It has given me the push I need to finally get around to listing my spare plaques on the Exchange page.  Here's a taste below:

The first £500 raised through sales will go to Aaron's wheelchair. I'll finish listing them later today. So why not grab a reasonably priced plaque for a good cause?  Sensible offers considered.

We also managed to view a couple of superb private collections (again, huge thanks to the collectors for their time), and to cram in a last visit to Ian Sharp's shop in Tynemouth.  Ian is moving after many years, so is currently having a relocation sale of furniture.  He will continue to deal through his website.  I'll finish with two Tyneside plaques with local views, courtesy of Ian. The first shows a view of All Saints Church, Newcastle.  The second is attributed to Fell, and shows the High Level Bridge.

So if we combine this information with the notice in my February 28 posting, we can revise the dates of the Dixon partnerships to the following:

1807 to 1812, John Phillips
1813 to 1818, Dixon, Austin, Phillips & Co
1818 to 1839, Dixon, Austin & Co
1839 to 1865, Dixon, Phillips & Co

I have saved the information on a new page entitled Dixon partnerships.

The plaque is similar to a pair that came up at auction a year or so ago.  The unusual mottled border might not be to everyone's taste – it reminds me of the sort of wallpaper you might discover under 5 or 6 layers when stripping the hallway of a Victorian house.  But if you fancy the bridge plaque, which is undoubtedly rare, it is still for sale on the links above.

Huge thanks to Norman Lowe for sharing his discovery.

I'm 99.9% certain now they aren't Garrison (Dixon), and that they belong to our group of Adams' reproduction plaques.  I have enlarged the section on Adams Pottery on the Reproductions page.

On a separate note, thanks also to Donald H Ryan for suggesting that this website be included in the British Library Websites Archive Scheme, and to Maureen Pennock from the British Library.  Hopefully MSTP will be included in the scheme in the near future.

For titled examples of transfers of Jack Crawford, see Ian's website.  Aged 22, Jack generally looks more boyish than in the transfer above.  He seems more heavily armed in this transfer than might be conducive to climbing. But the other elements might fit Jack Crawford (though why would he need to climb if the flag could be hoisted?).  One of the commercial advantages of an untitled transfer is that it can be sold as whatever the buyer would like it to be. Perhaps 'E Towning' (see below) was Scottish or American and the pottery decided to restyle the transfer as Paul Jones?  However, it's also possible the two men in the background were always hoisting the Jolly Roger, and that a pirate, with his finger raised, is just about to give the signal to fire.

Whatever the subject of the transfer, on the bowl it again pairs with the Sailor's Return (though it is impossible to say for certain from the photos whether the bowl and plaques come from the same transfer plate). Interestingly the bowl also has a view of the Wear Bridge.

At first I got excited, thinking I'd found another link between the transfers that appear on the larger sized plaques and John Carr. (See a similar transfer attributed to John Carr below left.)  But in fact, the transfer on the bowl is more similar to the version that appears on Albion Pottery plaques (below right). Note the shading of the sails and the two lines of text in the title.

I'm not sure we are any further on. I'd love better photographs of the bowl if the new owner happens to be reading. That way we might be able to firm up the link with the Albion Pottery.