How many pieces are in a coffee set?

It varies more than the name suggests. Listings run from a three-piece trio to twelve-piece services for six, with a ten-piece set for five persons the largest counted service in the archive. Titles usually spell out the count, whether that is a set of four cans, six demitasse cups or a set with its coffee pot.

What is the difference between a coffee can and a cup?

A can is straight-sided and flat-bottomed, without the outward flare of a teacup. It was the eighteenth-century shape for coffee and stayed in use afterwards. Four titles here use the word, covering an imari-pattern set of four, five gilded European cans and six silver-mounted cans with saucers and spoons.

Why are so many sets from the 1920s and 1930s?

Interwar English factories turned out coffee services in quantity, and Art Deco pattern is part of the appeal. The 1920s account for eleven dated listings and the 1930s for nine. Together that is two-thirds of the 32 listings with a clean year. Everything else is thinly spread: Edwardian, 1900s, 1910s, 1950s and one 1960s set.

Are coffee sets usually sold in a box?

Cased and boxed sets are a recurring format rather than an exception in this category, often holding demitasse cups and their coffee spoons in fitted recesses. Every listing that carries the word cased or boxed sits in the upper half of the range.

Do coffee sets come with a pot?

Sometimes. Some titles say coffee set and coffee pot, or list jug and sugar alongside the cups, and coffee service is used interchangeably with coffee set in these descriptions. Plenty of others are cups and saucers only. That is the commonest shape of the category, six cups with their saucers.

Is silver ever part of a coffee set?

Twice in this archive, and as structure rather than trim. A set of six coffee cans with saucers came with silver mounts and spoons, and two further sets are described as china and silver. Silver mounting means the porcelain cup sits in a pierced or plain silver holder.

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Antique Coffee Set

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A small ceramic service for coffee after dinner: cups or straight-sided cans with saucers, sometimes a pot, jug and sugar, and often supplied in a fitted case.