Link: Photos can be found here.
I purchased this wonderful little plate/saucer from Ebay to use in an art project but it has a certain feeling that it is very old. I may be wrong but I thought I would post on here in case it is something special.
Here are the details:
I bought it on Ebay in the United Kingdom
It is about 4" wide
The blue is a lighter blue, looking online it looks like it is flo blue rather than the darker blue?
It is not bone china, not translucent.
About 2-3mm thick
I think it is transfer printed as the design is very slightly off centre and in one place there is a very fine (but it isn't straight) white line through the design that could have been a tear in the transfer. Then again it could just be a scratch in the hand painted design before it was fired?
It has a wobbly/fluted? edge
There are three sets of marks in the glaze on the back and three single marks in the glaze on the front - possible from being on some kind of stilts in the kiln
The foot ring is very thin and I think it has glaze on it hence I presume the 'stilts' were used to stop it sticking to the kiln/plate below?
The pattern does not look pin sharp, I can't decide if it has been hand painted very well or if it is transfer printed. I have read that the transfers were created from etchings and this in my limited experience of etchings doesn't look sharp enough to have come from an etched transfer?
Around the fluted edge there are some brown marks under the glaze and also on the foot ring - possibly from the glaze being thin in those parts when fired.
There are no markings on the back except for a few stray small dots of blue, could this be evidence of it being hand painted, would you expect to see these if transfer printed?
It could possibly be a saucer for a cup which could explain it's small size, unlike the modern idea of a saucer having the inner ring to stop the cup sliding this has just a hollow flat bottomed bowl shape about 3/4"/20mm in from the edge of the object
It just has a feeling of being old, I expect everyone who doesn't know about these things says that but I would be grateful if anyone has any information they can add to my search.
There is a link for some photos I have posted on Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/16285609@N05/?
Thank you for your help and time,
Andrew Jackson
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