This is a beautiful plate made by Crown Staffordshire between 1906 and 1930. Crown Staffordshire brought out a series of remakes of original Chinoiserie designs, and this is one such design.
The Crown Staffordshire factory was operative in Fenton, Staffordshire between 1889 and 1985. It made high quality porcelain for mass production and could be found in many 20th Century households.
This design is based on an original design from the late 18th Century. This is a "Chinoiserie" design in the French Sèvres style that was produced by Worcester. This in turn imitates a Chinese design on porcelain that was previously exported to the West, before the porcelain industry in Europe started taking over the market. The plate is decorated in a beautiful underglaze deep cobalt blue colour, with large peony flowers painted in slightly raised enamel paint on top of the glaze. The colours are very fresh and the slightly raised nature of the enamel paint gives the plate a multi-layered character.
CONDITION REPORT The plate is in perfect antique condition with no damage, crazing, wear or repairs.
The plate is marked with a Crown Staffordshire mark.
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1800s and early 1900s, 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 (diameter) 21.2cm (8 3/8").
SHIPPING I ship worldwide from the UK, mostly by Royal Mail 2nd Class for the UK and International Tracked and Signed for the rest of the world. I am happy to combine shipping charges on multiple items - please contact me to discuss. In principle I do not make a profit on shipping although for simplicity's sake I charge flat shipping fees. If the fee charged greatly exceeds the actual cost I will gladly refund you the difference - at the same time if it is slightly lower I will gladly make up the difference. In some countries shipping will end up significantly more than the expected fees and I will contact you to discuss our options. PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING SHIPPING COSTS AND OPTIONS.
