1950’s HAMILTON TIGER CATS China CUP & SAUCER Royal Stafford CFL Football Series

Here we have a fairly scarce item. Made by the Royal Stafford Co. in England circa 1950’s, is this Bone China Cup and Saucer from their Football Series. Apparently, the series consisted of a cup and saucer for each of the Canadian Football League Teams at the time. This one features the Hamilton Tiger Cats. I think the graphics on this pair are fantastic. A football player in the middle of a run, with the old school minimalist padding and equipment, no cage helmet and “h” style uprights in the background on the cup, with gold rim and accents and maple leafs on the inside rim. The saucer features the names of every Team in the CFL at the time and has an illustration of the Grey Cup. Here is the thing. I cant see this series having much success back in the 1950’s. I imagine very few 50’s housewives would want their China Tea Cup set to feature football teams when the ladies from the church came over for tea. I also don’t see to many 1950’s men going out and buying a tea set for them selves even one featuring their favourite team. I imagine that may be part of the reason these are so scarce. Luckily we now can see beyond those stereotypes and we can all see just how amazing this set was (just a bit ahead of its time lol). No chips or cracks. No crazing, but a smaller area on the outside of the cup that has “darkened” a little. The set does not look to have ever been used as far as I can tell