Royal memorabilia and souvenir wares

It is not uncommon to find Royal memorabilia or souvenir wares produced by various Staffordshire potteries as they were a great money spinner of the day. Collectors of these wares are widespread and they will be able to tell you more accurately than I how much you should expect to pay for wares commemorating different monarchs or events, but generally speaking, the less popular the monarch was in their day, the more rare and valuable the pieces are today. Commemorative wares were not restricted to events such as Royal coronations, birthdays or jubilees but were sometimes made for local events and civic functions. The plate above is a very strange and, i believe, rare example of a plate commemorating the matyrdom of a Protestant believer at the hands of Roman Catholic Bishop Bonner. in Tudor England.

A beaker commemorating a Royal Visit to the town of Leek in 1913 - obviously a very big event for a small town!

the coronation of Edward VII and his wife Mary in 1902

The plate above was produced to commemorate PEACE after World War I and was presented by Samuel Samuel M.P to celebrate "The Great Victory of the British Empire". This interesting piece of social history tells us so much about that time when the "Empire" was still looked on with respect and pride. Mr Samuel was a businessman and conservative MP for Putney at this time. This little trinket box (sadly missing its lid) was given to me as a birthday present by some friends and is a really lovely little thing. It commemorates the coronation of King George V. The mark on the bottom is quite unusual for the company - perhaps they were keen to differentiate their wares from poorer quality commemorative pottery. It also gives us a good bit of historical info that it was produced at their Hanley factory.

This stunning jug was made to celebrate the 1887 Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It has a black transfer print of the royal coat of arms on an ivory body and indeed, is marked as Oriental Ivory. The portrait of her Majesty is rendered in a sepia toned transfer. I was extremely gutted to have lost out on this jug on Ebay recently, sadly finances prevented me from placing a large bid to secure it. I was interested to see that the winning bidder is an avid collector of Royal commemorative wares, so I wish them well in adding this find jug to their collection (sob, sob). The jug was not advertised as being by P.B&S so i found it by searching for Oriental Ivory

To Top It All Off...

Here is the latest addition to my BISTO collection and I am so delighted by it. Like every other pottery manufacturer, Bishop & Stonier had to advertise their wares. A pin dish such as this may have been given free to retailers to help plug the company's name with their customers or simply to remind the retailer to buy from them again. It shows the company's two prevailing trademark maker's marks of the day: the wand of caduceus and the oriental ivory man with parasol. The mark on the back says of the type of pottery that is is "Semi Imperial Porcelain". Quite what this means I have no idea! It is quite likely that although it was not true bone china or fine porcelain, the company still wanted to give the message to it's customers that it was a fine type of pottery. Also on the reverse of the dish is an impressed caduceus mark and the number 04, signifying that it was potted in 1904 - so an early Edwardian piece when the company truly was of "WORLD WIDE REPUTATION" as it so boldly states.

Stunning!

Well, what can I say? This really is a trully stunning coffee set, handpainted with mountain and lakeland landscape scenes and deliciously decorated with gilt on the handles and coffeepot spout. My hunch is that there would've been a tray in the set too, but sadly the seller doesn't have it. I am crossing all fingers and toes that i will be able to add this to my collection shortly as i will sit so nicely next to the other handpainted pieces i already own.

On a completely unrelated and non-pottery note ("what's this? a diversion from ceramics," you ask. Well, yes, I just had to share this fantastic song by Calpernia Adams, a transexual with Attitude, as it sums up this coffeeset so well for me - just follow the link) http://youtube.com/watch?v=dJFkrG9YOE4

More London Landmarks

I recently blogged about P.B & S London landmark series which includes images such as the Crystal Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Marble Arch etc. Well, here is a plate with the image of the Palace of Westminster fromt he other side of the river Thames. The foliate ornament is hand-coloured with enamels as is the geometric border.

