Blue and white china

Queen Mary II was the first monarch (along with her husband William III) to live at Kensington Palace – indeed, it was William and Mary who bought Nottingham House in Kensington and extended it to create a new royal home. In the time Mary lived there, she liked to display some of her huge collection of blue and white porcelain. Some rooms would contain hundreds of items, with shelves even being placed above doors so that more blue and white china could be displayed.

Inspired by Mary’s passion, we worked with community groups from Westminster to create our own collection of blue and white china – a tea set containing over 100 items!

The groups learnt about Mary II and the history of blue and white porcelain, as well as seeing around Kensington Palace and sharing their own stories of pieces of china which were special to them. They then worked with the ceramics artist Kay Aplin to design patterns for our special tea set, which Kay then turned into transfers, and which the participants applied to cups, saucers, plates, tea pots and more! Kay then fired all of the items in her kiln, and then carefully drove all of the items back to Kensington for a grand tea party at the end of the project.




All three groups who took part in the project came together for the tea party, where they saw their finished products for the first time. In the late Princess Margaret’s Drawing Room, the participants were able to be the first people to use their magnificent creations.

The tea set then went on display in Kensington Palace. It will be kept together as one set at the palace, so that it can be used on special occasions. Hopefully in many years to come, people will still be able to enjoy these unique objects.