We started collecting the Royal Albert Provincial Flowers Series in 1985 when we happened upon a small china shop in Woodstock, New Brunswick. We fell in love with the dramatic patterns and being a botanist and an artist had to have these. We started with five cups and saucers and three salad plates. Over the next few years we were able to add more cups and saucers and plates until we were down to just a few. Then a set of Purple Violet became available at the same shop in New Brunswick and we drove up to get it and shortly thereafter we were in Vienna, Austria and found, of all places, the final trio of the Prairie Lily.
Meanwhile we had discovered Replacements, Ltd. in North Carolina and visited them to look at additional serving pieces. Here we picked up a cake plate, large creamer, covered sugar bowl and Regal tray and went on the waiting list for a tea pot. After two tries we did get the tea pot. Reasonably content with our collection I started to notice that Replacements had both the mugs and demitasse cups/saucers as well as other serving pieces. By now we were reading more about the pattern on the web and saw all of the other pieces in the set. The pattern was produced from only 1975-2001. Eventually we started buying mugs in 2006 and now have 8 of the 12 and started acquiring the demitasse sets with 10 (4 from Germany!) of the 12. We are also adding some of the serving pieces. We use our set and it is primarily for desserts, so originally soup bowls, dinner plates, etc. were not of primary interest until now, but that is changing. The summer of 2010 has been excellent with the 11½ demitasse cups and saucers, 3 new mugs, and 14 new serving pieces including the small open sugar bowl and two large fruit bowls from England and the tea trivet and large sandwich plate, and a salt and pepper set - all very rare. Learned this summer that coffee cups = demitasse NOT mugs! Two more mugs were added in December so only 2 to go!
By early January 2011 the Madonna Lily demitasse cup and saucer became available on eBay to complete that set and a new connection with friends from Holland resulted in a hand delivery of two Hampton-shaped demitasse cups and saucers and a connection to enable us to buy more from the Netherlands and have them shipped here. The 11th mug – Pitcher Plant- was won on Ebay so that leaves only the Prairie Crocus left.
Trios
In early March we were able to add two more Hampton-shaped demis and another small berry bowl from Holland. April added an additional dinner plate and 4 7” side plates and 3 soup plates. Prototypes of the jam pot and coffee pot warmer were unusual additions from the Netherlands.
Mugs
Tureen
Coffee pot with small creamer and sugar bowl, pot warmer,and Regal tray
Small and large creamers and sugar bowls with trays
Demitasses (Gainesborough shape)
A full china cabinet!
Salad bowl
Soup plate
Salt and pepper shakers
Tea tile
11" serving tray
small berry bowl, large serving bowl, and 7" side plate
AUGUST 2011 UPDATE
The summer so far has been interesting. Not much in the Provincial Flowers series available although we have added a few more cups and saucers with the striped foot. A birthday gift of the full 12 sets of the ‘no copyright’ everyday series was a great surprise.
12 cups and saucers with the 'plain' backstamp
A very unusual 10.5" center-handled serving dish made with a dinner plate was found in Rhode Island and a second quality 16” oval serving platter that is nearly as good as a first, from Massachusetts. Bidding on Aug. 1 for the elusive coffee pot! We lost the bid on the coffee pot from the UK due to a technicality in the bidding process and then 3 weeks later it came up again (the original buyer returned it) and we were able to get it! It took some fast emails and cooperation on the part of the seller but it finally went through. This was the seventh coffee pot we had tried to get. Others were either outbid, part of a large collection, or would not ship to the US.
September 2011 Update
Four very curious 6" side plates were bought from England. They are unlike anything else we have ever seen. The 6" plates should be all Alberta Rose bread and butter plates (which we do not have) but these are the usual flower patterns but appear to be the decal for the saucer placed on a slightly larger side plate and they are signed on the reverse. They came from Stoke were RA was produced and we can only assume they were one-of-a-kind curiosities or mistakes. At any rate we are thrilled to have them. The final MUG that we needed, Prairie Crocus, was found on EBay from Scotland on Sept. 11 and with the cooperation the seller and of a friend in England we were able to convert the auction to Buy It Now and secure the mug. That completes our collection of the primary 12 provincial flower pieces - tea cups, side plates, demitasse sets, mugs. All that remains are a few plates in Alberta Rose tea set and the remaining Hampton-style demitasse cups and saucers, if they were ever made.
