This is a nice vintage antique porcelain fairings box trinket box with 2 birds on a branch and a nest full of eggs. In decent condition as the pics show with some imperfections / restoration to one if the birds tail & wings seen in pic 11 and it comes exactly as shown. It measures 2 3/4″ x 2″ x 2 1/2. In England between 1850 and 1914 you would have probably been the proud owner of a little china figure after a visit to the fair. They were given away as prizes at the fairground and were mostly small porcelain ornaments. The word fairing (‘fayring’ or’fairin’ in old English) is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as’a present given at or brought from a fair’ and it comes from the Latin’féria’ meaning a holiday. Fairings were made of white soft-paste porcelain and often incorporated figures, ranging from about 7.5 cm to 12.5 cm in height. Because they were intended for display on mantelpieces or in display cabinets they usually have a rectangular base with a caption written in black script on the front describing the particular scene. The early examples (1850 -1870) were usually slightly larger and of a better quality with more detail and carefully applied colours. The later figures dating after 1870 show more signs of mass production. As these small objects grew in popularity so did the demand.

The early examples (1850 -1870) were usually slightly larger and of a better quality with more detail and carefully applied colours. As these small objects grew in popularity so did the demand.