This teacup and saucer features a colorful version of the classic Crocus design by Arabia, a leading Finnish tableware manufacturer. The plate is a black and white version of the saucer, making it available at a special price.
The name of the series, Crocus, comes from a type of iris flower. The designer is Esteri Tomura, known for his Flora, Valm, and Botanica designs, and is an expert at incorporating natural flowers into his designs.
The Crocus series comes in three varieties: black and white, color, and black and white with a gray rim. This is the rare color version for teacup size. The saucer is the same as the black and white version, but it seems that it was originally sold as an official combination.
Crocus was only produced for two years, from 1978 to 1979. Reproductions have been released in recent years, but they are somewhat different from the vintage versions, with a slightly sweeter shape and a mug design that wasn't available in the original.
The teacup and saucer are a particularly rare, large size among vintage Crocus pieces, and were produced in very limited quantities. Compared to small coffee cups, tea cups have a fairly high rate of crazing. With the ARABIA pottery technology of the time, the larger the cup, the more likely it was to have crazing, and large, thin tea cups were more likely to have crazing during the manufacturing process. For this reason, small coffee cups that are less likely to have crazing were mass-produced, It is believed that the number of teacups produced has decreased to begin with, and as a result, Crocus teacups have become rare items.
■Detailed Specifications Manufacturer: ARABIA Designer: Form Design: Peter Winquist Pattern Design: Esteri Tomula Series Name: Krokus Year: 1978-79 Made in: Finland Condition: Cracked. When held up to the light, a thin crack can be seen on the bottom of the cup. The cracking occurs on the glaze surface during the firing process and is not a scratch or damage to the cup itself. This item has passed the manufacturer's inspection. Overall, it is in excellent condition with no signs of use. When held up to the light, a very small scratch can be seen near the center of the saucer.
■Size: Cup diameter 9.3cm, height 6.5cm, saucer diameter 17cm
Esteri Tomula
Esteri Tomura (1920-1998)
Born in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Her father, who was a university professor, bought a villa in the countryside called Urjalan in northwest Helsinki, and her childhood was spent every summer at the villa with her family, which was rich in nature, which deepened her knowledge of nature. be done. Esteri Tomura had a congenital condition called dwarfism, and initially majored in ceramics at Aalto University of the Arts in Helsinki, but due to physical reasons, she was unable to work with clay satisfactorily. Therefore, he gave up on the career of ceramics and sought his own expertise in design.
After joining ARABIA , he honed his skills as a pattern designer with Laiya Uosikkinen, who became his lifelong friend. While Uosikkinen preferred abstract and geometric patterns, Tomura seeks the origin of his designs in the flowers and flowers of Finland, which was the original landscape of his childhood. Tomura, who created masterpieces despite his physical handicaps, has similarities with Birger Kaipiainen, who designed the timeless masterpiece Paratissi despite suffering from polio.
