Pottery mark Query S serpent type mark on Imari Plate

by Clair
(Ireland)

Pottery mark Query S serpant type mark on Imari Plate:- Hello, thankyou for your wonderful website..,it is nice to find a well written, honest and easy to understand site that seems helpful and informative with easy to use language... i am hoping you will be able to help me identify a mark on a plate that i have had in my possession for two years now, i have trawled the internet and also through pottery books i own and have had no success with it.

It is on the back of a plate that my auntie gave me , she was throwing this and a few other items of pottery away and asked me did i want them. I really like this plate as it has great colors on it and came also with attached wall hanging springs and clips on it..

Sadly i had it in the cupboard for a while until i found a wall place for it and it suffered a small chip on the rim...i only saw this as i was taking the photo to send to you...i will atempt to upload the pics of it and u will see that it is painted in some very dark blues and oranges and has a fancy edging and seems to be a Chinese picture on a house and lots of foliage...it is mainly the blue sign on the back that intrigues me as i would love to know is it English or Chinese or if you would know where it originates from or when...

I would be very grateful of any help at all as i dont feel good about the chip and worry it is perhaps a rare plate and i have damaged it now! The little s sign on the back is written in blue and is like an s mark with two little v's on the ends - a bit like a serpant mark??

The plate itself measures approx 7 inches across..i cannot find my measuring tape to be exact!! I am no expert on plates or pottery marks but i would be ever so grateful of your knowledge..

I also have a lovely Wedgewood teapot made of red terracotta if you would like to see ...i, myself collect antique dolls, especially porcelain and should you or anyone have any queries or 'mystery' items of any doll paraphernalia or dolls themselves i would be very happy to help...

thanking you in advance,

Clair.

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Pottery mark Query S serpent type mark on Imari Plate

Hi Clair

Thanks for your interesting submission and lovely clear photos. Glad you are finding the site useful! ;_)

I don't believe you will be able to find out who this tiny squiggle of a mark belongs to as I believe it might be very old Staffordshire production (mid 18th Century - around 1850) - and the identity of the maker long gone. I hope someone more knowledgeable comes along to prove me wrong!

What are the clues which point me in this direction?

First the mark itself is from an era before the marketing of the maker became the most important issue about the marking. The colour and grain of the body suggests English earthenware. Bone china is a very pure white and porcelain is a bluey/grey white. Lesser bodies like earthenware have on off-white or creamy/white colour.


Earthenware was used extensively before bone china porcelain came to the fore later in the 19th century. The damage also suggest earthenware which is more subject to chipping than porcelain or bone china.

Early Staffordshire was mad on this Imari palette and tried to emulate it using the most easily available and easy to use clay body (earthenware). Earthenware fires at a much lower temperature than porcelain (which has to 'vitrify'), and so is cheaper and less technically demanding.

True Japanese Imari would be porcelain (made with kaolin china clay and feldspar - the 'secret' ingredients) and therefore easy to identify.

Arita porcelain, known in the West as Imari, had been all the rage in Europe since the 1600's. What we now refer to as the Imari pattern, featuring the characteristic scenic decoration of iron red orange and blue with accents of green, aubergine, yellow and black, has evolved as a later Western interpretation of the Arita wares. Much of the original Arita/Imari wares would have been blue and white. However, European tastes demanded something more gaudy and colourful, so the Imari palette was born.

Meissen, the first European company to work out how to make real oriental porcelain, were crazy about the Imari palette and featured it heavily. English potters followed suit, but by the mid 1800's most were still only able to produce earthenware versions.

So why is this Imari tradition Japanese rather than Chinese where it all started millennia before?

Way back in the 1600's, the West wanted Oriental porcelain - there was a huge demand. Chinese potters were unable to supply at this time due to political unrest, and Japan had the advantage of captured Korean potters who used techniques learned from Chinese Ming potters. They set up base in the town of Arita, close to the kaolin supply.

Arita porcelain became known as Imari Porcelain in Europe due to the stamps on the crates of the port through which the goods were exported. Imari, as a city, had nothing to do with porcelain production, it was just a quirk of fate that gave Arita wares this name.

Later, the irony of it is, the Chinese unrest settled and they began to make their own version of the popular Japanese Imari export wares, which surpassed the original quality in some cases.

So your plate has a rich and interesting background. The Chinese teach the Koreans how to pot, the Koreans end up in Japan and are able to supply the huge demand for porcelain to the West, by developing a type of gaudy ware from Arita called Imari. European makers try to get in on the act - the Germans tackling proper porcelain production, the English inventing bone china, but just for a few elite potters who have the money to invest in the equipment and cost. The rest just emulate this much in demand product by using good old cheap and cheerful earthenware.

Staffordshire was the epicentre for supplying the demand for affordable Imari wares and so your plate came into being.

This is my version of the story anyway.

If anyone knows more about this mark and can identify it or has a piece with this pottery mark let us know what you have - it all adds to the knowledge base.

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.