Q: My 100-year old grandmother has had this platter for many years. She said it belonged to my grandfather's mother, who used to dry corn on this platter. Can you tell me a little about the platter and how old you think it might be?
A: Your dish is part of the Classical Antiquities series, registered by Clementson in 1849. Joseph Clementson founded a pottery in Hanley, Staffordshire, England, c.1839. It became Clementson Bros. in 1865 and was in business until 1916. The diamond-shaped English registry mark on your platter gives the clues to the age of the dish. The English registry mark (R in diamond) tells a lot about your piece. The "IV" indicates the type of material is ceramics, the "S" indicates the year (1849), the "W" the month (March), "13" is the day of the month, and "2" is the parcel number. Your dish was made March 13, 1849.
4 comments:
I always thought the date on the registration mark was when the design was registered, not necessarily when the piece was made.
Lady Constance is correct. The registry mark is a record of the registry of the design, analogous to a copyright, not a record of the manufacturing date. Some, but relatively few, ceramics factories in both the UK and the US did mark their wares with a date code, nearly always impressed into the soft clay, not transfer-printed, as this one appears to be.
The dates on English registry marks do not indicate when the pieces was made, rather when the designs were registered. If it truly was the exact date the piece was made, each piece of a particular design would have a different date on it, and such is not the case. While it can give a clue to approximate age, a registry date is not the date the piece was manufactured.
Paul Kirk
I have a dish that has Royal Ironstone china on the back with Clementson Bros england on the back. It has a picture of a lion and a horse wigh a english medalion on it. I am sure it is very old. I would like to know how much it is worth but not having much luck. pmf24@localnet.com
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