Thursday, 27 December 2018

Thursday.



Ruth is  directing and guiding me in publishing  photos  on  blog. Above is a photo  of Saint Mary's  Church, Aldham,  about two miles away from our home- less than that as the crow flies.  We worship here most Sundays.  The  Church is a mixture of periods from Saxon onwards, and as it stands on a mound that the 'experts'  tell us  used to support a pagan temple before this church was built, it's been a place of worship for a very long time.

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This  is not quite a mystery  object, but  a set of shelves in our kitchen. On it are mounted twenty  four  pieces of pottery. Twenty- one of  them  were made in Staffordshire. Three of  them were made elsewhere. Can any  of  you  name the three, and tell me where they  were made.  I am not a ceramicist, but  I do  know the answer; As probably does Zoe, who is a ceramicist. 

P.s. But I've  had lots of time to find  out the answers!




7 comments:

Crowbard said...

Wild guess Mike; The three plates would be my choice. Oriental, probably Japanese Imari ware on the lower shelf perhaps 1650 - 1750 ish? Is the green plate also Japanese? Meiji era, (October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912). Knowing you rather better than the ceramics, I suspect I'm horribly underrating them. Tough puzzle, every body else seems to be holding back on this one. It doesn't help that the Chinese later produced similar plates which also got called Imari after the Japanese town where they had originated.

Mike. said...

Hello Crowbard. Two out of three. The two lower plates are, I think, Chinese - probably made for export to Europe. Late eighteenth/ early nineteenth century.

The plate in the centre of the higher shelf is, I'm told (and remember that I'm NOT a ceramicist) Staffordshire.

Anonymous said...

P.s. i.e. It's an English copy of a Chinese copy of a Japanese plate.

Dashed clever these ceramicists!!

Crowbard said...

I'll have another wilder guess or two then Mike.
The lustre-ware goblet, centre of lower shelf, could well be Staffordshire, but I believe Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool also produced some lustreware.
Because I can't identify it, I wonder if the tiny jug in front of the green plate might be the 'outsider'.

Mike said...

Good morning Crowbard. Another good stab at it. If I didn't know the answer, I think I'd have guessed at the lustre ware goblet, but I'm fairly sure that it's Staffordshire, having checked out several collections, and a very similar goblet in the FitzWilliam collection, which is described as Staffordshire. I'll give it another day or so. Must go, being called up for breakfast, by three generations of hungry ladies.

Crowbard said...

My word Mike, how remiss to keep your ladies hungry at such a festive season. Feed them instanter before they fade away; or worse perhaps, rush off to an expensive restaurant!
Luv, Dottier Bruv.

Mike said...

The one other item on the shelves which isn't Staffordshire is the small jug (or gravy boat) in the bottom right hand corner of the shelves, which is clearly marked underneath as Bloor Derby, which was obviously made in Derbyshire.