Regent (shape)

Shelley Potteries are best known for their delicate, attractive and adventurous bone china tea and coffee wares of the 1920s and 1930s. This side dish is in the 'Regent' shape featuring the 'Phlox' pattern in its blue colourway. It was designed by Shelley Art Director, Eric Slater, who studied under Gordon Forsyth, an advocate of improvement in industrial design. Slater's slightly earlier 'Vogue' shape, though very modern and fashionably geometric, received some criticism for its infilled triangular cup handles which people found difficult to hold. Slater responded to the criticism with 'Regent', designed in 1932, and it soon became the most popular Shelley design. Selected by Gordon Forsyth

Plate · Fenton · 1932. Bone china, jiggered, transfer-printed in black and painted in enamel colours. By Slater, Eric. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.