No maker's mark but marked for British & North American Royal Mail Steam Packets.

Bulbous, oval shape with fluted, lobed design to cover.

Oval, fluted handles with acanthus leaves to lid and base with folate embellishments, particularly ornate to handles on base.

Mounted on very ornate, heavy, folate design foot.

Some minor plate loss to sides and base handles and some wear to interior.

Tureen measures 38cm long x 21cm wide x 28cm tall (approximately) and weighs 2.5kg.

Not to be confused with James McQueen's Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (which was formed in 1839 and operated between Great Britain and the Caribbean and South America), the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was formed in 1940 following the awarding of the first British transatlantic mail contract to Samuel Cunard the previous year.

The company was formed in Glasgow together with shipowner Sir George Burns and shipbuilder Robert Napier to operate the line's four pioneering paddle steamers on the Liverpool-Halifax-Boston route.

For much of the next 30 years the company held the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing.

In the 1870's the company began to fall behind its rivals and was reorganised in 1879 as the Cunard Steamship Company Ltd to raise capital.

This Soup Tureen would therefore have been used during the period 1840-1879 in the early-mid Victorian era.

Few collectables appear to remain from this earliest incarnation of Cunard, making this a very rare item.