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Paragon International Collectors Club - Collectables

Paragon Collectables

Throughout its life, which covered most of the 20th century, Paragon. and the earlier Star China Co., produced a wide range of bone china. Between 1903 and 1920 the following lines were in production:-

Armorial Ware Inkstands
Badged Ware for Hotels Marmalade Jars
Biscuit Boxes Milk Horns with Covers
Breakfast Services Miniature Fancy
Coffee cups Morning and Afternoon Sets
Coffee sets Sweet Dishes
Coronation Souvenirs in 1911 Teacups and Saucers for collectors
Fancy Goods in a great variety of shapes Tea Services
Fruit Trays Trinket Sets
Hotel China Triple Trays

During this period Star China's output consisted mainly of tea and breakfast services. The patterns ranged from plain prints to elaborate ones incorporating cobalt blue and gold. There were also richly decorated dessert services with hand painted scenes. Even during this early period, much importance was attached to the market in the United States and Star introduced special designs and patterns including some particularly light and dainty cups and saucers to appeal to collectors. In common with other manufacturers, Star produced a large range of miniature pieces with armorial designs imitating the famous heraldic ivory porcelain of Goss.

Currently, collectable Paragon (Star) may be categorised as follows:-

 

Commemorative Ware
Souvenir wares were first issued to commemorate the coronation of George V in 1911 while the last commemorative issue produced by Paragon proper was that for the wedding of Prince Andrew and Lady Sarah Ferguson in 1986. The large commemorative loving cups of the 30's will probably cost about £250-300 but with the right provenance the sky's almost the limit. In the much publicised Sotheby's sale of the late Duke and Duchess of Windsor's possessions in February 1998 two Paragon items commemorating the Munich Peace Conference of 29 Sept 1938 were auctioned. A loving cup was sold for $4250 (plus 15% premium), that's just over £3000, and a 10 5/8 in diameter plate fetched $1900 or just over £1300.

There are several books devoted to commemorative china and and details of Paragon issues can be found in any of these.

 

Table Ware

Many collectors believe that the quality and artistic merit of much of the Paragon output peaked in the first half of the 1930's. Perhaps, the single most collected Paragon item is the cup and saucer and there's plenty to choose from. By 1940, Paragon had produced cups in over 50 different shapes and in up to 20,000 patterns. There's plenty of other items of table ware to collect as the following list of articles produced in the 'Stralia' pattern of 1924 shows, this also shows the price at that time, in shillings/pence, eat your heart out!(for the uninitiated, in the old style UK currency there were 20 shillings(s) to the pound(£) and 12 pennies(d) to the shilling)

Teas (cups) & Saucers 1/10 China Covered Jugs A 1.25pt 8/6
Coffees & Saucers 1/10 China Covered Jugs B 1pt 7/6
Irish & Saucers 2/5 China Covered Jugs C 0.75pt 6/3
Breakfast & Saucers 3/1 Cov. Honies, L/s, Straight 3/11
Slops, B & B's 3/1 Cov. Honies, S/s, Straight 3/4
Sugars, Creams 3/1 Milk Horns, L/s, Handled 2/1
Plates, 4 inch 1/1 Milk Horns, S/s, Handled 1/10
Plates, 5 inch 1/3 A'noon Sugs.&Cream (pair) 3/6
Plates, 6 inch 1/7 Tea Set, 21pcs. for 6 29/6
Plates, 7 inch 1/10 Tea Set, 40pcs. for 12 52/9
Milk Jugs 4/9 Breakfast Sets, 29pcs. for 6 51/6
Eggcups 11d. Fruit Set, 7 pcs. 19/6
Tea, Coffee pot,2pt 9/9 Supper Set, 7 pcs. 17/-
Tea, Coffee pot,1.5pt 8/9 Early Morning Set, 9pcs. for 2 18/11
Tea, Coffee pot,1pt 8/- Coffee Set 23/-
Tea, Coffee pot,0.75pt 7/3 Pudding Set, 7pcs. 25/-
Teapot Stands L/s 3/8 Cruet Set, with Tray, 4pcs. 6/9

Paragon produced no china dinner ware until the early 1930's when production commenced to meet the requirements of the American and Canadian markets where it complemented other table ware. This new venture was very successful and output was increased year by year. Early items of dinner ware are rarely encountered in the UK.

At the time of writing there are no publications dedicated to Paragon china. This is an appalling shortcoming for collectors and one which is currently being addressed by members of the Club. See the News section of this website for the latest on its progress.

 

Nursery Ware
China designed and manufactured for use by children was first produced by Star as early as 1904. Many of these early designs were based on nursery rhymes and decorated with pictures of animals. Look out for various series such as 'Mother Goose', 'Tinker Tailor', 'Pussy's Flying Stunt', 'Charlie Chaplin', 'Child's Future Telling', 'Noah's Ark', 'Animal Alphabet', 'Mickey Mouse' and 'Playtime' attributable to designers such as Chloe Preston, Louis Wain, J A Robinson, Beatrice Mallet, Constance Grace and Eileen Soper.

Recently, a Mickey Mouse mug, bearing the legend 'Wishing you a Happy Christmas from HRH Duchess of York , Dec 25th 1932, went for £510 at auction and, in 1998, a single teaplate fetched nearly £600 at auction. While a Paragon mug from the 'Tinker Tailor' series, c. 1918, designed by Louis Wain, fetched £1372, on eBay, the internet auction website, on 25th April 2000.

For information on nursery ware, Maureen Batkin's book, 'Gifts for Good Children - The History of Children's China, Part II, 1890-1990', is highly recommended.

 

Plaques And Figures

Around 1950 Paragon introduced a range of decorative plaques and figurines. Both are collected and very rare at UK antiques fairs. They do appear quite frequently on eBay.

 

Contacts

If you have any questions about Paragon and its products, please address them to paragoncollector@btinternet.com Members of the Club will try and help but please remember that the worth is in the eye and pocket of the collector, so valuations are not usually given!