Wednesday, June 18, 2008

To Top It All Off...

Here is the latest addition to my BISTO collection and I am so delighted by it. Like every other pottery manufacturer, Bishop & Stonier had to advertise their wares. A pin dish such as this may have been given free to retailers to help plug the company's name with their customers or simply to remind the retailer to buy from them again. It shows the company's two prevailing trademark maker's marks of the day: the wand of caduceus and the oriental ivory man with parasol. The mark on the back says of the type of pottery that is is "Semi Imperial Porcelain". Quite what this means I have no idea! It is quite likely that although it was not true bone china or fine porcelain, the company still wanted to give the message to it's customers that it was a fine type of pottery. Also on the reverse of the dish is an impressed caduceus mark and the number 04, signifying that it was potted in 1904 - so an early Edwardian piece when the company truly was of "WORLD WIDE REPUTATION" as it so boldly states.

No comments:

About Me

My photo
Sometimes, life doesn't turn out the way you expected. And sometimes, it is exactly as it was 'meant' to be. I believe that life is a both a learning experience and an obstacle course to be climbed and clambered over in the most creative way possible! In doing so, you'll get to where you should be even if it's not where you'd imagined.