Pottery Marks and What They Tell Us

Mark showing pottery name, factory,
country, date, and pattern.

QUESTION: I go antiquing with a long-time friend. Inevitably, whether we’re browsing the tables at a local fleamarket or browsing in an antique shop or show, he always picks up a piece of pottery or porcelain and turns it over to see the mark. What do these marks say about the pieces besides who possibly made them? And are there any other marks from the making of the piece and what do they tell him?

ANSWER: An experienced collector of pottery can tell a lot about a piece’s origin by reading the manufacturers' marks on the bottom of each piece. These marks tell the pottery's name, its location, its company symbol, and often the pattern name or the name given to the body shape of the piece. 

Stamped mark

But there may also be other, less obvious, marks that indicate the method of production or factory flaws that show the level of quality control used by the firm. Collectors familiar with these signs can quickly distinguish between factory flaws and more serious indicators of damage and wear inflicted upon that same piece once it has left the  factory. Knowing the difference allows the experienced collector to purchase pottery with confidence.

While most manufacturer’s marks, which may he printed, incised, impressed, stamped, or applied as paper labels, usually contain the pottery’s name, initials, symbol and location---or some combination of these—some are rather sparse and may only contain a letter within a geometric shape or a crest. 

In the case of the larger firms, a pottery mark also has publicity value and shows the buyer that  a long-established company with a reputation to uphold has made a piece. Such clear name- marks include Wedgwood, Minton, Royal Crown Derby, Royal Doulton, and Royal Worcester in Britain and Bennington, McCoy, and Hull in the U.S.

Though these marks are one of the best and easiest ways to identify ceramics, the shear number of them makes it impossible to every mark. Additionally, many small firms either saw no reason to use marks or sometimes used marks that haven’t been identified because of the short life span and limited production of the company.

Metal stamped mark into clay

To the collector a pottery mark can also identify the manufacturer and help establish the approximate date of manufacture and in several cases the exact year of production, particularly in the case of 19th and 20th century wares from the leading firms which employed private dating systems. With the increasing use of ceramic marks in the 19th century, a large proportion of English and American pottery and porcelain can be accurately identified and often dated.

Pottery’s added marks to their wares in several ways. They could incise them into the soft clay before the piece air dried, in which the mark will show a slight ploughed-up effect. Potters often do this to handmade pieces. Some manufacturers of quantity pieces, such as Wedgwood, impressed a mark into the soft clay using a metal or clay stamp or seal. 

Many pottery manufacturers used painted marks—usually containing their name or initial—added over the glaze at the time of decoration. Some used stencils.

Engraved transfer printed mark

Lastly, most 19th-century pottery makers used printed marks transferred from engraved copper plates at the time of decoration, often in blue under the glaze when the main design is also underglaze blue.

Pottery marks weren’t always universally used. In 1890, President William McKinley introduced the McKinley Tariff Act that imposed tariffs on many imports, including pottery, so that American manufacturers could more easily sell their products. The Act required that all such imports show the name of country of manufacture, such as “England,” “Germany,” “Nippon,” or “France.” In 1921, an amendment to the Act required that the phrase “Made in” precede the country of origin, such as “Made in England” or “Made in Japan.” However, some foreign companies began using the phrase as early as 1898. This is a great way for collectors to date foreign-made pieces.

Underglaze marks

Beginning pottery collectors often miss marks or flaws from manufacturing and instead focus only on the maker’s mark. These marks give clues to the quality of the ceramic bodies each maker used. Potteries used different firing techniques for different grades of ceramics and the distinctive marks each technique left behind, once known, help to establish the quality of a piece.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  world's fairs in the 2020 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Marriages Made in Hell

QUESTION: I have inherited a cookie jar from my mother's estate, our family home outside Philadelphia. The cookie jar is marked on the bottom “Goldilocks #405 Patent Pending.” I see on the Internet that there are plenty of these jars in the marketplace. However, my cookie jar doesn't look like the one's I found with this mark. The design I have is slightly different. After a bit of research, I wondered if my version is a 'blank' that was simply uniquely printed or perhaps its just a rip off reproduction.  I have no clue. Can you help me solve this mystery?

