Czech Art Deco Porcelain Coffee Service for Eight

An elegant Coffee Service marked Epiag Porcelain Works in Czechoslovakia .The set includes a coffee pot, creamer,sugar and eight cups and saucers.   Each piece has the whimsical “triple ring” handle, a sweeping embossed design that encircles each piece and a stylized motif of flower and leaf.

The cups are bigger than typical demitasse coffee cups, but a little smaller than a  traditional vintage teacup. These are not “mugs”, they are delicate, fine china meant for sipping a beverage .

Epiag was not a  single company. It was an  association of ceramic and pottery factories  called Erste Böhemische Porzellan Industrie AG – the First Bohemian Porcelain Industry. This particular backstamp indicates that the set was likely made in the late 1920s- mid 1930s when “cafe culture” was part of the Golden Age in Eastern Europe.

 Prague Historic Cafe

We purchased the Coffee Set years ago at an outdoor  ”brocante” in Paris, in an April downpour when all the merchandise was getting wet . Things made of paper , wood or fabric were getting soaked but we decided that something made of fine china would surely not be damaged by a bit of rain and we wrapped it up and carried it home.