Description:

This saucer is printed with the popular Fisherman pattern.  This was used by many English porcelain makers, including Worcester, Caughley, Isleworth, and the Liverpool factories of John and Seth Pennington.  The version made at Isleworth can easily be identified due to the presence of a third fisherman.

Geoffrey Godden, in Caughley and Worcester Porcelains, discusses how the versions of the Fisherman pattern made at these two factories may be distinguished.  Among the factors he mentions are the trefoil inner border being solid at Caughley and shaded at Worcester; the fish held by the fisherman being short and plump at Caughley and long and thin at Worcester; and the stern of the fishing punt being longer on Caughley examples.  However, the factor that seems to have had most appeal to collectors was that suggesting that the fishing line of the fisherman seated in the background was straight on Caughley examples and wavy on Worcester examples.

However, as Geoffrey also pointed out, a popular pattern such as the Fisherman required many different copper printing plates to be produced and worn plates to be re-engraved.  The saucer shown here is a Caughley one, as shown by its bearing a printed S mark, but the fishing line is wavy, probably as a result of the re-engraving of a worn plate.  This saucer is discussed by John Pinnick in The Caughley Society Newsletter No 56 and the same author discusses the origin of the Fisherman pattern and the significance of the mooring pole, seen at the bow of the fishing punt, in Newsletter 47.