Please read my previous three blog posts first (I've added a second postscript, regarding Ball's Deptford pottery, to my last posting). This is the last group of plaques with angels facing left. As with the Dixon version, the verse reference, which appears on the first four plaques below, is incorrectly transcribed as ''Amos VI .. XII .". However, unlike the Dixon version, there are two full stops after the numeral 'VI ..'. The transfers are easily distinguishable from those in my previous postings because the word 'GOD' is shaded horizontally. The first four plaques below look to share the same transfer plate. I guess they are in date order because the transfer deteriorates over time. The fifth plaque has a very similar transfer, but without the garland or verse reference. I thought at first that they might have been blanked off. But if you look at the position of the angel, relative to the lettering, it is clearly a different transfer. The circular plaque is very similar in shape, colour and size to the Kinloch and Wesley plaques I've attributed to a Staffordshire pottery. So could this transfer plate have originated outside of the North East? If so, how did it find its way up to Tyneside? The last four plaque forms are of a form (18.3cm x 20.7cm) that sometimes appears with Maling impressed marks, though never to my knowledge with these common verses. N.B. Moore & Co made similar plaques, with what I've elsewhere called 'scalloped' corners, but the Moore versions are larger (20.5cm x 23cm). So are these plaques Maling? I'm not so sure. There have to be at least two other Tyneside contenders. The first plaque below has identical decoration to a pictorial plaque, titled 'La Polka', with the printed mark 'B. & Co.'. Perhaps the initials stand for the Tyneside company Bell & Co. (Isaac Bell is the link between Middlesbrough and Tyneside mentioned in my last posting.) The decoration on the second plaque below is very similar to that on a 'Prepare' plaque in my collection (bottom centre). This transfer, with the all-seeing eye, appears on typical plaques from John Carr's pottery (bottom right). So perhaps the best we can do for now is to say that the above transfers are Tyneside (Newcastle) as opposed to Wearside (Sunderland). As often happens, hours of looking produce more questions than they do answers.
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AuthorStephen Smith lives in London, and is always happy to hear from other collectors. If you have an interesting collection of plaques, and are based in the UK, he will photograph them for you. Free advice given regarding selling and dispersal of a collection, or to those wishing to start one. Just get in touch... Archives
February 2022
AcknowledgementsThis website is indebted to collectors, dealers and enthusiasts who have shared their knowledge or photos. In particular: Ian Holmes, Stephen Duckworth, Dick Henrywood, Norman Lowe, Keith Lovell, Donald H Ryan, Harold Crowder, Jack and Joyce Cockerill, Myrna Schkolne, Elinor Penna, Ian Sharp, Shauna Gregg at the Sunderland Museum, Keith Bell, Martyn Edgell, and Liz Denton.
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