holiday tablescapes. I cannot wait to bring out these dainty vintage tea cups and saucers from Bavaria (purchased at Summit Antiques Center). Each piece is dressed with pink and green florals and delicate gold trim.

I suspected these were old so I referred to my favorite resource for porcelain marks and history. I learned that the mark on these pieces (C.T. with an eagle) was used between 1875 and around 1900.

According to Porcelain Marks & More, The C. Tielsch Co. is one of a long line of German porcelain manufacturers at the original Hutschenreuther Porcelain Factory which started in Hohenberg, Bavaria in 1814. The C. Tielsch Co. located in what had become Silesia, Germany, used the underglaze mark beginning around 1875 and continuing into the early 1900’s. The Tielsch plates are outstanding for their bright contrasting colors and gold in the decoration.

One reason for the success of Carl Tielsch straight from the beginning was that he had a very large product range, starting with normal household pieces, going over hotel porcelain and ending with luxury goods. In addition, the facility always had the best designers and decorators.

In 1882, the member of the Chamber of Commerce (thus entitled to carry the title of ‘Kommerzienrat’) Carl Tielsch died at the age of 67. Quite a few of his workers and citizens of the town mourned his death as he was not just a normal businessman and in his life had done quite a lot of social work, like introducing workers and disability pension fund. His son, the businessman and reserve officer Egmont Tielsch was also engaged in social work and had earned himself a very good reputation. He continued the work of his father and was soon able to start planning an additional production location in Altwasser that was then officially opened on January 1st 1906. Because of his outstanding services for the industry in combination with his social work, Egmont was awarded the ‘Roten Adlerorden IV. Klasse’ (Red Eagle Medal 4th class) and he was raised to peerage. His new title and name of Ritter und Kommerzienrat Egmont von Tielsch gave the firm another boost in sales and in 1913 the company reached its peak employee count with 1,500 workers including 270 potters and 110 decorators. (Source: Porcelainmarksandmore.com).