Wishful Thinking

I normally buy things to add to my collection from antiques fairs, junk shops, charity shops and occasionally auctions, but most often from Ebay. Ebay has some sellers with their own online shops - presumably they have a physical retail premises somewhere but also choose to sell online. It was whilst browsing the ebay shops that i found a 1931 'part' dining set with hand coloured flower decoration. To many people's eyes they would be quite gross (in fact, i must admit, they're really NOT my cup of tea either and would've been much better for not having the sponged rim). Anyway, the astonishing, astounding and quite unbelievable part of this find was the price being asked. I'm not sure if this strategy works for this particular seller, but they sell parts of services on an individual "Buy It Now" basis. So, to actually buy their whole stock of this pattern, you would need to part with a whopping £549.82 to buy each individual plate, platter and tureen. All I can say is "Good luck" to them, coz i think they'll need it.

OF COURSE, the moral of this story is that things are only worth what someone is prepared to pay for them. As i have noticed that they have re-listed and re-listed this set many times with no sucess in selling them, I would suggest that in this instance, there is a bit of wishful thinking going on here - and as I am myself (to my knowledge), one of the biggest collectors of Bishop & Stonier and I would not be prepared to pay the price being asked, even if i did win the lottery, I would state the case even more firmly. Have a look and see what you think.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bishop-Stonier-Art-Deco-Dinner-Plates-Circa-1931_W0QQitemZ260217857968QQihZ016QQcategoryZ25QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If you are the seller of this set and you've found my blog, it's obviously not up to me what you charge for things, i just wish you all the best!

How times change

In the 1920s and 30s, Bishop & Stonier produced quite a collection of illustrated pottery which may now be termed as 'Nursey Ware' because the images often depicted popular childrens stories, or folktales. This baby plate ( not in my collection, but i'm hoping it will be) depicts the rhyme of "A Frog He Would A Wooing Go, Whether His Mother Would Let Him Or No". One could quite easily fill entire cabinets with BISTO nursey ware as it appears this became a staple market for the company of this period and there are many delightful designs to be found. http://www.decorativeart.co.uk/coukcatind51_52.htm This teapot - sadly not in my collection (yet!) shows just how times have changed and how things that once were widly acceptable, are now very no PC. This design by Kathleen Ainslie was taken from Florence Upton’s “The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwog" and shows, presumably, the Two Dutch Dolls. The example above was sold on the decorativeart.co.uk website for £150 - so obviously something to look out for folks!

How much?!?

I was recently contacted by a lady who wanted some advice on a tureen that she had - an ivory body with the pattern named ASTER. I commented that part of the design, the border, was used on other pieces. With this info in mind, i set about looking for a picture to illustrate my point and came across this platter from P.B&S London series which illustrated famous London landmarks - in this instance, the Crystal Palace. As it turned out, I was wrong that the border pattern was exactly the same - sorry Jessica - but i'm sure you'll agree it is very similar. I have seen a few things from the London landmarks series before, sometimes in plain brown transfer, sometimes handcoloured. What surprised me most about this piece was not the pattern, but the price being asked by the retailer - $395 I knew the image of the Crystal Palace was collectable, but that is quite astounding for something that was really meant as just a bit of tourist ware.

What the critics had to say

I ocassionally surf for titbits of info about Powell Bishop & Stonier and recently came across a contemporary review from an exhibition held in Melbourne, Australia in 1881. I think this review has been scanned into some DTP programme which "reads" the original - so unfortunately and inevitably, there are some transcription mistakes, but you can get the general idea at this link: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NOT18810106.2.10&cl=&srpos=0&st=1&e=-------en--1----0-all It appears they won 5 medals for their works at that exhibition and were a well known company for both the quality and affordability of their wares.

