This is a beautiful dinner plate made in about 1850 by Edward Challinor. The plate is made of pearlware and decorated with a blue and white transfer print that is a close copy of Spode' famous "Indian Sporting" series. This particular depiction is called "Death of a Bear".
Blue on white decorations were done in East Asia for many centuries, and were made popular in the West by the Dutch Delftware potters in the 17th century. In circa 1800, the famous Spode factory in Staffordshire created a transfer printing process that could mass produce beautifully decorated blue and white wares, making this a very common and desired choice of tableware for the two centuries to come. Potters all-over Britain quickly started to make use of this new technology and copied the famous Spode patterns, Edward Challinor among them.
The image is an exciting and fanciful depiction of a hunting scene: a bear is being hunted by dogs, men on horses and men on a huge elephant. The rim of the plate is adorned with pictures of tigers, lions, cranes and wild boars. The image was based on Samuel Howitt's engravings from 'Indian Field Sports' published in 1807. Of course the pottery artists had never been in India and there was no internet to study what things looked like in India, so this plate ended up a curious mix of various exotic elements, looking nothing like the actual India or Indians! But of course you have to see these things in the context of their own time.
The plate carries blue printed mark "Oriental Sports" with a rose (for England), thistle (for Scotland) and crown (for the United Kingdom).
CONDITION REPORT: The plate is in very good antique condition with very little wear, although it has some very light scoffs on the rim. Like on most pearlware items the plate is crazed.
Antique British china 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 25.5cm (10") diameter.
Edward Challinor pearlware plate, blue and white "Death of a Bear", ca 1850
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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!
