What beautiful hand-painted plates! And with "8, T.F., 72" impressed within a lozenge shape! They must be Thomas Furnival & Son, as they were operating in 1872 which is also the date indicated by the diamond registration mark.
Sadly not - we would have loved to add these to our collection! However, according to Godden, this stamp relates to Thomas Ford of Cannon Street, Hanley, who operated between 1871-4, subsequently becoming Charles Ford. Apparently this company often used an impressed mark based on the information from the registration diamond, accompanied by the month and year, with initials TF in between - exactly as it is on these pieces. |
Grateful thanks to Diana, the eBay seller of these beautiful plates, for kindly allowing us to use these images.
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The initials of T.F. & S. always hint at Thomas Furnival & Sons. However, sadly, this is not always accurate, as in the case of these three marks. In these examples, the clue is in the word, "Phoenix", which indicates that the pot is a product of Thomas Forester & Sons (Ltd), of the Phoenix Works, Longton.
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