ANSWER: What you have is the bottom of a Goldilocks cookie jar and the top of a Little Red Riding Hood cookie jar. The former was made by the Regal China Company and the latter by the Hull Pottery. Goldilocks has a blue hood and a little bear while Little Red Riding Hood has a red hood and a basket of flowers. The tops and bottoms of these cookie jars, though different in design, are interchangeable. What must have happened is that the top of the Goldilocks jar got broken and someone replaced it with the top of a Little Red Riding Hood jar. In antiques, we call this a marriage.

As in real life marriages where both people must work together to form a perfect union, antiques marriages can be either really good or terribly bad.

In the world of antiques, marriages are somewhat of a curse, especially when it comes to furniture. Here, a dealer joins together two different pieces of furniture worth significantly less than the original to form one piece that could be worth much more than the original. Novice antiques collectors could easily be fooled into spending more for a married piece than it’s actually worth.


Some unscrupulous antique dealers would no doubt try to pass off a married piece as an original while others marry parts together and literally make antiques. This is especially prevalent in the middle market where profit margins aren’t as high in the fine antiques one. This is especially true of antique furniture from the 17th to the 19th century. However, pieces made during this time often came in sections.

Back then, transporting large pieces of furniture was difficult. Pieces had to be transported in carts, and they had to be light enough that a small team of horses could pull them and two men could lift and carry them. So cabinetmakers produced furniture in pieces so that it could be easily transported and then assembled on site.

Of course, furniture that can be easily assembled is just as easy to disassemble. This meant that the end user could easily replace a broken or worn-out part of a piece of furniture without having to buy a new one. For example, if the table top splintered, the owner could simply keep the base and have a new top made. These combinations of old and new became the first married pieces of furniture.
But how does a novice collector know when a piece is a marriage? The more knowledgeable a collector is, the less chance he or she will have of getting taken.

Marriages are often easy to spot. First, look for any clash of styles. Cabinetmakers would not have combined furniture styles since most used style books to help them fashion their pieces. Second, check to see if there are any unusual proportions. Does one part seem larger than it should be? Third, does the wood used to make the piece match. While some cabinetmakers used less expensive wood for the frames, most used better wood for the exterior. Fourth, is the overall finish even. If not, this means parts of the piece have been finished at different times, such as a new table top. And finally, does the hardware match. Unless the owner couldn’t replace drawer and cabinet pulls with the same style, all the hardware on a piece should match.

Unfortunately, antiques marriages are contrived to deceive the buyer. A lot of this goes on in England where the market for antiques is always hot. Visitors especially usually have no idea what they’re buying and usually fall for marriage or even fake antiques.

One of the most common marriages is in 17th and 18th-century secretaries. The bottom desk is often married to a bookcase top from a different secretary. These two pieces may be orphans and when matched often look fairly good together. With the price of 18th-century secretaries in the six figure or more range, it’s no wonder that dealers try this. The easiest way to spot a marriage of this sort is to check the backboards. Those on the top and bottom must match, including nails. The quality of the wood must also be the same.

For chests and highboys, comparing a drawer from the top with one from the bottom should reveal the same dovetailing—all of which cabinetmakers did by hand—as well as linings.

Another popular marriage is an antique wrought iron sewing machine base that’s married to an antique table top. While this may look quite fine, it has little value.

But antiques marriages aren’t limited to furniture, although that’s where most of them occur. As with this cookie jar, like fitting pieces of ceramics or glassware can be married together. This usually falls into tops for bottoms as well as lids to jars and other containers.

Not so honest antiques dealers can deceive customers in many ways. A newer painting of a scene done in an old style can be mounted in an antique frame, for example, then sold as an antique.

But the most common marriages occur in higher end furniture where a piece that may not have sold for much or not at all is married to one that together forms a different piece that can sell for a whole lot. Don’t be fooled. Do your homework. And ask plenty of questions. The more you ask, the better chance of tripping up an unscrupulous dealer.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  the Industrial Age n the 2020 Winter Edition, "The Wonders of the Industrial Age," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.