Portmeirion Birds Of Britain Pottery 8 Pint Soup Tureen And Ladle, B134
Portmeirion

A  Portmeirion 8 Pint Soup Tureen And Ladle From The Birds Of Britain Series By Susan Williams-Ellis.

A stunning soup tureen and ladle featuring the Pheasant and Fieldfare, with goldfinch accent birds on the bowl. The lid features the Bearded Tit, Bullfinch, Redstart and Chaffinch. The ladle features The Greenfinch in the bowl with Bullfinch accent birds around the bowl and the Nightingale on the handle.

This wonderful tureen is a slight second and has dimples in the glaze and inside the bowl.

There are brown marks on the back of the handle and the feint line along the handle of the ladle is just a mould mark from manufacture and not a fault.

This fantastic statement piece is from the very popular but now discontinued Birds Of Britain range of Portmeirion pottery.

Approx Dimensions:-

Tureen

12 in (30.5 cm) to top of lid knob

11 in (28 cm) handle to handle

Ladle

12 in (30.5 cm) x 4.5 in (11 cm) bowl diam 

Birds Of Britain

Susan Williams-Ellis originally conceived the idea for a Birds Of Britain range in 1974. The beautiful and highly decorative illustrations were taken from the book 'Natural History Of British Birds' by E. Donovan. The range launched in 1977, initially exclusively to John Lewis in the UK and Bitossi in Italy. This design became most popular in the USA and Europe but for some reason not so much in the UK, which Susan could never understand. The Barn Owl was removed to please the Italian market, where they were considered an ill omen, and the Black Cock was removed as it's name was thought to discourage sales. These two designs have since become highly collectable as they are much rarer than others, as they were discontinued in 1985. The whole range was discontinued around 1997, although some special orders were still available up to 2002.