Maker: Jacob & Thomas Furnival Stafford Street Pottery Works, Miles Bank, Shelton, Hanley
Date of manufacture: 1842 - 1843
The initials, J & T F were also used between 1852 - 1864, during the J. & T. Furnival era of the company. However, the inclusion of the armorial arms and the term 'Stone China' instead of 'Stone Ware' seem to make the earlier, 1842-3, date more likely in this instance.
STONE CHINA J & TF
Type: Tableware Colours: Blue or Pink on white background Pattern: Oriental willow pattern
Grateful thanks to Connie Rogers, of The Transferware Collectors Club, for very kindly giving us permission to publish these photographs of her Willow Pattern platter.
Connie also very kindly shared the following story with us:
"When I wrote my book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of British Willow Ware, I had only one example of willow. It was impressed FURNIVAL, and it was a test plate with the top half printed in pink and the bottom was blue. On the back, there was handwriting giving the numbers of the Old glaze and New glaze. They were trying it on the vertical halves to see what effect each glaze would have on the two different colors. I must say there was a lot of crazing on the back of the plate, so they didn't have a very good "fit" at that time for the glaze and clay body. The test was dated 1908." It is so interesting to discover the trial processes that the company used to test their products and designs!