The tall, graceful profile of this footed bone china ewer would claim a spot in any survey of English jug shapes popular in the mid-nineteenth century.  However, the folky hand-enameled "Tulip" pattern places it in the class of ceramics that has come to be known -- in this country at least -- as "Gaudy Welsh." 

The "Tulip" pattern combines swaths of cobalt, embellished with pink lustre flourishes, with open sections of the hand enameled "Tulip" decoration.  The tulips and vines are executed in brilliant yellow, red and green enamels on top of the bone china body. Here the pattern, most often seen on stockier jugs and tea wares is elongated to complement the ewer's graceful slender shape. Photographs may not fully convey the delicate scale of the vessel which reaches only 5 1/4 inches at its tallest point. 

The common belief that the Gaudy Welsh (and the related Gaudy Dutch) patterns were made exclusively for export to the German religious-based sects of Pennsylvania is seldom questioned.  Nevertheless we once knew a "Gaudy" specialist who kept a team of pickers busy combing the English countryside for these wares. 

We suspect that while these folksy colorful patterns may have especially charmed the Pennsylvania Germans, they were targeted for a broader audience anxious for affordable trifles.