Portmeirion Pottery Moss Agate Design Goblet, SM4-MA18
Portmeirion Pottery

An extraordinarily rare Portmeirion Moss Agate goblet with 22-carat gilding - one of Susan Williams-Ellis's most sought-after and expensive designs. Finding a piece like this is like finding the Holy Grail of Portmeirion pottery.

This museum-quality goblet represents the pinnacle of Susan Williams-Ellis's innovative design work. The Moss Agate pattern was her most costly and technically challenging creation, combining hand-applied transfers with rich 22-carat gold lustre in a groundbreaking technique that gave the design an unprecedented three-dimensional quality.

During production, Susan discovered that the transfer paper partially resisted the gold lustre, creating a ghostly appearance beneath the gilding once fired and burnished. This accidental innovation made the cameo-style agate illustrations look remarkably like real gemstone cameos - more striking than she had ever imagined possible.

Why This Piece is Exceptional

Due to the extraordinarily complex and expensive production process, very few Moss Agate pieces were ever made. Most were created as special gifts for family and friends, as full commercial production was financially impossible. Items in this legendary design are exceptionally rare on the market today.

This actual goblet appears in Stephens book on Portmeirion Pottery on page 34. You can get a copy of this excellent book here.

Condition & Authentication

Condition: Excellent vintage condition for a piece of this age and rarity. The 22-carat gilding remains vibrant with only minor wear consistent with its age. No chips, cracks, or damage to the pottery itself.

Backstamp: Bears the brown Portmeirion Moss Agate Gray's backstamp, confirming its authenticity and early production period.

Certificate: Supplied with a signed certificate of authenticity by Stephen McKay, renowned Portmeirion expert and author.

Historical Significance

Susan Williams-Ellis created the Moss Agate design shortly after her groundbreaking Malachite pattern. Fascinated by geological illustrations in antique books, she was particularly drawn to moss agate stones - semi-precious gemstones where natural impurities create patterns resembling leaves, plants, ferns, and tree-like formations during the stone's formation.

She designed a background pattern of noughts, crosses, and dots, over which individual agate cameo illustrations were scattered. This pattern was engraved onto copper sheets to create delicate transfers. The transfers were applied to straight-sided pottery shapes (where the pattern worked best), then enriched with "best gold" - premium 22-carat gold liquid lustre applied by hand to each cameo.

Most Moss Agate pieces were produced on Gray's standard shapes including lidded jars, tapered mugs, apothecary jars, goblets, and a few coffee sets on Tuscan bone china bodies. These richly gilded, highly decorative pieces are typically found in excellent condition, having been treasured in cabinets throughout their lives.

Investment & Collectability

This is a serious investment piece for advanced Portmeirion collectors. Moss Agate remains the rarest and most valuable of all Susan Williams-Ellis's designs. Pieces appear on the market so infrequently that they represent a genuine opportunity for collectors seeking the ultimate addition to their collection.

The combination of innovative technique, limited production, 22-carat gold decoration, and exceptional condition makes this sifter a museum-quality piece of British pottery history.

Don't miss this rare opportunity to acquire one of Portmeirion's most legendary and sought-after designs.

Approx Dimensions:-

4.5 in (11.5 cm) tall

3.75 in (9.5 cm) diam 

Moss Agate

Shortly after the creation of 'Malachite', Susan Williams-Ellis's ground-breaking, hand painted design of the semi-precious gemstone of the same name, she conjured up an astonishing design based on another gemstone called 'Moss Agate', and this is what she called her design.  Susan researched her idea using old books on geology which had some images of actual agate samples. When the stone is forming, impurities work their way into the material, naturally causing imperfections and marks; some resembling leaf, plant and tree-like patterns and sometimes ferns and firework displays. Some of these stones were, and are still, highly prized and are cut into cameos and cabochons for the jewellery trade. These natural and unusual forms fascinated Susan and she began designing a pattern based on what she had seen. She drew a background pattern consisting of noughts, crosses and dots which then had individual illustrations of cameos of agate scattered over it. This pattern was then engraved onto a copper sheet, from which a delicately inked transfer was produced. This transfer was placed onto the item to be decorated, mainly straight sided items as the pattern worked best on these. Rich, 22 carat gold liquid lustre, 'best gold', was applied to the cameos. During her trials, Susan noticed that the part of the transfer that remained under the gold lustre, partially resisted the gold and peeked through once it was fired and burnished, giving a ghostly but three dimensional appearance. The little cameos took on a whole new appearance, looking more like real cameos than Susan had ever hoped for. In fact, Susan had invented a new technique all together! Despite the excitement of this new design, the process was long, difficult and incredibly expensive, and remains the most costly and rare of all Susan's designs. Few items were made and mostly were done as gifts for family and friends, as full production was financially out of the question. Most of the items made were on Gray's standard shapes such as lidded jars, tapered mugs, apothecary jars, goblets and a few coffee sets made on a bone china body by Tuscan. Richly gilded and highly decorative, these rare and unusual pieces are normally found in excellent condition, having been kept in cabinets all of their lives. Finding a piece these days is like finding the 'Holy Grail'!