In Love with Lewes

Today was a beautiful sunny day on the third day of a two week holiday. It was touch and go whether i'd be doing anything at all today other than the housework as my partner's paycheck was not expected to be cleared - but miracle of miracles it was, so we headed off to Lewes in East Sussex. This beautiful town is a favourite haunt for antiques shopping and has half a dozen or so places to go for a good rummage. On my last visit, I bought a splendid oriental ivory jug which now sits in a line of other jugs on top of a bookcase, and the time before that I came away with a splendid Miako patterned tazza ( the rest of the set is still in the same shop, but it's heavily overpriced, so i think i'll wait another year to see if it's still there and whether there's room for negotiation! On this occasion, I didn't expect much in the way of the Bisto front as I thought i'd completely cleared out the town of it on my last trip. How wrong I was. In the first place we visited, the splendid Lewes Flea Market, I unearthed several plates and a trio set (cup, saucer and sandwich plate). These pieces were: a P.B&S (Powell Bishop & Stonier) oriental ivory range plate with the pattern name "Pagoda" ( i have the same pattern on a much fancier and more colourful plate which i've previously blogged - can you spot it?); A large soup bowl/dish with the Nankin pattern - my first piece with this pattern; a large, colourful plate with a chinoiserie pattern of a boy holding a flower - again a pattern that I have in another colourway; a handpainted trio set which is probably my youngest piece and bears the wand of caduceus mark with Bishop England underneath. This one shop's haul shows a wide range of the factory's wares and timeline. The trio shows clear influence from designers like Clarice Cliff. and the octagonal Pagoda plate is similar in style to Mason's Ashworth Ironstone. Whilst I would love to have complete services of all these patterns, it's almost impossible to track them down, complete services are usually extremely expensive and where would i put them? I'm now starting to think of boxing up much of my collection, cataloguing it and storing it in the loft. If this happens, i feel i may have to have a loft conversion if only to have the floor up there strengthened to take the weight of it all. Of course, that is the curse of being a collector, living with the consequences of your hoarding addiction! (Tom, you see, i was listening...)

time to powder my nose

This little pot is probably a powder pot from a vanity set - such a shame the rest of it (tray, ring tree, pin dish) was nowhere to be seen.

It has a swirling ribbed form that P.B&S used for many wares and is made of bone china. The design of 'gilded' flowers uses a mix of gold and silver that again, the factory used on various things (i've previously blogged a jug that has the same colour scheme).

toilet break

This was the absolute find of the day - a complete Bisto wash set: wash bowl and jug, soap dish (with it's drainer), toothbrush pot and a chamber pot (otherwise known as a "gazzunder" because it 'goes under' the bed). The oriental / chinoiserie design in a colour combination of purple and yellow - opposites on the colour spectrum - would probably make most people go "YUK!" which is perhaps why the price tag was reduced from £85 to £45. I had seen the set in the shop's window on my last visit to Lewes and thought at the time it MUST be by Bisto, but the store was closed so I couldn't investigate. Sadly, there is some damage, a large crack in the bowl, but this is not uncommon for pieces of this size and a broken handle on the chamber pot. Rather bizarrely, it looks like it's been repared with a sticking plaster that's been coloured black - not exactly conservation standards!

I wants itz...i needs itz...the precious

I'm not unaccustomed to the dreadful sin of jealousy and I'm afraid this little pot turned me a deep shade of green.

My apologies that it is only a thumbnail sized picture but it was purloined from another website after a Bisto image search on Google. You might just about recognise the pattern of the freize as it's the same as on one of my vases that i blogged about some time ago... I'm afraid i'm one of those sad collectors that just HAS to have an example of everything produced by the factory i collect and in particular, various examples of the same pattern being used on different body shapes and materials. This is the point in collecting where you transcend from being an aesthete to an archivist.

