Antique King George V Coronation Beaker – Thomas Morris Regent China, Royal Coat of Arms, Hand Tinted Rose Thistle Shamrock, England 1911

The beaker was the child's share of a coronation. In the hot June of 1911, when George V and Queen Mary were crowned at Westminster Abbey, the London County Council handed a commemorative beaker to one hundred thousand schoolchildren at the Crystal Palace, and every town and pottery followed suit. This one — a shade finer than the municipal issues — came from the trade counter of Thomas Morris's Regent Works in Longton, and it is not hard to picture its first owner: a child in a summer crowd, holding it tight through the fireworks.

The front carries the full royal arms in hand-tinted colour — quartered shield, Garter band, crown, lion and unicorn with visible brushwork in their gilt manes — over the ribbon Coronation George V.R., A.D. 1911. Turn it round and there is a quieter pleasure: a small spray of rose, thistle and shamrock, the three nations' flowers, painted where only the drinker would find them. Gilt rim above, twin gilt lines at the foot, a light-bodied flared form that glows against a lamp.

The brown backstamp reads Regent China, Made in England — Applied For, beneath Thomas Morris's recumbent lion and TM monogram: "applied for" means the trademark was still awaiting registration when this left the kiln, which pins the piece neatly to its year. The Regent Works itself had a future — it later became home to the Colclough and Royal Vale lines — but this beaker belongs to its Edwardian first act, one hundred and fifteen years ago.

The earliest royal piece on this shop's shelf, which now runs a full century: 1911, 1936, 1937, 1953, 1977, 1992, 2002.