What is a cabinet cup?

A display cup, usually elaborately painted or gilt, made to be shown rather than used at table. Cabinet cups, presentation cups and the odd cup with cover and stand appear disproportionately in the upper part of the range.

How many Worcester periods appear in these listings?

Six ownership periods are named across the 29 Worcester titles: First Period or Dr Wall, Flight, Barr, Barr Flight & Barr, Flight Barr & Barr, then Grainger's, Chamberlain and Royal Worcester. First Period is the most frequent of them, in 12 titles. The partnership name is how a Worcester piece gets dated.

Are these sold singly or in sets?

Singly, for the most part. Plural forms are the exception: cups appears in 13 titles, saucers in 8, trio in 8. Sets of six, ten-person tea services and six-place tea and coffee services do come up, and they sit in the upper half of the range.

Does Imari mean the cup is Japanese?

Not on its own. Imari is a dense palette of blue, iron-red and gilt, used on Japanese porcelain and copied on English porcelain too. The word appears in nine titles and spans both.

What does the date field mean on a listing?

It runs from 1750 to 1940 across the category, but only 14 of the 107 listings carry a clean year. Everything else is placed by era label. Georgian, 18th Century and Regency are broad bands. Titles frequently carry a tighter circa date, c.1770 or c.1825, than the field records.

Which non-English cups turn up?

Chinese famille rose, Chinese export and Qianlong-marked cups, Japanese sencha cups, Sumida Gawa and lacquer sake cups, KPM Berlin, Sevres and Russian factory wares. One-offs include WW1 Ottoman Turkish Army officers' tea cups and a Russian cup with cover and stand. About twelve tea cups come to market on Sellingantiques in a year, across 31 dealers.