Pattern Plate
ca. 1795-1800 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Pattern plates were sample plates showing alternative patterns for borders. They were used as samples by travelling salesmen or ‘riders’. Unusually, this one is inscribed with both the pattern number and the number of repeats for the circumference of a standard dinner plate.
Davenport was one of the big four English ceramic firms during the early-mid 19th century, alongside Minton, Spode and Wedgwood, and was generally at the cutting edge of design, but not always innovative in terms of materials and techniques. However, the firm left no archive, and in part because it did not pioneer a new ceramic material with which the factory’s name became synonymous (as with Wedgwood with Jasper and Minton with Majolica), and because it left no archive, its importance was largely forgotten until the 1970s.
Davenport was one of the big four English ceramic firms during the early-mid 19th century, alongside Minton, Spode and Wedgwood, and was generally at the cutting edge of design, but not always innovative in terms of materials and techniques. However, the firm left no archive, and in part because it did not pioneer a new ceramic material with which the factory’s name became synonymous (as with Wedgwood with Jasper and Minton with Majolica), and because it left no archive, its importance was largely forgotten until the 1970s.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Creamware (cream-coloured earthenware), painted in enamels |
| Brief description | Pattern plate, creamware painted in enamels, Davenport's factory, Longport, Staffordshire, ca. 1795-1800 |
| Physical description | Plain circular creamware dinner plate, the border painted with Davenport factory creamware patterns in yellow, brown, purple green and black enamels (pattern numbers 60, 59, 61, 62, 63, and 67 are inscribed in purple, and these are annotated with the number of repeats per plate (25, 6, 22, 6, 16, and 16 respectively), the number of repeats being given in the format '25 round this' etc). |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Impressed factory mark of 'Davenport' above an anchor |
| Credit line | Given by the American Friends of the V&A Museum through the generosity of Judy Novak |
| Object history | Bought from the Joyce Mountain Collection (Bonhams, London, 21 September 2005). Previously sold 'Wateringbury Place, Christie's, 2 June 1978', according to a saleroom label. Illustrated as from the collection of the late Stanley W. Fisher in G. Godden and T. Lockett's, Davenport: China, Earthenware and Glass, 1794-1887 (1989), pl. 44, and as in the collection of W. S. Fisher, Bewdley, in G. Godden's Illustrated Encyclopaedia of English Pottery and Porcelain (1966), p. 118. |
| Summary | Pattern plates were sample plates showing alternative patterns for borders. They were used as samples by travelling salesmen or ‘riders’. Unusually, this one is inscribed with both the pattern number and the number of repeats for the circumference of a standard dinner plate. Davenport was one of the big four English ceramic firms during the early-mid 19th century, alongside Minton, Spode and Wedgwood, and was generally at the cutting edge of design, but not always innovative in terms of materials and techniques. However, the firm left no archive, and in part because it did not pioneer a new ceramic material with which the factory’s name became synonymous (as with Wedgwood with Jasper and Minton with Majolica), and because it left no archive, its importance was largely forgotten until the 1970s. |
| Bibliographic reference | Illustrated as from the collection of the late Stanley W. Fisher in G. Godden and T. Lockett's, Davenport: China, Earthenware and Glass, 1794-1887 (1989), pl. 44, and as in the collection of W. S. Fisher, Bewdley, in G. Godden's Illustrated Encyclopaedia of English Pottery and Porcelain (1966), p. 118. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.63-2005 |
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| Record created | January 3, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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