3-tier server from cake plate, dinner plate, and dessert plate
Those with a striped, instead of solid, gold foot and the image inside of the cup.
With a single gold stripe on the foot and NO image inside the cup.
The four curious 6" signed plates.
February 2012 update.
Christmas brought the next two Hampton demitasse sets and two more stripe-footed cups and saucers from Holland. From the U.K. a very unusual set of coasters and tea trivet via Ebay. We could not find anyone who had ever seen these before and they were in their original box!
The big change is we are expanding to some of the other smaller series that are similar. We had already acquired the Flora Series and now have the Bouquet Series, the Merrie England Series and almost all of the Ladies Name series - all very beautiful and most with the black backgrounds.
We also decided to add some selected serving pieces from the OCR flatware series most of which also came as a gift from a friend.
The most unusual item we found is the original sales brochure for the series from an auction in Germany.
Note: We are fortunate that all of our trios are first run (1975-1987) with the ©1975 Royal Albert LTD. back stamp. Apart from seconds, with the backstamp scratched, there were three more productions of the many of the cups and saucers – backstamps read Royal Albert LTD. ©1975, no date or copyright, and those without gold on the foot custom made for the western European market. Both sets of demitasses and the mugs appear to all be first run only. All of the Alberta Rose dinner and serving pieces have the original ©1975 Royal Albert LTD. backstamp.
Not much has happened since the last post other than a cache of Alberta Rose platters and bowls that went at auction for way too much money (not to us!). In 2014 we were able to add only two pieces. The striped foot full sized cup and saucer set in Prairie Crocus (only one to go now - Dogwood!) and the Pitcher Plant in the small Hampton demitasse. As the list narrows down there are fewer and fewer pieces to add each year.. We have continued to collect other Royal Albert with a full set of trios of the early edition of Flower of the Month and now eight of the 12 of the same pattern in the Gainesborough style. Probably the hardest to find. Also a large collection of Forget Me Not for the cottage in Maine. We hope for more in 2015.
This is the full inventory of what we have and what we are looking for:
ALBERTA ROSE (Alberta): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucerDOGWOOD (British Columbia): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
FIREWEED (Yukon): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
LADY'S SLIPPER (PEI): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
MADONNA LILY (Quebec): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
MAYFLOWER (Nova Scotia): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
MOUNTAIN AVENS (NWT): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
PITCHER PLANT (N’land & Lab.): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
PRAIRIE CROCUS (Manitoba): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cups and saucer
PRAIRIE LILY (Saskatchewan): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
PURPLE VIOLET (New Brunswick): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
TRILLIUM (Ontario): teacup and saucer, dessert plate, mug, demitasse cup and saucer
HAMPTON-SHAPED DEMITASSE SETS: Prairie Lily, Dogwood, Fireweed, Mt. Avens ,Madonna Lily, Mayflower, Alberta rose, pitcher plant, purple violet,
ALBERTA ROSE TEA SET
round handled cake plate 13½” (2)
tea pot
coffee pot
large creamer (8 oz.) 4”
covered sugar bowl 3”
open sugar bowl 2” (2)
small creamer/milk jug 4 oz.
Regal tray 9”
salad/fruit serving bowl 9½”
small fruit bowl 5½” (2)
round vegetable bowl 9¼” (2)
oval serving platter 16” (2)
charger/chop plate 12½”
dessert/side plates 7¼” (4)
rimmed soup plate (4)
dinner plates 10½” (3)
tureen/punch bowl 12¼”
tea trivet 6”
sandwich tray 12”
assorted side plates 6" (4)
footed tidbit serving plate with handle 8½”
large serving plate with handle 10½” (2)
3-tier serving tray
salt & pepper set
jam pot
coffee pot warmer
footed cheese plate with glass dome- Lady’s-slipper
Royal Albert Provincial Flowers WANT LIST
HAMPTON-SHAPED DEMITASSE SETS: lady's slipper, prairie crocus, trilliumALBERTA ROSE TEA SET
platter 13½”; {10½” handled cake plate}
We are always interested in exchanging information with other RAPF collectors.
Paul & Stan (naorchid@aol.com)
