ROSA 1946

~ Mom's Journal ~

I have fond memories of tea time with my siblings while waiting for our parents to come home from work. We stayed in a government quarters at Residency Hill.

Tea would be served in a pink teapot set. It is only recently that I came across two sets of pink cup and saucer that has been kept in my store. Apparently these tea cups are older than me. I just wonder whether the manufacturers are still around.

 

J & G Meakin tea cup                             Goh Ban Huat tea cup

I am not able to ascertain the history of Goh Ban Huat, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. However, there is currently a public listed company by the name of Goh Ban Huat Berhad, Malaysia. Its previous name was Goh Ban Huat Pottery Works Sdn Bhd (1948). Could it be the same company?

As for J & G Meakin, Wikipedia says:

Sadly after more than 100 years and surviving two World Wars (World War I, 28/7/1914 – 11/11/1918 and World War II, 1939 – 1945) the company, J & G Meakin ceased operation.

The J & G Meakin tea cup set that has been following me around is of “ROSA” design with the pink theme. The saucer is decoratively scalloped around the edge. This is a semi-porcelain product which has the characteristics of fine china but the durability of ironstone. The set has shown signs of crazing, only to be expected considering its age.

The back stamp on the saucer shows the SOL brand, reg SOL 391413. It has the sun face trademark. The trademark is said to be registered in 1912.

Interestingly SOL has many meanings among which, in mythology Sol is a Roman sun god. In Science and Technology, Sol is the Latin name of the main-sequence star of the synonymous Sol System, called the Sun in English. I should also mention that there is a Korean singer who goes by the stage name Taeyang or Sol. He was born in 1988, the same birth year of my daughter Ekeen. Taeyang is a favorite singer of both my daughters Ekeen and Syazleen, the latter is actually the owner of this blog. Sorry, I digress.

The SOL brand became a popular favorite in Australia, NZ and the USA with patterns such as “Celeste”, “Rosa” and “Sunflower”. These patterns were produced with no embellishments due to wartime restrictions in Britain at the time.

Hence we have a simplistic yet lovely pink tea set of the “Rosa” design that was produced between 1946 -1970. This tea set has been with our family since 1950s. 

We are now in the 21^st century. I came across tea being served in a mug like this:

Times have changed the tea time culture.

As for me, I still prefer tea served in a tea cup, a habit that I instill in my daughter.

This is a reminder of one of the many beautiful memories of our parents and the way we were.