Tags
Anthony Shaw, Antiques, Archaeology, Ceramics, England, George Phillips, History, Ironstone, Nineteenth Century, Patent
Lately I’ve been teaching myself to read patent office registration marks. These marks, a result of the Copyright of Design Act, appeared on British ceramics made between 1842 and 1883. I‘ve been practicing with a few pieces of ironstone.
Miller’s Pottery and Porcelain Marks contains an excellent section on decoding registration marks. Corners of the printed diamond describe specific characteristics about each piece of pottery. Depending on whether the piece was made between 1842-67 or 1868-83, information within the diamond is presented differently. Here’s what I know about my cup and saucer so far:
All ceramics belong to Class IV. The “Lobelia” pattern of my ironstone cup and saucer was registered on June 19, 1845 by G. (George) Phillips of Phillips’ Pottery at Longport. The parcel number shows how many pieces were included in the registration. In this case, it was only 1. To learn more about Phillips’ Pottery, click here.
My photography efforts…foiled by Mew.
I picked up this set of plates from a Boston antique dealer. The plates were made by the Anthony Shaw Company in a pattern called “Peruvian Horse Hunt.”
It seems that there are many horse scenes included in this pattern. I think that the number 9 on the bottom of my plates denotes this lasso scene.
The registration date for these plates is August 8, 1850. You can also find registrations of “Peruvian Horse Hunt” in different colors, including mulberry and a green/brown combination. The 1850 date is the earliest I’ve seen so far.
Do you have any ceramics with patent office registration marks? Tell me about them!
mirrorwithamemory 
I am patented.
Well, not everyone can say that!
A quick look around has revealed no patent marks on my stuff, but I’ll keep looking. Interesting post! And a glorious garden! Thanks for writing! -C
I never had any registration marks on my stuff either until recently. I mostly collect French porcelain and the marks are different for those. And thank you for the garden compliment! I raided my grandma’s garden for a photo shoot.
Thank you so much for this post! I never knew what those marks meant and now I feel like that is something exciting that I can figure out now! If I need help I might ask you do you mind?
Oh, feel free to ask!
I only just learned last year how to read Porcelain Marks. A blogger friend had what she suspected to be a very old plate, but couldn’t get any info about its history as she didn’t know how to read the Mark. I went on a mission to figure out how to do it. Took a bit of work, but it was a strange kind of fun when I had that BINGO!! moment, and the info was revealed to me! Your blog is AMAZING and full of gems. Thanks! And happy that you’ve visited mine. 🙂
The bingo moment sure is satisfying, isn’t it? It feels like detective work! Thanks for reading!
My daughter collects the blue & white dishes, i’ll have to check for the registration marks. I have a few antiques laying around too, but I have no idea of their value, they were just passed down to me.
That’s great! I’ll bet some of those blue and white dishes have the marks!
Curious – but I assume the art work is applied before the piece is glaze fired.
Does the date refer to when the piece is glaze fired (final firing) or when the art work is done. Just wondering.
I think the date refers to the time that the pattern was registered for a batch of pieces. From what I have seen, the date might change if there are variations in the pattern (i.e. color, scene), but doesn’t always. After 1883, every piece made in a pattern was counted (i.e. 19755) and there was less emphasis on the actual date. The idea behind the registration mark was to sort of copyright a pattern as a British design, even though I’ve heard some of the designs were appropriated from Chinese export porcelain. It was meant to show British authenticity. Here’s a link that I’ve been reading to try and figure it all out. http://www.thepotteries.org/mark/reg.htm
This is interesting piece of information. I watch antique roadshow tv program sometimes and have no clues how people name the price for such porcelain. I will try to do a bit of research on Swedish porcelain.
Very interesting. I’ve limited myself to American, especially Ohio Valley, pre-1900, and haven’t a piece of British. But I know the pleasure of learning the systems – it’s such fun, and very easy to begin collecting for marks and history rather than simply for beauty!
I loved this post! You are an inspiration.
xo, Lissy Parker
Thank you for posting this.
xo, Lissy Parker
Lovely post! Thank you for signing up to follow my blog! I hope that it will entertain you!