Description:

An earthenware soup plate, with printed pattern in a bluish-grey. The pattern is one in a series known as Richmond Views. The border is a broad conventional design, described as a lace pattern.  There are a number of different center designs recorded; this example has what looks like a ‘dragon boat’ being rowed along a river lined with foliage and trees.

There are a number of marks on this piece that give us information about its production. There is an impressed factory mark of COPELAND over a crown and the numeral 4 that was used on Copeland’s "Crown" body from about 1860.  The printed diamond shaped mark tells us the date the pattern was registered, 29th April,1857.  The pattern was popular and continued in production for some years, from the impressed mark this piece appears to date from the 1860s.