This is a beautiful square dessert dish made by Hicks & Meigh in about 1820. The dish has a deep cobalt blue ground, lavish gilding and panels with beautiful hand painted flowers.
Hicks & Meigh was one of the many china factories in early 19th Century Staffordshire, alongside potters such as Spode, H&R Daniel, Minton, Wedgwood, Davenport and Coalport (which was actually just over the border in Shropshire). They may be one of the lesser known potteries of that era, but they made some very high quality tea and dinner wares. The factory started in the very early 1800s with earthenware and in 1816 began producing high quality porcelain in their new Broad Street works. This factory became hugely successful and operated until 1835. Their wares are often mis-identified as they were generally not marked.
The dish is decorated with the well-known pattern no. 699 in cobalt blue, bold gilt patterns and beautiful hand painted flowers.
CONDITION REPORT The plate is in good antique condition with no damage or repairs , but it is crazed (as to be expected of a dish from this era) and some of the decorations have rubbing, as visible in the pictures.
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1800s, and this meant that china from that period can have some firing specks from flying particles. British makers were also known for their experimentation, and sometimes this resulted in technically imperfect results. Due to the shrinkage in the kiln, items can have small firing lines or develop crazing over time, which should not be seen as damage but as an imperfection of the maker's recipes, probably unknown at the time of making. Items have often been used for many years and can have normal signs of wear, and gilt can have signs of slight disintegration even if never handled. I will reflect any damage, repairs, obvious stress marks, crazing or heavy wear in the item description but some minor scratches, nicks, stains and gilt disintegration can be normal for vintage items and need to be taken into account.
There is widespread confusion on the internet about the difference between chips and nicks, or hairlines and cracks. I will reflect any damage as truthfully as I can, i.e. a nick is a tiny bit of damage smaller than 1mm and a chip is something you can easily see with the eye; a glazing line is a break in the glazing only; hairline is extremely tight and/or superficial and not picked up by the finger; and a crack is obvious both to the eye and the finger. Etcetera - I try to be as accurate as I can and please feel free to ask questions or request more detailed pictures!
DIMENSIONS 22cm X 22cm (8.5" X 8.5").
Hicks & Meigh square dish, cobalt blue, gilt and flowers patt.699, ca 1820
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We always aim to have happy customers so if you have an issue with or questions about your item, please contact us and we will do anything we can to resolve the issue with you!
