Five Wedgwood “Mayfair” Plates on the Embossed Wellesley Shape, Made in England, c. 1934–1950

The Piece

Five plates in cream-coloured earthenware, and the border is the whole argument for them. It is moulded in relief in three concentric registers: an outer ring of raised ovolo beads running edge to edge, then a wide band of fruiting vine and flower swags with small figures worked into the foliage, then a fine string of beading closing the rim against the well. The relief is deep enough to hold a shadow and is left entirely undecorated, so the pattern reads in white on white and changes as the light moves.

Against all that texture the centre is quiet: a single painted bouquet, small and set dead centre in the plain well. A cabbage rose in deep pink anchors it, with a yellow peach, a cluster of purple grapes, a lilac aster, a blue bud on a curling tendril, and green leaves drawn in fine brown outline.

The proportion is the point. A heavily worked border, a wide plain well, and one small bouquet — nothing crowds anything else.

History & Provenance

The back of these plates is unusually talkative, and it dates them precisely at one end.

Printed in a brown cartouche: MAYFAIR above, WEDGWOOD with the company's device, WELLESLEY in a ribboned panel, then MADE IN ENGLAND and U.S.A. PATENT D.9321 7. WELLESLEY is the name of the moulded shape; MAYFAIR is the name of the decoration applied to it. A hand-painted pattern number in red and a small green workman's mark sit alongside, applied by the people who decorated and passed each piece.

That patent number is the anchor. US design patent D.93,217 covers the design for a plate, was filed on 13 June 1934, and was granted on 4 September 1934 to John Edward Goodwin of Stoke-on-Trent, assigned to Josiah Wedgwood & Sons. Goodwin was Wedgwood's art director. A granted patent number printed on the back means these plates cannot have been made before September 1934, which is a harder floor than style evidence ever gives.

The other end of the range is an estimate and we will say so. Wedgwood kept the Wellesley shape in production for decades, and backstamps outlive the patents they cite — this one expired in 1941. We are giving these a range that starts at the documented floor and runs to mid-century rather than pretending the mark dates them to a year.

The wider context: Wedgwood built its reputation on cream-coloured earthenware from the 1760s, and moulded relief borders left in the white have been part of its vocabulary ever since. What you are holding is that tradition still in production a hundred and seventy years later, made for the American dining table.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Embossed white borders are the most quietly useful thing you can put on a table. They give a place setting texture and weight without introducing a colour or a pattern you then have to build a whole table around, and they make plain modern glassware and linen look deliberate rather than sparse. A run of these under a green salad or a dark stew does more for the food than any printed border.

They are also built for the wall. The relief border is deep enough to read from across a room, and five plates is exactly the number for a proper plate arrangement — one centre and four around it, or a stepped run up a stairwell. Nothing else at this price gives you that much three-dimensional pattern in white.

And there is the mark itself. A backstamp that names its own shape, its own pattern, and the US patent it was made under is a rare thing to be able to hand a buyer. Most vintage china asks you to take the seller's word; these plates document themselves.

A note on use and care: crazing means the glaze surface is finely cracked and porous, and porous glaze takes up whatever it sits in. Do not use these for storing food, do not soak them, and do not put them in a dishwasher — heat and detergent drive staining deeper into the crazing and can worsen it permanently. Hand wash in warm water with mild soap, dry immediately, and treat them as serving and display plates rather than everyday dinnerware. Do not microwave them. Store with a paper or felt round between each plate.