Porcelain Centre Piece
Three plump putti supporting a bowl draped with hydrangeas make this a truly remarkable porcelain centrepiece. Attribution and dating of antique porcelain is a tricky business, but two rules of thumb can help a great deal – if a piece says ‘England’ on the bottom then it was made between 1891 but before 1902 when ‘Made in England’ came into use. Companies were able to use the ‘Limited’ suffix from 1861 although they may not have adopted it immediately. When watching TV Antique programmes where a rough date of manufacture is given they will often say circa 1880; this is because many factories only began to use ‘Limited’ from this date and if the piece has a Trademark then it was made after 1875.
This porcelain centre piece has a registration mark – a diamond shape with a series of numbers and letters within and around it. These were used between 1842 and 1883 denoting that the design was registered at the London Patent Office and therefore protected, although this does not mean that you can be sure the piece is English as European manufacturers also used this system. Two types of mark were used; between 1842 to 1867 a letter denoting the year of manufacture was featured in the top section of the diamond but this moved to the right-hand section for marks made from 1868 to 1883. After this date the diamond shape was discontinued and a consecutive numbering system was introduced with the prefix ‘Rd No.’
Initial exploration of the mark on the bowl shows a diamond shape so we can be sure it was registered before 1883 and as the year letter is on the right-hand side this happened after 1868. The beauty of the diamond mark over the consecutive numbering system is that the arrangement of the letters and numbers allows us to pinpoint the exact day on which the pattern was registered. The date letter on this bowl is ‘Y’ denoting 1879 and the letter ‘B’ at the bottom of the diamond gives us the month of October. The final clue is the number in the top section which is the exact date of the month and we are able to confirm that this pattern was first registered on 16 October 1879.
Design Brief
Honiton Pottery Woodland Bicton Jug
Established at Honiton in 1881 by James Webber, the pottery on the High Street was acquired in 1918 by Charles Collard. Born in 1874 at Torquay, Collard had been apprenticed to John Phillips at Aller Vale Pottery, and worked for others before setting up his own works near Poole, Dorset which was registered in 1905 as the Crown Dorset Pottery. Prior to the First World war, the pottery received much public acclaim and a number of awards, but the war changed ceramics production across the UK and Collard sold the business in 1915.
With the move to Honiton, a few years later, he set about modernising the operations and introduced handmade pieces with his signature Jacobean and Persian designs. Using the local clay with a cream or white background, elaborate floral motifs in bright colours with a hand-painted dotted border were applied to over 100 shapes which were sold worldwide. However, the outbreak of the second world war brought further disruption leading to a temporary closure until 1945 and, when Collard retired in 1947, the works was sold to Norman Hull.
This Woodland pattern jug is part of a range introduced in the 1930s. Under Hull and other, subsequent owners, local clay use was phased out and more automated production and painting techniques were introduced. Shapes were re-named using Devonshire place names and, as this jug is formed from white clay and has the name ‘Bicton’, it can be dated to the Post-Collard period. Production ceased at Honiton in the 1990s and the name was sold to Dartmouth Pottery in 1992.
You can see more pictures as well as measurements and condition details by clicking the link:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/731584423
and if you want to comment on this or any other item on my site, then please do get in touch via the Contacts page – I’d love to hear from you.