As we enter the 20th century the  pages of  leading British tableware manufacturers such as Wedgwood, and Minton were full of long lasting blue and white transfer prints, such as the willow pattern.  Art Nouveau never really caught on in Britain for tea wares,  but there were several echoes of its flowing lines in items for the popular market after 1910.  Before that, some adventurous services where made by smaller firms, a good example fetches between £50 and £100 pounds.

Faced by indifference from customers at home, many British manufacturers produced table wares specifically for the French market.  Wedgwood's range included designs by leading Parisian designers Paul Follot and Marcel Goupy shortly before the first world war. 

Moorcroft's Powder Blue range, with a speckle of blue glaze, dates from 1913,  One of the most successful British modern designs, it sold well abroad, today a coffeepot  or toast rack will fetch between £20 and £40 pounds. 

We then move into the jazz age in the 1920s which brought a new, more decorative move to tea wares,  with the emphasis being on bright colours, reflective lusters and hand painted patterns.  Many designs still feature landscapes, cottages, but modernism made its influence felt in two ways,  firstly the exuberance of the jazz age was reflected in garnish tea wares with simplified shapes, patterns and styles,  epitomised by the work of  Clarice Cliff.

Clarice Cliffs designs where colourful and contemporary,  they were decorated with dynamic but crudely painted, and they are highly collectable today.  Bizarre was the trade name she used and describes the  tea wares of this period of extremes, when square plates and cups with triangular handles when side by side with teapots in the shape of cars and trains.

Clarice Cliffs designs had many imitators, but genuine pieces are marked and can be identified.  A tea service for six may sell for £1000.00 today or maybe even more., but the more common crocus design may only sell for £300.00.

The other face of modernism in the 1920s and 30s tea wares were far more elegant and restraint, with flowing streamline shapes under a mat glaze.  Such tea wares captured the essence of the Art Deco Movement ( see page s on Art Deco)  which became so fashionable.

A key figure in stylish Art Deco tea wares produced in large numbers was Susie Cooper who emerged as the most important ceramic designer of her generation, and who from around 1930 became known for her clean cut Modernism and simple patterns in soft colours.   Her designs are now widely collected, as those of Clarice Cliff, an earthenware service  from 1935 can fetch £400 to £500.

The outbreak of the second world war stopped production and decorative ware was only made for export.