Vulgar Victorians and Blushing Edwardians

This picture shows a handpainted charger - bought as a blank (a plain, undecorated plate) and then painted by an amateur artist. It illustrates the Victorian hobby for home Arts & Crafts where Joe Bloggs would have a go at decorating, designing, making, crafting all sorts of things at home in their spare time. This hobby was not limited to porcelain painting, but also woodworking, mosaics, woolwork, cardmaking and decoupage etc.; it was the forerunner of today's MASSIVE home crafts industry and was only possible as people found they had more wealth and time on their hands than they had ever previously enjoyed. Not everyone who had a go at painting ceramics was a talented artist and I wouldn't go as far to say that "E Jacobs" who did this charger was a Harry Pierce in the making, but it's not bad. The colour choice is however rather gloomy and the composition isn't great. The Victorians seemed to have a love of "heavy" and cluttered design and it was only in the hands of rather more skilled craftsmen and women that it was successful.

The small globe vases either side, which sit on very cute bun feet are yet again, another example of how it pays to go by instinct when buying on Ebay. The seller had described them as being "stained" at the tops below the blue and gilt necks. This obviously put off a large number of potential bidders, but my instinct told me that the "discolouration" was actually an intended part of the design and what is known in pottery as a 'Blush' technique. Blush pottery became extremely popular around the turn of the last century and some of the best examples were produced by the Worcester factories. There were several variations of colour available, mainly ivory or pink, but Bisto used the idea of a blush of colour (imagine the look of pink blusher makeup on someones face) and experimented with a sponge-like gilding technique. I have to admit, i'm not a fan of the gilded interpretation, as it tends to make the overall design look messy and accidental, but the ivory blush is quite elegant and the pansies on my vases are rather charming.

Handpainted

These handpainted Bisto plates are beautiful examples of Victorian landscape painting on pottery/porcelain. Apologies for the terrible glare of camera flash, they weren't the easiest things to photograph.

This is one of my recent aquisitions, a coffee pot with milk jug and sugar bowl (sadly no cups and saucers). This set nicely answers one of the questions that Fergus Gambon posed when I met him at the Antiques Roadshow - he asked if I knew whether the company ever did any handpainted work? The reason for asking was that the piece I brought to him for appraisal was most likely bought as a blank and then decorated at home. He wasn't sure if the company themselves ever did handpainted pieces. Well, the evidence above not only shows that they did indeed employ artists to handpaint some wares, but by George, weren't they a talented bunch as well!? Ok, Ok, so it's not on the same level as the best artists at Mintons or Worcester, but I would say that they were pretty skilful. Landscapes seem to have been a popular theme at this time (around the mid 1880s - 90s) and there was a tendancy to romanticise such scenes - some might even suggest that Victorian landscape artists were Chocolate box artists because the images now appear extremely sentimental and sickeningly idyllic. Commonly, Scottish highland and Devonshire moorland views abound.

This cup and saucer, although marked with the wand of caduceus, i think were bought as a blank and handpainted at home by a talented amateur art enthusiast. Their monogram is painted on the underside.

Registration Diamonds are Forever

You may have seen marks called Registration Diamonds on various things before. They were a devise used to show that the design of the item (be it pottery, glass, metalware etc) was registered by the manufacturer. The format of the Registration Diamond is very specific and can tell you a great deal about a piece if you don't have any other clues to go by (such as maker's mark) and if you know where to look for the referencing information. http://www.thepotteries.org/mark/reg.htm is a great resource to give you info you need to decifer pottery registration marks. Using the info this website provides, i can tell you that this Conway patterned plate by P.B&S was registered on the 6th December 1880. Why not look at your own collections and try it for yourselves?

The Mark of the Beast

I just thought I should give you some info about pottery marks for the various incarnations of this pottery manufacurer. One great site for finding staffordshire pottery marks is www.thepotteries.org and the Bible of pottery marks is Goddens which is a very expensive tome. But here, for your delectation, is the minimum you'll need to know about Powell & Bishop, Powell Bishop & Stonier, and Bishop & Stonier. The key marks that you'll see on their pottery: i.) the wand of Caduceus ( a rod entwined by serpents flanked by a pair of wings - based on the Hermetic symbol and similar to the medical symbol) and ii.) a chinaman under a parasol for the Oriental Ivory range. The works of this factory are usually very well marked (except for some small pieces like saucers) so you can usually spot one of their pieces quite easily. Also, to my knowledge, there has been no fad for faking/forging their works as there aren't many pieces that command massive prices (except for the White Star Line wares), so you can be pretty confident that when it's marked, it's the genuine article. The factory tended to be fairly consistant in their marking of pattern names and numbers. I haven't, as yet, found out if individual painters and paintresses had marks - if anyone out there knows, please do tell me.

