Featured Jumbo Delft Platter

I would so appreciate any information or suggestions where else I might ask, regarding this large platter (big enough for a turkey and very heavy). I love the look of delft so I don't care if it isn't centuries-old, but it definitely doesn't look like something that came from Ross or TJ Maxx. What's odd to me is the complete lack of maker's mark, especially for such a large and distinctive piece. The back is all white but for tiny fleabites of blue. The outer rim line is not perfectly continuous; it has a few subtle dips inward. The areas you can see where there is dark blue outlining appears to have been etched (?) to partially remove the coloring inside, and then coated extra thick with gloss (which is why these are also the areas with visible wear). There is an unfortunate large damaged area at the 1:00 rim position, which someone partly filled with some kind of white plaster and painted vague detail in blue, I guess so the damage wouldn't stand out from across the room. Besides being very heavy, the piece has a metallic ring when you thump it.

 

Welcome, Audrey.
It is very nice, but I wouldn't call it delft. It is willow pattern, a very popular type of transfer ware inspired by Chinese porcelain.
I have never seen this particular pattern before, but I am by no means an expert on willow ware. I love the very Gothic Revival looking pagoda on the left.

@Ownedbybear will be able to tell you more about it, no doubt including an estimate of the age. She, like myself, may not know who Ross or TJ Maxx are.

 

Heh. We call it T K Maxx! I used to shop in Ross a great deal.

Anyhow, not delft, but 19th C British transferware. I'd suspect 1830s ish onwards, and it looks stoneware. An awful lot of these are unmarked, which is very irritating.

The variant on Willow is interesting and not one I'm familiar with either. @kentworld ?

 

Hi Audrey! Welcome to Antiquers!

 

Thanks for the info so far, ya'll! I actually started Googling in earnest after making this post last night and learned this was a 'Willow' pattern, but I too could not find this particular one anywhere, and I mean I looked at probably THOUSANDS. I read that there were literally hundreds of crafters making these and those with the lack of registry mark is frustrating to everyone. I think what is strangest about this platter is the barely-there indentations--turns out there are 8 and they are not randomly spaced; they're in 4 pairs, each flanking the would-be corners of the platter. When I look at other Willow platters online, they all appear to either have indentations that are easily noticeable or none at all. I also noticed it's in these 4 corners where the border transfer pattern starts and stops. You can see the exact line where the edges meet and don't perfectly align, in fact the floral design in those four locations are wildly different from each other (like the 10 o'clock one is only about half as wide as the 4 o'clock).

 

I love it too, such a bizarre and beautiful hybridization of cultural aesthetics. Definitely my favorite part of the platter.

 

The factory that made it bought in the transfers and then made them fit a platter shape they already had.I like it when the transfers don't quite line up: evidence of a real person doing the work.

 

What everyone said!! Love that platter! Hate it when it is not identifiable, but then love it because it isn't. AJ & I both thought Gothic Revival for that Pagoda - never have seen that before.

My grandmother had a monster white with blue and gold trim tureen, platter, and ladle. Not a mark on it! Never have seen another piece even similarly decorated...

 

I didn't see this pattern anywhere, but I've always thought blue willow had to have swallows, a bridge with people on it, and more willow. The big flowers and waves and the narrow picket fence-like border certainly make this one different.

 

Here is the same pattern with a slightly different shape but it has a mark. Marked SOUTH WALES POTTERY W.C. JUN.

Godden's lists South Wales Pottery in Llanelly, Wales, operating 1839-54 by Chambers & Co, 1854-58 Coombes & Holland, then continued by Holland & Guest and then Guest & Dewsberry c 1927.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/staffordshire-transferware-1807651048

 

I found what I think is the pattern name, Colandine.

https://www.blueandwhite.com/museum.asp?m=South+Wales+Pottery&p=Colandine

 

Got so busy looking at the platter I totally forgot to say welcome Audrey!

 

Hi,
You should remember that the decals were sold to many different potteries. They were used as whole or even just parts. Trying to ID the pottery by the decal is just wrong. Shape of the china, usual thickness and other things are to ID different potteries. Since some are unmarked to find a specific pottery is fruitless.
greg

 

But the ones in the link have the same shape.

 

Greg is right. Not only were the transfers sold in bulk to assorted factories, assorted factories copied each others' platter shapes.

 

Does anyone know if there's any relevance to the tiny blue dots visible on the back, like how they could have gotten there or if it indicates anything important about the who/what/when/where of a piece of transferware? I don't see any such dots on other transferware items I have, but then I don't have a lot.

 

Hey thank you, I FEEL welcome! But I gotta know, how on Earth did you find the pattern? When I figured out that just scrolling through images was needle-in-haystack, I tried the search feature using my own photograph but that produced results even less 'close' than any keywords I had tried, so I went back to keyword haystack searching.....a total of at least two hours, made my eyes so tired.

 

Your blue dots are basically imperfections in the pottery body, brought out by the glaze firing.

 

I think I searched using pagoda as one of the search terms and was fortunate to find a similar platter with a mark. From the mark I found others with a name.

As others point out, without a maker's mark you may never know for certain who made it but at least you have one of the makers of that pattern and the date range they were in business and the pattern name.

The best source I have for finding information about specific patterns including various makers is The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery by Coysh and Henrywood Vol I & II. Unfortunately neither has the pattern Colandine listed.

Perhaps you or someone else will find more info.