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Showing posts from January 31, 2010

Ridgway and the Temple of the Sybil

This early, c.1830's plate from William Ridgway in the Italian series depicts the Temple of the Sybil (Temple of Vesta) at Tivoli, Rome, Italy . This temple is one of the earliest surviving examples of concrete construction and considered to be one of the most fascinating of the many monuments of the period. It was built in the 1st century BC. The plate is bordered with delicate roses and flowers amongst scrolls and urns. The color is unusual, a pale pinkish-lavender. This plate measures just over 9" Marked on back in an ornate scrolled cartouche: Sybil's Temple Tivoli WR ITALIAN William Ridgway operated the Bell Works in Shelton and the Church Works in nearby Hanley from 1830-54. Ridgway were the potters to Queen Victoria. The WR marking on the plate is indicative that this was made at the Bell Works, which since 1956 has been The Potteries Musuem at Bethesda Street and houses the largest and most important collection of North Staffordshire pottery in the world.

Dishes, candy & love, oh my!

14 days of Romantic Transferware I just adore this pattern, The Chatham,  by Royal Doulton.  The name Chatham translates to forest settlement and is a city which lies in the heart of the Medway, a gathering of towns along the Medway River in Kent, SE England.  The majority of pieces in The Chatham each have different scenes, mostly idyllic and including views in the background of the Medway river and the Royal Navy dockyard, which was opened during the reign of Henry VIII and closed in 1984.  The border of this pattern is light red/pink with tiny flowers, dots, and leaves. Below is actually a two color transfer piece (we'll get into that later) where the center scene is a different color than the border.  In this case it is done in a charcoal color.  Furthermore it is handpainted over the transfer with various colors, all under glaze, called polychrome (I'll cover this later too!).  Circa 1902-1936 Salad plate: and here is a platter in this pattern done in two-color only:

Romantic Transferware for the Month of Lovey Dovey

With February being the official 'love' month and Valentines Day only two weeks away, I thought, "what  better time than now to talk about Romantic Staffordshire transferware, and share some of my favorite love poetry and recipes"?     Mmmm...and now I'm already thinking about buttery shortbread cookies with rasberry jam and, of course, creamy milk chocolate.  I am a chocoholic, after all and I'm hungry.  Red transferware (often called pink) was the first color I began collecting 20+ years ago, and do still.  Romantic transferware is most often referred to as a specific time period of production, mostly from the years 1815-60 though many new patterns were introduced well into the 20th century.  There are literally thousands of patterns referred to as 'romantic' and include city and scenic views of England and exotic foregin lands, bucolic scenes, patterns with abundances of flowers, fruits, shells and birds, and even sporting scenes!  Personally, I