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19th Century

19th Century, 20th Century, Articles, Black Printed Mark, Blue Printed Mark, England, Great Britain, Marks, Other Colour Mark, Printed Marks, Red Printed Mark, Worcester

Dating Royal Worcester 1867 to 1927

The modern Royal Worcester mark (without the words Royal Worcester England and the dots) was first introduced in 1862. Initially two numbers in addition to the logo indicated the date (eg 63 for 1863 impressed or printed). In 1867 the number was printed or replaced with a Capital letter (starting with A and continuing to M in 1877 – neither F or J were used). In 1878 capital letters replaced the numbers completely and from 1878’s N continued through to 1888 and Z (missing out O and Q). The O was used in 1889. In 1890, the latter a appears in lowercase – clearly intending to follow the previous pattern, however, the McKinley Tariff Act meant the the country of origin had to be included on all export ware, so the logo was redesigned to include the words Royal Worcester England around the outside of the circle (with no dots

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by Gaile Griffin Peers
19th Century, Articles, England, Great Britain, Marks, New Hall, Printed Marks

New Hall

After Longton Hall’s unsuccessul efforts to produce porcelain, New Hall became the first Pottery to produce a recognisable and commercially viable porcelain body in Staffordshire, in the 1780s. (http://www.thepotteries.org/features/new_hall1956.htm) New Hall is always popular with collectors. As a result, it is hard to find marked pieces that are “low budget” – and pieces with the New Hall stamp will command a high price. Unmarked New Hall, although “affordable”, can easily be confused with wares from its many competitors all using the same decorative features. The “trick” to collecting New Hall (not to be confused with the later reincarnation in the late 19th Century) is to understand the significance of the pattern numbers (and have a good reference book to confirm that the pattern number you see corresponds to the decoration on the piece). Two of my favourite bibles for collecting New Hall are “A Guide to New Hall Porcelain Patterns”

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by Gaile Griffin Peers
19th Century, Articles, Blue and White, Great Britain, Impressed Marks

Blue and White Query

Name: Linda     Message: I have recently purchased a very old dish, that I think may be ironstone, and bears only a very faint impression on the back. Can you help identify it from the attached please?   blue-3.jpg blue1.jpg blue2.jpg At first glance it appears to be similar to the Davenport Marks such as this http://www.thepotteries.org/mark/d/davenport2.jpg  but the style and quality of the ceramics doesn’t gel. I have tried enhancing the details of the mark, but it is not very clear – it could be an Omega symbol But I think it is more likely that the mark is a letter G – in which case it is not a factory mark at all, but a size / pattern mark. As this is clearly a ceramic piece made from a mould and the mark is raised, so was incised or stamped into the mould before the liquid ceramic

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by Gaile Griffin Peers
18th Century, 19th Century, Articles, Black Printed Mark, Blue Painted Mark, Blue Printed Mark, Coalport, England, Gold Printed Mark, Marks, Staffordshire

Coalport

Modern pieces of Coalport are clearly marked. What is less well known is that the Factory also used marks that imitated other factories, particularly in the early 19th Century. Coalport also absorbed other factories and incorporated their marks in its own – including the crescent moon used on Salopian ware by Caughley and the S and N of Swansea and Natgarw

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by Gaile Griffin Peers
19th Century, Articles, Black Printed Mark, Blue Printed Mark, England, Great Britain, Imari, Marks, Printed Marks, Rich Colours, Spode

Spode

Spode reputedly bought William Turners Stoneware patent some time during the second decade of the Nineteenth Century, with items classed as stoneware appearing from around 1815. Experimentation with Felspar and other additions to the formula saw a patent for “New Stone” filed around 1821, with pieces primarily featuring oriental style designs appearing by the following year. When Copeland Garrett took over the factory in 1833, the mark was retained. Pieces of this style and with comparatively early pattern numbers like the one illustrated below fall into the early and original Spode New Stone era and this plate dates from around 1822-1825

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by Gaile Griffin Peers
19th Century, Articles, France, Marks, Red Painted Mark, Rich Colours

Lerosey – Rue de la Paix

Paris Porcelain – Numerous porcelain manufacturers and decorating studios flourished in Paris from the mid eighteenth century until nearly the end of the nineteenth. Competition was tough and the decorating quality was very high, so it was not unusual for the bases of the porcelain to have considerable detail  – right down to the address from which more could be purchased! This example is by M Lerosey who founded this porcelain decorating studio at 11 Rue de la Paix around 1880. Dating between 1880 and 1890, this mark not only shows his name, but also his address at 11 Rue de la Paix. Several Rue de la Paix manufacturers have been identified – Lerosey, himself had several studios along the road – going back over 60 years to around 1820 when he worked with J Rihouet. As one of the earliest studios in the road this one is actually simply

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by Gaile Griffin Peers
19th Century, 20th Century, Articles, Blue and White, Blue Painted Mark, Blue Printed Mark, Denmark

Dating Royal Copenhagen

Royal Copenhagen has used the three wavy water lines to identify their porcelain since it started in 1775 – Early pieces frequently include a dot in front of the waves. The mark was not very consistently drawn, often with quite flat waves that look quite rushed- presumably each workman had their own slight variant until about 1820. Hand drawn lines usually indicate manufacture before 1885. The example to the left is pre 1840. Between 1885 and 1890 the lines are more uniform – either done with a three nib pen or as a print. From 1889 a circle was added over the lines – inside which was a crown between the curved words Royal Copenhagen. From c. 1890, export ware featured a small crown over tiny waves over the word Denmark (spelled in English) in a circle over three larger waves. The circle was dropped from non export marks. Between

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by Gaile Griffin Peers
16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Articles, Blue and White, Blue Painted Mark, Blue Printed Mark, China, Marks

Chinese Reign Marks

Collecting old chinese pottery and porcelain is not as expensive as some might have you believe. For example in Spain there is a love of Blue and White that spans generations and cultures. You can find pieces in most places that you look and many will be chinese. However, whilst very old and splendid pieces might horribly expensive, small pieces can still be bought with a limited budget – if you have the enthusiasm to look. The two rules to remember are 1) Having a mark on the bottom, like the reign marks in the picture for this article,  does not mean that it really dates from that period. 2) Having no mark at all does not mean that it is valueless, just that the piece did not need to be stamped to sell – so was probably not intended for export. So what does the reign mark on Chinese

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by Gaile Griffin Peers