Maker: T. Furnival & Sons Elder Road, Cobridge, Staffordshire
Date of manufacture: 1876 -1890
BOMBAY T. FURNIVAL & SONS
The diamond mark dates the registration of the pattern to 21st April 1876.
Type: Flow blue dinnerware Colours: Blue, Multi
This example has a floral decoration in the centre
Furnivals were often commissioned to create bespoke pieces. This plate features a heraldic crest in the centre, which we have been struggling to identify. However, grateful thanks to William Douthwaite for very kindly contacting us recently to let us know that the crest is that of Christ’s Hospital School, City of London and Horsham.
According to Wikipedia, Christ's Hospital was established as a school in November 1552 at the instigation of King Edward VI. The king's patronage of the school was confirmed by a Royal Charter granted on 26 June 1553, eleven days before his death. The school was founded at Newgate Street, London, on the site of a Grey Friars (Franciscan) friary, with a preparatory school in Hertford, Hertfordshire which had supplementary schools at Ware and Broxbourne.
In 1902 the Newgate Street and Hertford schools relocated to its present location south of Horsham in West Sussex. A new railway station adjacent to the new site was partially sponsored by the school and also opened in 1902. A girls' school was founded in Hertford after the boys' school moved to Horsham. The girls' school was incorporated into the Horsham site in 1985 when the Hertford site was closed.
Unfortunately, our plate doesn't date back to the early days of the school. Although the pattern was registered in 1876, the backstamp on this particular plate suggests a date of manufacture around 1907 ... not long after the school was relocated to Horsham!
Thank you so much to William for solving this mystery for us!!
Grateful thanks to Laura Lynn for very kindly giving us permission to publish this photograph of her lovely plate.