Crown Ducal Pottery Mark - Florentine Picardy

by Dorothy
(Australia)

Crown Ducal Pottery Mark Florentine Picardy:- Hi, Our family have a tea service by Crown Ducal who I can't see mentioned elsewhere on your site. Can you tell us a bit more about this service and the mark and where we could get replacements.

Many thanks

Dorothy

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reply by Peter (admin) below - just scroll down...

HOW I MADE MONEY FROM BITS & BOBS OF OLD CHINA .....more

Reply by Peter (admin)

To:- Crown Ducal Pottery Mark - Florentine Picardy

Hi Dorothy

Many thanks for great photos and interesting submission.

First, if you follow the links on this page it outlines how to find replacement china:

How to find vintage and antique china online ....more

Florentine is a relief shape possibly designed in the 1930's. This was a popular shape mass produced by Crown Ducal (A G Richardson) and is in plentiful supply.

One claim to fame of Crown Ducal is that Charlotte Rhead joined A. J. Richardson in 1931. She also worked for T & R Boote (a tile company in Burslem), Wood and Sons, and Burgess and Leigh. Her father was also in the industry, designer, Frederick Rhead.

The mark on your service suggests a date not before 1930. Crown Ducal, the main brand of A G Richardson originally of Tunstall then of Cobridge is not to be confused with Albert G Richardson of Cobridge (both companies used a not dis-similar crowned oval mark with the initials 'AGR').

A G Richardson have survived into modern times, so the exact dating of your service is difficult.

'Florentine' was a popular raised relief which was used with various pattern as top decoration and also plain. Your pattern is 'Picardy'.

The Florentine border is sometimes shown in other (early?) examples as very much crisper than your example. Crown Ducal has another claim to fame - it was cited as a 'model' for modern manufacturer - with time and motion studies informing their layout.

You can get a fascinating into Charlotte Rhead's work and the patterns of Crown Ducal here:-

www.rhead-crownducal.info

The 'Florentine' shape (not the Picardy transfer print itself) is said by some sources to be designed by Charlotte Rhead. Whether it is the same Florentine as yours is not clear. Other designs mentioned by the eBay guide attributed to Rhead are Byzantine, Foxglove and Wisteria.

However, this is disputed by Charlotte Rhead expert and publisher of the website mentioned above (www.rhead-crownducal.info), Ian, who wrote into the website to describe the information on eBay about Crown Ducal Florentine being attributable to Charlotte Rhead as a "Grave error":

"It is near impossible for Charlotte Rhead to have created the Florentine shape since she wasn't working at the factory when it was created. Though she may have beeen employed at Crown Ducal when that particular lithograph pattern (Picardy) was created there is no evidence that she was invovled in its design. I am happy to discuss this further if you wish."

May we continue this discussion on the comments section below? Anyone with more information, queries or comments, please scroll down to the comments link.

If you need a valuation, please go here:-

vintage and antique china values page. Valuation appraisals and pottery mark identification research are two different things.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Peter (admin)

p.s. The following page is a 'must see' if you are researching fine china - for value and identification:-

Researching the identity and value of antique and vintage fine china.

Please post comments below which you think might be helpful……