This is a lovely autumn-like pattern on fine china made by Bell China in England which has a bit of history behind it!

During WW2, my newly married parents had pilots boarding with them near London, England. This set was given to them in gratitude for their help when one of them returned to Rhodesia. In respect of this fellow, my parents kept and displayed this set in a china cabinet for most of its life! It even came to NZ with them when they came to live here in 1989. As they grew older, the set was packed up in various house moves until it came to me where it's been in a box ever since! Unfortunately, I note one of the tea plates is missing and all I can think is that it's been thrown out with some of the wrapping paper by mistake as I don't think the set was ever used more than a very few times.

The set comprises 6 x cups, 6 x saucers plus 5 x tea plates and 1 x larger cake plate. There's also a milk jug and a bowl for sugar.

Such a shame we don't use these lovely items for daily use as they'd be so nice to drink out of and use.

I understand the Bell China logo on the bottom of this set was only in use during 1936 - 66 which matches with the early time my parents were presented with it, around 1943.