Clarice Cliff & Branksome China
In keeping with their appreciation of art deco style, Hilda and Ken had a complete set of Clarice Cliff tableware – not one of her more elaborate patterns but a simple design of cream ringed with greens and white. The original set was complete with plates for dinner and tea, serving dishes, and teacups – as a child these fascinated me, as they had a solid triangle for a handle and were awkward to hold. I don’t remember them ever being used.
Our son Ben used the dinner plates for everyday for a while, but found that the glaze had deteriorated so they were beyond use. All that we have left is the serving platter, which we still bring out when we serve a very large Sunday roast.
Crockery sets such as these, those present each day on the breakfast or dinner table, those brought out on special occasions, are deep repositories of memory. As a child you happily scrape them clean of food; or stare down at them when upset. Their shape, pattern, weight, how they feel in the hand, draw forth a tumble images and stories from the past, often just inchoate feeling, but sometimes of very specific events. The dragon cake dish is one such.
I must have been eight or nine. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon at the family home. Well past Sunday lunch, my mother had enjoyed tea in the garden, served in the best tea service with the dragon image. Wanting to be helpful, I carried the dirty china on a tray into the kitchen to wash it up. But the draining board was full: the meat roasting pan, yellow enamel with a rounded top, had been left to soak clean. I could neither set the tray down nor, as my my hands were full, could I clear a space for it. So I carefully balanced the tray full of tea things on the top of the roasting dish. I was so sure it was well balanced, and indeed it was, until I lifted off the first cup to wash, and the whole tray full slipped sideways onto the floor with a crash.
My father came in from the garden. I was deeply upset, but no one seemed to be cross with me. We cleared up and never spoke of the incident again. But I have since then always been careful of how things are set on the draining board.
Sometime after that, Mother bought the new green and beige china tea service from Branksome China of which she was enormously proud. So I wonder how much she actually liked the dragon set, and whether I gave her the opportunity to treat herself! (These pieces are reportedly collectable)
We use the ‘new’ china when special guests come for tea. The cake plate is the only piece of the dragon tea service that survives. We still use it to serve cucumber sandwiches at our midsummer garden party. Over seventy years later, I still recall the crash of the china on the kitchen floor.
