Featured Ceramic Decorative Plate, Mermaids, Neptune

This isn't mine, just something that came up in an eBay search because the seller used the word 'cameo' to describe it. I don't need it, I can't use it, but, boy, I sure would love to have it anyway. Have never seen the like. Thought from first photo it was an Incolay design I hadn't seen before. If anyone can shed any light on origin or age, please jump in. Seller says was bought at an antiques show at least 35 years ago.






Another possible mark:

 

I think it is Schafer Vater jasperware
Their marks are not always clear.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Schafer+vater+jasperware&FORM=HDRSC2

 

Agreed. It's pate sure pate, not jasperware, although often incorrectly called that. Schafer und Vater. Later versions were made in Italy as tourist bits.

Difference is that jasperware is separately cast plaques. Pate sur pate is slip applied in layers, you can see that from the sort of featheriness of this.

 

Oh, and the jasperware term, which is Wedgwood, also applies to the body used.

 

Thanks everyone. Gives me several questions to ask the seller. Photos are so out of focus, it's difficult to be sure of some features. I'm reading them as the piece being glazed, not the bisque quality of jasper ware - type pottery. So that's one question.

In overall shape & nature of subject matter, it has a lot of resemblance to Schafer und Vater plates I could find, but, again, they are all described as jasper ware & could not find one with this design. I have a framed plaque I think is theirs, although I think there's another well known competitor? My memory for names is terrible. Other than Wedgwood, I keep forgetting. The color also seems off to me for S&V, not the bright sage. Next question is whether the photos have good color fidelity; I think lighting used made everything in pix more yellow that reality.

In all the photos of the underside, I think here & there I see a gap where the bottom meets the rim. What's going on here? Another thing to confirm with seller.

When I get some answers, hope you will all help to reassess with any new information.

 

Google on Schafer und Vater pate sur pate rather than jasperware, you'll find similar, including that colour. It's common to have that sort of gap, too, it's folded over.

 

For good measure, the other close up photo:

 

Copied & pasted right in & was still given a lot of jasper ware. Added 'celadon' to the terms & found myself - erroneously - giving this advice:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/iddy-biddy-silvered-vase-query.27506/

Best match Google found was this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222616516098

 

Oh lord, Ebay. Those are NOT pate sur pate nor are they jasperware! They're sprig moulded. Arg.

Rant: sellers who conflate jasperware, pate sur pate, sprigged and sprig moulded.

 

There is no match at all for S&V + mermaid. KPM, the other name I was trying to think of, has this:


Pinterest says it is KPM Royal Berlin Arcadia. That's it for mermaids so far.

 

This is more like the work on the plate:



https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/47320391_prosper-jouneau-pate-sur-pate-plaque

 

Most of what I'm finding with a general resemblance of subject & quality of decoration is French.

An edit from listing photo:

 

Why does the scalloped edge look so rough & irregular?

 

KPM one is sprig moulded as well by the look of it. The blue is pate sur pate. There were French makers as well, so it could be that. I think the roughness is simply where they've layered the slip whilst decorating it. It does rather remind me of the Water Babies.

 

checking for updates on this thread: i am thinking i am liking this plate more and more

 

It's a lovely thing.

 

The body is a bit crude, but the decoration...some of the best I've seen. Granted I do not routinely look at porcelain.

Have asked seller my questions, waiting for reply. Should probably also ask if his left arm has become severed from the shoulder. Wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.

 

Have asked Google to show me Meissen, Sevres & Tharaud. No joy.

 

@Bronwen have you tried specifying "plaque"?

Anyway, how cool + they even made him look like he's half submerged underwater