Joke Cups or Jumbo Cups and Magnum Cups

These outsize cups and saucers were known at the Spode factory as Joke Cups, Magnum Cups and more recently as Jumbo Cups. They seem to have been produced with a wide variety of patterns although there is no complete record in the archive. They are sometime called breakfast cups but are much larger than the usual breakfast cup.

The term Jumbo Cup, at Spode, seems to be quite modern from 1995 onwards. Earlier catalogues refer to the cups as Joke Cups and Magnum Cups. There is no list of all the patterns used on this shape but information about the designs is found in some of the catalogues in the Spode Museum archive. Sometimes the Joke Cups were decorated in a favourite pattern and were available 'with or without the motto' The motto in question was usually Auld Lang Syne.

The Italian pattern often had its own catalogue and in the 1920s the Joke Cup is listed as available with or without the motto. In catalogues for the USA from 1962 and 1965 there are Joke Cups and Saucers listed in Indian Tree, Camilla Blue or Pink, Tower Blue or Pink and Greek Brown. These do not appear in the UK catalogues.

Some other patterns known to have been produced on the Joke Cup are as follows:

• Spode's Byron - a photograph from the late 1930s illustrates the Jumbo Cup and Saucer with just the pattern and no motto. It also features as a Joke Cup in a 1958 catalogue.
• Blue Bird: - this pattern dates from about 1958 with pattern number S3274. There is no reference to a Joke Cup in the archive but one is known in a private collection.
• Spode's Tower: - this pattern with the motto features in the 1958 catalogue as well as in the 1960s USA ones and it is likely that Tower would be one of the patterns that was available in the 1920s with the motto.
• The Hunt: -in a leaflet of about 1938 the Jumbo Cup is referred to as a Joke or Magnum Cup featuring this design. It also appears in the 1958 catalogue.

There may be many more designs on this large sup and saucer which are not recorded in the archive. For example Peplow and Rosebud Chintz are known as patterns on the shape which are in private collections but with no record in the Archive.

Since 1995 what is now known as the Jumbo Cup is produced as part of Spode's Blue Room collection. In 2000 they were available in British Flowers, Geranium, Greek, Italian, Tower and Camilla patterns.