Patent Office Registration Marks And Numbers.
Diamond shaped pottery marks, printed or impressed on the base, are official marks of the Patent Office Registry of Designs, set up in 1842 to protect manufacturers from plagiarism and piracy.
In 1868 the positions of the code letters and numbers were changed, but the registration mark continued until December 1883, when it was replaced by a serial number. (see Pottery Marks )
Registration of a design gave three years protection, during which time there could be continuous or sporadic production of the design or pattern.
Patent Office Pottery Marks
Left registration mark : 1842 – 1867 Right registration mark : 1868 – 1883
a – catagory iv – ceramics
b – year
c – month
d – day
e – batch number
Pottery Marks – Date Letters
1842 – X 1843 – H 1844 – C
1845 – A 1846 – I 1847 – F
1848 – U 1849 – S 1850 – V
1851 – P 1852 – D 1853 – Y
1854 – J 1855 – E 1856 – L
1857 – K 1858 – B 1859 – M
1860 – Z 1861 – R 1862 – O
1863 – G 1864 – N 1865 – W
1866 – Q 1867 – T 1868 – X
1869 – H 1870 – Q 1871 – A
1872 – I 1873 – F 1874 – U
1875 – S 1876 – V 1877 – P
1878 – D 1879 – Y 1880 – J
1881 – E 1882 – L 1883 – K
Patent Office Pottery Marks
January – C February – G March – W April – H May – E June – M
July – I August – R September – D October – B November – K December – A
As we can see the pottery mark on the left would read like this (as it only goes up to 1867) :
a – ceramics b – 1851 c – December d – 15th e – batch number 8
The pottery mark on the right (1868 onwards) :
a – ceramics b – 1875 c – May d – 23rd e – batch number 7
A bit tricky to get the hang of but with a bit of practice you will be reading pottery marks like an expert.
I have plates with the class of clay and the date of September 1868. Is it possible to determine the potter/designer of this plate?
I have a teapot with some tree branches with pink flowers and two possibly blue birds and other side smaller tree branch with a couple pink flowers and a blue butterfly getting ready to land on flower
Bottom says
Gibson’s England and looks kind of like a flower? Or just kind of crack lines with faded brownish circle around it. Could be wrong tho.
And then w473 in kind of orange writing ( original) and possibly under that is some mark or thin letter of same color.
Gorgeous
I picked a broken plate up on the beach this morning that has mark that looks very much like the marks above. My piece is missing the top circle. It has a “P” in the uppermost section, a “D” on the left, “29” on the right, and a 4 on the bottom. I would say that meant September 29, 1851, batch 4. My plate though, has a small mark, maybe an a, near the line sectioning of the “29.” The plate is also samped with “N 80816” below this potters mark.
Hello, I have a dish that I have no idea what it is and or was used for.
It has this on the bottom – Italy M, I. P. 662/A It is 2 pieces bottom and lid blue and white in color.
Any idea what the wording on the bottom means?
Thank you