Help ID Haviland Plate Please?- Owl family crest with Greek (?) Motto?

I am stumped! I found three of these 8 7/8" diameter plates today at the thrift store and can not find anything to ID them. All I can think of is that they were a custom order done by Haviland for a family. I'm not even sure the alphabet is Greek, some of the characters aren't making sense to me. Trying to translate this has proven to be well beyond my skill sets. Can anyone ID a pattern or translate the motto? Thank you!

 

Does look like Greek, but I have no idea what it says.

 

And that may be a crest for a university, a fraternity or other educational or possibly even religious organization and not a family at all.

 

Perhaps it's the Hogwart's Athens campus.

 

@Darkwing Manor - It reads, "Φιλότης Γλυκυτάτη Δυναστεία." [i.e. "Friendship, the Sweetest Influence"]. A quick Googley-woogley tracks it as the Motto of Phi Gamma Delta (ΦΓΔ):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Gamma_Delta
.

 

You nailed it! That even looks like their crest! Thank you!

 

@Darkwing Manor - You're entirely welcome.
.

 

I'm not sure that is was professionally painted.
It does not look like a stencil.
Someone may have bought blank Haviland plates and painted them themselves.
Can you see small variances between the 3 plates?

 

Yes, cc49, they are definitely hand-painted, with a great deal of difference in scale and detail, one from another. That bothered me that Haviland would turn out such a low-quality rendering, but I never thought of the after-market option. Very obvious, now that you point it out! I am assuming they were done in the same manner as the "china-painting" hobbyists of the era. Does anyone know what type of medium they used? I would guess that whatever it was , it was not fired on after applying? There are spot losses on one of the renderings..
I guess I won't be making a windfall on re-sale of these! Oh well, I collect owls so they can just go in the vitrine... as if I had any more room.

 

There is a healthy market for vintage fraternity items. Don't know about Fiji in particular, but I suggest you check Completed listings on eBay. Update: Just did. "Healthy" as I said.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sa...&_ipg=50&_fosrp=1&_nkw=phi+gamma+delta&_sop=3

Debora

 

Thanks Debora. It doesn't look spectacular, does it! I have a dismal track record getting any bids on eBay. I seem to have fallen under an ancient Gypsy curse called "Can't sell life preservers to shipwreck victims". My sister, on the other hand, could sell ice cubes to Inuits! https://www.ebay.com/usr/darkwingmanor1

 

I do think sorority items do better but yours is fairly old as Greek items go. Think you might do okay.

Debora

 

Yes, I'm surprised these fine plates have survived the frat parties. I read in the Wiki description that they never allowed the actual letters of the fraternity to be imprinted on anything that could be broken. Wise beyond their years, or else their moms insisted on it.

 

I think Wiki is being a bit fanciful. And until recently, fraternities were fairly genteel organizations that were ruled by house mothers.

Debora