Cracked, chipped—and adored!

So while on vacation last week, my husband and I had gone over to Pensacola, Fla. for the day when we spotted a promising looking antique mall. Only problem was, we were listening to the radio and heard white smoke had been spotted at the Vatican, and I didn't want to miss the announcement of the new Pope. (No, I'm not Catholic, just nosey. I was also excited for my Catholic friends that they were getting a new Pope!) So the DH agreed to stay in the car and monitor the radio while I popped into the antique mall, and am I glad I did! I've never bought a chipped, cracked piece before, and certainly couldn't have imagined I'd be so happy with a damaged $6.95 item. Why?

Well, brown transferware is fine, but normally it wouldn't catch my eye. The front of the damaged, demitasse-size cup featured a young chap in a pastoral setting. Whoopee, right?

The back of the cup gets a little more interesting ...

And the small saucer, in immaculate condition, sports an even better version of the image.

Is that what I think it is?

Why yes, it's a "Tea Drinker" I'm seeing! Now, are you as surprised as I am not to have come across this design before? I *know* I would remember if I had seen this before, because I'd want all of this pattern I could find! Alas, this pattern from the Societé Ceramique in Maestricht, the Netherlands, doesn't appear to be for sale too often here in the U.S., but if you go here and here, you can see a few examples from elsewhere in the world. In the second link, if you scroll to the last photo in the series, you can see this comes in green, blue and red (Phyllis B.!) in addition to my brown design. So what to do with a small, cracked, but most treasured teacup? Well, if I hadn't killed all my miniature African violets, one of those would be perfect in here.

But then I got back to work on Monday and, in a bit of serendipity, my friend Deberah had gotten me a treasure at the Southeastern Flower Show, a *new* miniature African violet! Ta-da!