Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Excellent, it is great when a plan comes together

OK, here goes:

Thanks Ruth!
Does anyone think this IS or IS NOT a tea/kiff bowl?
If not, what's the alternative??

It is beautiful, Kerren, but I do not think it is a kiff bowl. The question remains then, what is it?

I am just guessing now, but its elaborate decoration (more than just a crest and a blue rim) suggests a more exalted role. Perhaps part of a special swervice kept for special occasions e.g when the Lord Mayor dined at the school. I think it will be much rarer and more valuable than a straightforward kiff bowl which usually had no decoration whatsoever.

Yes.. but. It's the size (6" x 3") which is the question, not the decoration David.
Our tea bowls (and our plates) DID have this decoration - but even when I went in 1957 the 'crested' china (as it was called) was being replaced by plain white. The crested china became very precious - and as you will see from further back in this thread, in House 6 (Katharine's) they used to smuggle crested bowls and plates back to their House to collect them, replacing them in Dining Hall with plain white ones! So I have no doubt about the decoration - only querying whether the size is right.

Looking at my copy of Who's Blue, I think it is too wide to be a tea bowl, the height would be right. I would think that 4 inches would be the approx diameter of a tea bowl. The decoration matches the replica plate I was given in 1985, made to mark the merger, and is much as I remember.

No idea what it could be used for.

Can someone point me to where I can look at a picture of these bowls. I have never seen one, much less heard of one before this forum

Scone Lover wrote:Can someone point me to where I can look at a picture of these bowls. I have never seen one, much less heard of one before this forum

Surely you can see one further up this page!

Have just photographed one of the plates (not a replica, but the Real Thing. They were sold off in the 1960's for some fundraising do or other, and my Mum bought two). Will mail it to Ruth and beg her indulgence to post it on the Forum so you can verify Katharine's statement that the pattern is authentic!
But yes Katharine I do think its too big......I'd have difficulty drinking tea from it now, let alone when I was 9 years old!
Wonder if the Caledonian Old Blues will have any ideas?

yep no problem email away

you may have to wait a while as I'm only at work 3 hours tomorrow and likely to be as busy as today...

If I can't do it tomorrow, I'll do it on Monday.

Lovely pic BTW.

Thinking about the DETAIL....
When you get the picture of the plate you will see that the School Crest is plain - oval with a flat top, surrounded by a belt (with buckle) saying 'Christ's Hospital'. The crest on the bowl is more elaborate, squatter and ornate with curly stuff round the edges (and interestingly does not mention Christ's Hospital - which makes it amazing that the person who sold it on eBay knew its provenance!).
I have (as some of you know....) some left over Old Girls' Association badges. All but one of them are the plain crest. One of them, however (and by its appearance is very much older - I would say Victorian) is the same squat pattern as on the bowl, and has the same curly stuff round the edges.
Which I think probably indicates that the bowl is older than the plate? I think the eBay seller did say she had dated it as 1880-1895.
I am not going public on what I am bidding on NOW on eBay... but watch this space (or rather a new thread...) if I win it.

It sounds about right for size as far as my ageing memory tells me. I have no recollection of my first meal at CH, but I am sure that ,on being confronted by tea in a bowl, I would have watched to see what everyone else was doing.

Oh duh how did I miss that? We certainly didn't have those around at Horsham

OK, as requested by Kerren: