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A grouping of late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century four demitasse cups and saucers includes (top left), porcelain, butterfly handle, Dresden-style floral spray; (top right) French marked CFH CDM, pale green exterior; (bottom left) Haviland, Limoges, pink and red roses and green leaves; and bottom right, French, Haviland, cream banding with pink floral decoration. —Photos courtesy of Houston Museum of Decorative Arts.

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Saucer and cup (shown top row) are English, marked Royal Worcester, 1851; cup and saucer (shown below), Twentieth Century, marked Made in Japan, pale green exterior.

FOR 5-4

BUTTERFLY-HANDLED TEAWARE FLUTTERS AT HOUSTON MUSEUM w/2 cuts

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CHATTANOOGA, TENN. — A rare collection of antique butterfly-handled tea paraphernalia is on display at the Houston Museum of Decorative Arts through June. The museum houses a fine collection of antique glass and ceramics.

The butterfly-handled pieces, which include teacups and saucers, teapots, creamers and sugars of varying sizes, were donated to the museum in 1970 by the late Hazel Littleton of Chapel Hill, N.C., who had purchased many of these pieces from the antiques shop of Anna Safley Houston, who gave her priceless collections to the people of Chattanooga in trust at her death in 1951, museum director Amy H. Frierson explained. Before Littleton died, she chose to give them back, making sure that her prized collection would remain intact and would be a part of Houston’s museum, which she visited shortly after making this gift.

Most of these delicate pieces came into this country as blanks from France and were later hand painted here. A few came from British, European or Oriental porcelain factories. All of them, by their fragility, suggest they were not meant for serious use, but rather were designed to be decorative objects, Frierson said, and the fact a mustache cup is included in the grouping further indicates that these pieces were never expected to be used.

“Whatever their original intent,” said Frierson, “They make up the most popular of the more than 50 smaller collections within the larger Houston collection. Museum visitors are almost unanimous in their comments that they have never seen anything like them.”

Highlights include a blue and white child’s tea set comprised of six cups and saucers, six plates, a teapot, sugar and creamer, circa 1900 to 1925.

The design of an adult tea set, which originated as a Haviland blank from France in the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century, was never finished by its decorator. While the individual pieces are hand painted with polychrome birds and butterflies, the lozenge form tray’s design is sketched onto the piece only in black and white with no filled in color.

Although the pieces are delicate, the decorating in many cases is bold. A late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century breakfast cup and saucer, for example, bear a magenta rim over gilt scallop and geometric panels.

The Houston Museum is at 201 High Street. For information, 423-267-7176 or www.thehoustonmuseum.com.