Contents of this page:

Aesop's Fables (S Moore & Co)
Blind Man's Bluff
Death of Punch
Falconer (B & Co)
Flowers and birds (Dixon)
The Graces
Highland family
Monkey's Courtship (CT Maling)
Jim a Long Josey (C T Maling)
Negro Family and Easy Negro (C T Maling)
Obsequies
Our Early Days (attributed to Scott)
Other subjects from children's plates (attributed to Scott)
The pensioner's yarn (Scott)
La Polka (B & Co)
Poor Richard's Way to Wealth (Robert Maling)
Snapper and the rabbits (attributed to Scott)
Virtues

Two of a series of transfers depicting Aesop's fables, found on wares by Moore & Co.  Left: 'THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN. They who assume a character that does not belong to them generally betray themselves by overacting it.'   Centre: 'THE MISER. The worth of money is not in its possession but in its use.'  Both have a printed diamond mark indicating that these designs were registered at the Patent Office Design Registry on 24th December 1853.  The other printed mark reads 'AESOP' and 'S. MOORE & CO.' 

After an etching and aquatint by Thomas Rowlandson (top right) showing the death of Punch, Dr Syntax's horse.  The plaque, although unmarked, is attributed to Adams Pottery in Staffordshire, and was made in the first half of the 20th century. The silver lustre platter (below left) has a 20th century Adams' printed mark (below centre). Read more here.

Ian Sharp has identified the mark as the Tyneside company J Burn & Co from the Stepney Bank Pottery, Ouseburn, 1852–1860.

The plaque has the impressed mark 'C. T. MALING', shown in the photo below it.  This would date it post 1853.  These plaques are smaller than the Moore & Co plaques with similar scalloped corners. 

The language on this plaque, shocking by today's standards, stands in stark contrast to the solemnity of anti-slavery wares, with their slogan 'Am I not a man and a brother?'.  (Britain's anti-slavery stance, for the abolitionists, was a source of patriotic pride. Early black figures were sometimes clothed in the red, white and blue of the British flag.  See one such figure at the bottom of Myrna Schkolne's figures page.) The plaque above relates to the minstrel shows of those like T D Rice, white men with burnt-cork-blackened faces who parodied black speech and characteristics. The most famous incarnation being Jim Crow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_D._Rice

Jim a Long Josey was a minstrel song written by Edward Harper around 1838.  Wikipedia writes:

"Jim Along" was probably the equivalent of the phrase "Get a-long", which Harper employs in the chorus of this song "Hey, get a-long, get a-long, Josey".

Hey, get a-long, Jim a-long, Jo! Hey, get a-long, get a-long Josey, Hey, get a-long, Jim a-long Jo!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Tail_Fly

These plaques belong to the same series as Jim A Long Josey above.  The plaques have the impressed mark 'C. T. MALING', shown below right.  This would date them as post 1853.  These plaques are smaller than the Moore & Co plaques with similar scalloped corners. 

A British soldier stands next to a tomb with the inscription 'OBSEQUIES JAN 20 1827'.  Obsequies means funeral rites.  On January 20th, 1827, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, was buried in St Georges Chapel, Windsor.  He was commander-in-chief of the British army, 'brilliantly reorganising his nation's forces, putting in place administrative reforms which enabled the British to defeat Napoleon'.

A series titled 'OUR EARLY DAYS'.  The texts below the transfer read: top left, 'RATHER ALARMED'; top centre, 'NOW I'M GRANDFATHER'; top right, 'A HALF HOLIDAY'; and bottom left 'THE EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHER'.  


Noel Riley writes in his excellent book 'Gifts for Good Children' (see references) that Our Early Days is 'the title of a large series of plates clearly produced by a number of different factories (which) has given us the name for a whole category of images in which children are simply behaving as children - not with their families, nor with toys, or at any particular sport or occupation, but at games of make-believe, mischief or sheer boisterousness.' These transfers appear on wares with impressed marks from Moore's Wear Pottery and Scott's Southwick.

Titles which appear on plates, which I have yet to see on plaques include: 'Anxious Moments'; 'Too Late for School'; 'Now I'm Grandmother'; 'The Romp'; 'The Pet'; and 'Keeping School'.  There is a similar series of transfers which appear on plates with the heading 'Frolics of Youth'.
 

The first two plaques titled 'THE BEGGAR BOY'. Top right: 'THE SICK DONKEY'.  Bottom left: 'THE AILING FOOT'. Ian Sharp says that he has a daisy plate with the identical transfer to the right plaque, with a SCOTT impressed mark.

Although this plaque is unmarked, this transfer appears on other objects (bowls etc) marked 'SCOTT'.  It also appears on orange plaques with wide borders and rounded corners (right).
 

Baker talks of a Newbottle pottery 'Polka' jug (p44). He says the Polka came into vogue around 1841. However, Ian Sharp has identified the first printed mark as the Tyneside company J Burn & Co from the Stepney Bank Pottery, Ouseburn, 1852–1860. The third (circular – 9.25 inch diameter) plaque is later, and shows a variation of the La Polka transfer, but is titled 'Bohemia'. The mark is for the Glasgow pottery J & MP Bell & Co.  Its similarity to the mark above is coincidental.
  

Top row:

POOR RICHARD'S WAY TO WEALTH
DILIGENCE IS THE MOTHER OF GOOD LUCK,
NOW I HAVE A SHEEP AND A COW EVERYBODY BIDS ME GOOD MORROW

Bottom left:

POOR RICHARD'S WAY TO WEALTH
WHAT MAINTAINS ONE VICE WOULD BRING UP TWO CHILDREN
IT IS EASIER TO SUPPRESS THE FIRST DESIRE THAN TO SATISFY ALL THAT FOLLOW

Bottom right:

POOR RICHARD'S WAY TO WEALTH
LOST TIME IS NEVER FOUND AGAIN
WHAT WE CALL TIME ENOUGH ALWAYS PROVES LITTLE ENOUGH

The first two with the backstamp 'ROBERT MALING' (1830–1840).  For two other Robert Maling plaques, see the Maritime verses page.

Anderson & Garland in their auction description wrote '"Snapper and the rabbits" appears in "Our dumb companions" published 1864.'

Top left: 'FAITH TEACHING INNOCENCE AND RESIGNATION THE PRECEPTS OF CHRISTIANITY'.
Top centre and right: 'WISDOM AND VIRTUE CONDUCTING YOUTH IN THE PATHS OF RELIGION'.
Below left: 'JUSTICE CROWNING FIDELITY WHILST VICTORY IS CONFIRMING THE ACT'.