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Blue Willow producers Posted by Brenda Philips Tarchi on January 1, 2014, 10:57 am [https://www.flickr.com/photos/quicksilver/6440861723/] I just received some “Blue Willow” plates from an old Italian auntie. From the marks on the backs they appear to be from 3 different producers: 1) F. Primavesi & Sons of Cardiff, 2) Indo Chinese S.C.R. (???), and 3) that has the word “Willof” in the banner at the bottom of the royal (lion and unicorn) seal and the name R. Pierallini of San Giovanni Val D’arno (Italy) impressed under the glaze. Can anyone tell me what “Willof” might be and if the second two producers are noteworthy at all or just two of the many anonymous producers of “Blue Willow” plates? Thanks! Photo link attached

Re: Blue Willow producers Posted by Connie Rogers on January 2, 2014, 7:03 pm, in reply to "Blue Willow producers" Hi Brenda, I would like to see the photos, but have been unable to find them. Your 1) example was produced in Great Britain and sold through the importer/retailer F. Primavesi & Sons in Cardiff, Wales.

Re: Blue Willow producers Posted by Brenda Philips Tarchi on January 3, 2014, 11:11 am, in reply to "Re: Blue Willow producers" http://www.flickr.com/photos/113105898@N03/ Hello and thanks for your response. I thought I had included the URL for you to see the photos but I really don't know how to share things on Flickr. Above there is the "address" of my album. Not sure if you can use that to see them. I will continue to study how it works but for now I'll send this.

Re: Blue Willow producers Posted by Connie Rogers on January 3, 2014, 4:02 pm, in reply to "Re: Blue Willow producers" Hi Brenda, I assume the 2) "Indo Chinese" pattern name mark is on the back of the willow pattern plate pictured. The S. C. R. could be the initials used by Societa Ceramica Richard in Milan, Italy noted in Kovel's NEW DICTIONARY OF MARKS, a pottery they date from 1735 to the present (1986). Not all standard willow patterns have that name in the mark. Evidently this maker chose a different name unique to that factory. It is a good willow pattern plate but nothing extra ordinary. 3) The mark is a take-off on the Royal Arms mark used by Great Britain. The name means nothing to me, but the mark looks like a reproduction -- especially if it claims to be Italian. Other countries did did not use that mark. I doubt if the piece it is on has the exact same willow pattern as the one you show in your Flickr link. "WILLOF" is just part of the fake mark. Your old Italian Auntie found some different willow pattern pieces, so they may have been interesting to her and fun to collect. Thanks for contacting the Message Board.

Re: Blue Willow producers Posted by Brenda Philips Tarchi on January 4, 2014, 10:30 am, in reply to "Re: Blue Willow producers" Thanks so much. Believe you are right about the Società Ceramica Richard which I discovered became the important Italian ceramics producer Richard-Ginori (until it went bankrupt last Jan and was then bought up by Gucci) I imagined that the Royal Arms on the other might be fake and I'm thinking that the "Willof" might well be an italianization of "Willow". I found it interesting that not only are the images between the three different producers slightly different, but the 2 I have from Cardiff are slightly different from each other. The Cardiff plates also seem to have the most "mistakes" on them. There are numerous blue marks where it should be all white and it appears that the transfer they used for the rim didn't fit (wasn't big enough) so they had to add a piece of pattern to fill the 1 inch gap that was left. Thanks so much for your help and your time! It's been educational.

Re: Blue Willow producers Posted by Connie Rogers on January 5, 2014, 3:38 pm, in reply to "Re: Blue Willow producers" Hi Brenda, Just one last comment. The Primavesi firm used many different potteries to produce their wares, so the quality would not necessarily be consistent. There were London offices as well as in Cardiff. It was a very large importer/retailer.

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