"The Mark of the Beast" was just a shameless title i thought might help me get a few more hits from Google searches!

Titanic

Titanic Mementos is a website devoted to all things "Titanic" related. As you will read on their site, Stonier & Co Ltd ( another company owned by Mr Stonier from Bishop & Stonier) supplied the White Star Line with all sorts of goods to kit out their ships; some of this was produced by Bishop & Stonier (BISTO). You can read all about it at www.titanicmementos.co.uk

who are you calling a "tea leaf" ?

I've mentioned on this blog before that Powell & Bishop were international exporters of their wares. P&B exhibited in the USA and found a huge market for their ironstone wares which were often plainer in design than their earthenware and bone china ranges. One design style that draws collectors together is " Tea Leaf " designs (not a reference to a stolen design) - a simple white body with a gold or lustre tea leaf image. There is a worldwide collectors club for Tea Leaf designs and their link is here: http://www.tealeafclub.com/ I don't currently have any Tea Leaf items in my collection as I tend to prefer more highly decorated pieces, but as my collection grows, i'm sure it will include pieces like the tureen in the picture above as the elegance of the design style would make a stunning display en masse.

National Archives

A design by Livesley Powell & Co.

The National Archives is currently wading through its collection and digitizing designs from their archive to enable researchers to view them without having to visit in person. A fantastic idea! So here is a link to a powell and bishop design :

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/designregisters/images/largeimg/245668.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/designregisters/itemenlarge.asp%3Fcat_id%3D0%26type_id%3D0%26shape_id%3D0%26item_id%3D245668&h=769&w=600&sz=92&hl=en&start=21&um=1&tbnid=OPRpI3W3hhWjdM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpowell%2Bbishop%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

Firing Blanks

"The following extract is taken from http://www.grayspottery.co.uk/ which describes how the Bishop & Stonier's impressed makers mark (the Caduceus) can be found on other manufacturers wares simply because part of their business was supplying blanks to them. A fascinating connection that i wasn't aware of; "

""DUAL MARKS Because Gray's Pottery was a decorating business - buying undecorated 'white ware' from other pottery manufacturers - the pieces that the company bought usually already had a backstamp. Many Gray's pieces therefore often have two backstamps (ILLUSTRATION 3) : the original maker's mark and the Gray's mark on top of it, usually large enough and bold enough to obscure the mark beneath. Mr Gray would not necessarily want the white ware producer to take any credit for the pottery, hence his use of bold backstamps.A rare exception to the common sight of dual marks can be found in the use of one version of the Pharoah's Boat (ILLUSTRATION 4) backstamp. Produced by some sort of rubber stamp, this mark was applied to ware exclusively made for Gray's Pottery. Typically, it can be found on matt-glazed ware supplied by Kirklands of Etruria or Whieldon Ware from Winkle & Co/Ridgways of Shelton.Dual marks are often an aid in dating items. The earthenware producer Johnson Brothers of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, was a major supplier to Gray's Pottery and its products often have distinct date-related marks such as 'Pareek' (registered in 1925), 'Greydawn' (introduced in 1928) or 'Rosedawn' (introduced in 1930) (ILLUSTRATION 5). Lancaster & Sons, later Lancaster & Sandland, used distinctive marks such as 'English Ware' from 1944 or 'Sandland Ware' from 1949.The presence of an impressed mark can also be useful. The most common is 'JOHNSONS', usually on cup bases, but early Gray's ware often has impressed numbers. Examples are W931 (ILLUSTRATION 6), indicating a piece by Wood & Sons of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, and made in September 1931. Bishop & Stonier of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, supplied Gray's with white ware during the first 20 years of the company's existence. The characteristic entwined snake mark from Bishop & Stonier is often accompanied by one number on top of another: 2/29 meaning February 1929 ""

Tureens - what does one do with them now?

