Coalport called the elegant shape of these c ‘Empire’ as they are influenced by French fashion during the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte. French taste prevailed in Britain from 1810 to 1815, even as war raged with France. This pattern dates from around 1815, the year of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. Its main elements are elaborate foliate gilding and enamelled red flowers, all executed by hand. We think the flowers are poppies. Dark blue borders around the wells of the plate and saucer, and on the outside of the c below the rims, are gilded with oat heads. The large plate is a scarce survivor. A typical teaset of this period had forty-three pieces: 12 teac and saucers; 12 coffee cans or c; a teapot and stand; a sucrier (sugar box); a slop basin; a cream jug; a large plate, and a small plate. The trio is unmarked, but the plate has the impressed mark found on many Coalport plates and dishes of the 1815-25 period, a distinctively shaped numeral 2, and, in half-rubbed miniature script, the pattern number 689. CONDITION Pristine/excellent. PLATE: Pristine, apart from a couple of scratches SAUCER: Excellent, tiny amount of gilt rubbing, only visible on close inspection TEACUP: Pristine Coffee cup: Pristine, apart from small (narrow, 3mm long) section of gilt rubbing on the top of the handle. DIMENSIONS Plate Width: 21.2 cm (8.3 inches) Saucer Diameter: 14.7 cm (5.8 inches) Teacup Height: 7 cm (2.8 inches); Width, with handle: 11 cm (4.3 inches) Coffee cup Height: 9 cm (3.5 inches); Width, with handle: 9.2 cm (3.6 inches) Domestic . International . We quote three rates for Royal Mail’s three world zones: (A) Rest of Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Caucasus and Central Asia; (B) North, Central and South America plus Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, South Asia (including India), East Asia (including China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia); (C) Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Laos, Macau, various Pacific islands.