In these cups and saucers, Barr, Flight & Barr has taken a complete turn from the excessive gilt and colored grounds of the Chinoiserie and Rococo fantasies favored by an earlier generation toward a more restrained design in line with Neoclassical taste. 

These cups, slightly larger than their eighteenth century counterparts are executed in the new "Bute" shape, with ring handles and a deliberately articulated architectural profile.

The pattern achieves an impressive dignity, even splendor, using only two decorative techniques: gilding and bat printing.  Irregular gold loops arranged within a gold bordered band achieve the look of porphyry, suggesting an ancient stone pavement. Six-sided reserves feature bat-printed images of classical dieties, Vulcan, Neptune, and Juno. The fine engraved line and soft grisaille tones characteristic of this form of transfer printing adds to the archaic impression of the pattern.

According to Henry Sandon in Flight and Barr Worcester Porcelain, 1783-1840, (1978, 1992), while Worcester had pioneered the use of the transfer process for decoration of ceramics, the use of the bat printing technique seen here first occurred during the Barr Flight and Barr period. In addition to classical subjects bat prints range from naturalistic shell studies to cupids and studies of peasants.

Michael Berthoud in his discussion of cup shapes notes that through most of the eighteenth century, cups were regarded merely as functional drinking vessels.  With new market factors after 1784, however--the reduction of tea taxes, the decline of Chinese imports and the increased tax on silver-- British cups became more ornamental and more subject to fashion.  The "Bute" shape appears around 1800 for both tea cups and the more vertical coffee cans. (A Compendium of British Cups, 1990).