I have a decorating dilema - having bought a Powell & Bishop tureen with a charming chinoiserie design, I'm wondering what the best way to display it would be? it's too wide to fit in my cabinet which has very shallow shelves and it seems odd to display it on the mantlepiece. And as I live in a small flat with no room for a dining table, there is nowhere else that makes logical sense. I suppose it shall just have to remain where it is, between two gilt frames which display family photos of long dead ancestors - but who actually lived contemporary to when the tureen was manufactured. This is just one example of where collecting can start to drive you insane...when it doesn't match the curtains!

Blue & White .... and ORANGE!

Blue & White pottery has long been a ceramic collector's favourite - ever stylish, ever classic, but also ever inventive. Its origins are in the orient but it has been copied and translated by European potters, particularly in Holland and England with their tin glazed deltware. Blue and White ceramics span centuries and continents and utilise both pottery and porcelain, handpainting and transfer printing. Although the early partnerships of L.P, P&B, P.B&S. only did a limited amount with Blue & White, preferring instead to concentrate on coloured enamel designs and plainer tealeaf ironstone wares, Bishop & Stonier (BISTO) took up the challenge. I have only recently come across this site for buying B&W, but thought i'd post the link here as tey have a few bits from the company - http://www.blueandwhite.com/thumbnails.asp The first picture in this posting is of two vases which use a blue and white floral pattern called "India". Rather boldly, the background is coloured in a vivid orange. This orange colour became more and more popular into the 1920s and 30s as designers like Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper used it for their graphic, geometric designs. Whereas Cliff and Cooper used the colour orange for its own aesthetic merits, Bisto tended to keep it in the background. I have seen a few pieces of Bisto that tried to mimic Clarice Cliff's style, but i'm afraid to say, it was a sad imitation. I must say, however, i think in the case of these India vases, the orange works extremely well in setting off the beautiful Blue & White design, perhaps because orange is the complimentary colour for blue. I have a couple of other examples to show you where orange has been used by Bisto as a background to the main design: a vase with fruit design - a blue transfer print, handcoloured with enamels; a ginger jar with oriental dragon design.

This is a small Bisto ware vase or possible even a toothbrush holder(!) with a fantastic dragon design, dating from the late 1920s/30s- i love the puffy clouds. The bowl above has to be one of the nicest surprises i've had from buying on Ebay. It turned out to be far larger and far more beautiful than anticipated. The sprig design on the outside is the same print as that used on an aesthetic movement teaset i have already blogged about.

delt and flow blue

The large plate in the centre of this display is the most classic looking Blue & White design I have come across by Bisto and is called "Delft" . It is impressed on the back with the date of 1909 and is very traditional in style: a central image of carnations in a garden with a border of crosshatched panels and flower sprigs. The crosshatch is very redolent of original chinese pottery and the earlier attempts by British potters like New Hall to copy the style. Either side of the plate is a pair of Bisto candlesticks; these also date from the Edwardian period and are typical with their swags and roman/greek/classical column shape. The same moulded shape was also used by Bisto for an Oriental Ivory version of the candlesticks, and i have seen them in cream and pink which is very attractive. My pair of candlesticks look like flow blue, a type of earthenware where the blue colour slightly bleeds into the surrounding white because of a "fault" with the glaze and the porousness of the material used. The "fault" of Flow or Flo' Blue was a massive success for potteries at that time and has become extremely popular with today's collectors, especially in America. The beautiful edwardian jardiniere is home to a weeping fig that despite all odds is very happy and has come back from the dead more times than a Dallas character.