Great Grandma's China

I just got back from a 3-week trip to Omaha, Naperville (Chicago) and Atlanta to visit family. While in Naperville, my sister offered, as she has for many years, to pack up some of our great grandmother's china for me. This time we were driving and not flying, so she carefully packaged this little tea set for me. They are totally not my style, but precious to me because they are family heirlooms. And frankly, it makes me want to have a tea party with my youngest granddaughter!

We always heard that the pieces were hand-painted by great grandma; yet many of the pieces have a china company name and logo on the bottom in addition to Mary's signature. Jack asked me today if the pieces were identical. Wow, I never thought of that! A good look today showed that neither the cups nor the saucers are identical to one another, although at a casual glance you wouldn't notice. Various pieces in the set are from different companies, yet except for the two pieces in the upper left they all match. An online search of one of the companies indicated that some of the pieces were available either plain or patterned. So, I'm thinking that Mary probably did paint them. Now why didn't I inherit her talent?