Description:
English oval, stoneware platter decorated in a colorful "Japan" pattern printed in black and painted dark blue, red, green, yellow, and gilding, which is marked in a blue transfer print on the rim base with "MASONS" over a crown and a banner with "PATENT IRONSTONE / CHINA." The founder of Mason's, Miles Mason (1752-1822), originally retailed imported Oriental ceramics in London, but after 1791, when the East India Company ceased the bulk importation of Oriental porcelain, he began to manufacture his own wares. After three short-lived partnerships in London, Liverpool and Staffordshire, Mason began porcelain production on his own account at works in Lane Delph around 1800, where he manufactured a greyish hybrid, hard-paste porcelain body emulating Oriental ceramics and also produced some printed wares using ab early version of stone china. His sons, George Miles Mason (1789-1859) and Charles James Mason (1791-1856), took over the business in 1813, the same year that Charles James Mason took out a patent for ironstone china. The earlier wares have an impressed mark, "MASON'S PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA"; later the printed mark found on this jar became widespread and superseded the impressed mark. This mark was contined by the firm's sucessors making it difficult to differentiate the earlier mark from those found on later wares. George Miles Mason retired in 1829; Charles James Mason continued at Lane Delph until 1848 when he was declared bankrupt, and Francis Morley bought the Mason's patterns and shapes and moved them to the Broad Street Works, Hanley, Staffordshire (present site of Mason's Ironstone factory). Charles James Mason started a second pottery manufacturing venture at the Daisy Bank Works, Lane End, Longton, Staffordshire, but was bankrupt again by 1853. Francis Morley continued Mason's patterns, passing them on to his son-in-law, Taylor Ashworth and his father, George Ashworth. The company continued to trade as 'George L. Ashworth' until March 1968 when it reverted to the original factory name, Mason's Ironstone China Ltd. The company became part of the Wedgwood Group in 1973. The well has a chinoiserie garden landscape with floral sprays, pagoda, and running fence, surrounded by bands of scalloping and coil designs. The scalloped-edge rim is decorated with gold medallions with floral sprays alternating with chinese scrolls and stylized leaves with berries, all on a dark blue background.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/test/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1998.815 |
