Vintage Palissy Avon Scenes Blue Transferware Plate, c. 1976–1989
Viridian Eclection
The Piece A blue and white English transferware plate in the Avon Scenes pattern, printed in a deep indigo on a warm cream ground. The centre gives a gabled manor house standing above a river, its ...
The Piece
A blue and white English transferware plate in the Avon Scenes pattern, printed in a deep indigo on a warm cream ground. The centre gives a gabled manor house standing above a river, its mullioned windows and clustered chimneys drawn in fine engraved line, with a stand of heavy timber beside it and a punt in the foreground carrying two figures, one standing to the pole. A second boat sits far out on the water and the sky above is worked in long horizontal strokes broken by cloud.
The border is the part that carries the plate across a room. Full blown roses and open blossom run right around the rim in dense sprays, set against a cross hatched blue ground and broken at intervals by rococo scrollwork and shell forms. The rim is gently scalloped. The effect is dark and busy in the way the best nineteenth century printed ware is, with the pale reserve of the centre reading as light by contrast.
The reverse carries the printed cartouche: a Royal Worcester Ltd subsidiary, 1790, Avon Scenes, Palissy, England.
History & Provenance
Albert E. Jones Ltd of the Garfield Works, Longton, made earthenware under the Palissy trade name from about 1908, and Avon Scenes was one of the two designs that carried the firm, the other being the brown printed Game Series made for the game course of an Edwardian dinner. The company took the Palissy name formally in 1946 and moved to Chancery Lane, and in 1958 it was bought by the Worcester Royal Porcelain Company.
The mark on this plate dates it more tightly than the style would. Various markings were used after the 1958 purchase, but the Royal Worcester wording was not put into the factory mark until 1976, when Royal Worcester, Spode and Palissy came under common ownership. This plate carries that wording. The Palissy factory closed in 1989, which closes the window at the other end.
The 1790 printed in the cartouche is not the date of manufacture and should not be read as one. Avon Scenes is described by the Museum of Royal Worcester as a blue and white printed pattern based on an English design of the early nineteenth century, so the date in the mark points back at the engraved source the pattern descends from, in the manner of a great many English potteries who printed a founding or heritage date alongside a modern backstamp.
Product Details
| Era | c. 1976–1989. The floor is the mark itself: the Royal Worcester wording entered the Palissy factory mark only in 1976, on the common ownership of Royal Worcester, Spode and Palissy. The ceiling is the closure of the Palissy factory in 1989. The 1790 in the cartouche refers to the design tradition the pattern descends from, not to this plate |
| Maker | Palissy Pottery Ltd, Longton, Staffordshire, then a Royal Worcester Ltd subsidiary |
| Pattern | Avon Scenes, blue and white printed earthenware |
| Marks | Printed scrolled cartouche to the reverse reading a Royal Worcester Ltd subsidiary, 1790, Avon Scenes, Palissy, England |
| Material | Glazed earthenware with underglaze transfer print |
| Dimensions | Approximately 10.5 in. diameter |
| Condition | Good, honest and used. Transfer strong and evenly printed with good depth of colour. No chips, cracks or restoration found. Utensil scratching across the well from use, visible under raking light, and light rubbing to the rim edge in places. Reverse clean and the mark crisp |
Why It Belongs in Your Home
Blue and white does a particular job in a room: it reads as pattern from across the floor and as picture up close, and it sits against almost anything without argument. Put this one on a plate rail, hang it on a wall of mismatched blue transfer, or run it under a lamp on a dresser where the border can do its work. It will also still take a meal, which is worth saying about a plate that is over forty years old and has no damage to speak of. Bought singly it is a good example of a pattern the factory made for eighty years, and it is the kind of piece a room accumulates rather than the kind it is decorated with.
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