Geranium flowers represent happiness, cheerfulness, good health and friendship.

{HISTORY}

Made by Salem China in the 1950s, this pair of vintage cups and saucers features the very stylish Geranium pattern. A garden lover's delight as well as the favorite flower of Paris window boxes, the orangey-red petals and green leaves look handpainted but they are actually transferware patterns elegantly placed in the center of the cups on the front-facing side and off-set on the saucers.  This colorful arrangement makes them look so pretty from all angles.

In the 1950s, to mark their debut, the Geranium pattern was offered as a giveaway in incentive promotion campaigns.  In 1952 for example, if you lived in Nashville or Phoenix you bought a brand-new shiny white Universal gas range, a set of Geranium dinnerware in service for 8 (53 pieces!) would be included.  

It's fun to imagine that when combined with a brand new stove, a mid-century cooks kitchen could be beautifully transformed into a colorful cottage-style space thanks to her floral bouquet of plates and bowls, cups and saucers, platters, and serving dishes. Add in some spring green homemade curtains, a shiny red and white enamelware-topped table and a matching floor rug and your scene was set for colorful mealtimes then and there. 

Salem closed its doors in the mid-1960s, and this Geranium pattern has been a hard one to find ever since.  Understandably, good things can be delightfully elusive when it comes to vintage collecting. Geranium flowers represent happiness, good health, cheerfulness and friendship - exactly the kind of positivity you want radiating from your kitchen and all the company who come to dine there. 

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

- Matching set of two cups and saucers

- Colors include tomato red, coral, spring green, pine green against an ivory body.

- Both the cups and saucers are unmarked on bottom

{CONDITION}

in absolutely beautiful vintage condition. There are no chips or cracks except for two very small chips on the bottom footing of one cup. There is also one light separation seam in the geranium blossom on one saucer, which most likely occurred during the manufacturing process as it is not a utensil mark. Lovely, light crazing adds authentic age. Please see photos.

{SIZE}

Each saucer measures 6.25" inches in diameter and each cup measures 2" inches (height) x 3.75" inches in diameter. Together, both cup and saucer sets weigh 1.6 lbs.