You know by now how fond I am of early transfer decorated children's mugs, though I've gotten increasingly particular--looking for especially early ones, or examples I haven't seen before, or ones with a special sort of resonance--all of which are the case with this one! This small creamware cup, another example of which I'd not seen before but have found one reference to since, dates to the 1820s if not a little earlier, with the hand-painted color over the early transfer especially deep and rich. Of course it's the "Token of Love" printed across the bottom (in the best lettering) that really makes it for me--as there's nothing I love more than a love token! I also really love how much the little girl looks like a a grown woman, just smaller. Plus the gesture of the mother (I presume), her hand hovering over the girl's head as if about to pat her, but looking equally as if she might squash her--or command her levitation! This all makes me very glad, as do the old repairs, which only seem to reinforce its "token of love"-ness--an endearing, enduring, dear thing.
2 1/16" t x 2 1/4" in diameter; 2 15/16" across at handle. Two old repairs: 1)a chip to the rim to the left of the image and 2) a chip to the body near the bottom of the handle to the right of the image, that repair looking almost as if incorporating a fragment from another piece of pottery entirely, I'm not sure, but (as someone who appreciates resourceful repair over pristine condition) it feels quite sweet to me.
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