Davenport "Amoy" Flow Blue Tea Bowls, c. 1840

A beautiful pair of antique Davenport “Amoy” flow blue tea bowls, featuring richly saturated cobalt-blue Chinoiserie decoration. The pattern depicts an East Asian-inspired landscape with architectural details, foliage, and water, rendered in the wonderfully atmospheric, softly blurred style characteristic of early flow blue.

The “Amoy” pattern takes its name from Amoy, the historical Western name for Xiamen, China, an important port and center of international trade in the 19th century. Chinese-inspired patterns like this were enormously popular with British ceramic manufacturers as Western interest in East Asian art and design grew during the period.

These tea bowls have a particularly lovely paneled form, with each vertical panel carrying portions of the transfer that flow together beautifully across the surface. The cobalt is wonderfully intense, with areas of deep blue bleeding into the white ground and creating that almost painterly quality that makes early flow blue so desirable. The bases are marked “Amoy.”

Origin: Longport, Staffordshire, England
Maker: Davenport
Pattern: Amoy
Date: c. 1840–1860
Material: Earthenware
Decoration: Flow blue transferware
Dimensions: 3.5" W x 2.75" H
Condition: Antique condition with age-related crazing, discoloration, and minor imperfections consistent with age and use. Please see photographs for details.