He was a nineteenth century designer who saw himself more as a tradesman with an understanding of industrial production embracing new technologies for a mass market. In 1847 at the age of only thirteen he was sent to the Government School of Design in London which had been set up ten years earlier in Somerset house to meet the challenges of Continental competition. He studied at the school for the next seven years and won awards for his designs but his main interest was botany and after his graduation he was appointed lecturer in botany at the Metropolitan School in Gower Street. The next year he became botany lecturer at the School of Design where he stayed until 1869. He exhibited ceramic designs for Minton and Wedgwood and cast iron for Coalbrookdale at the 1868 Paris Exposition.He also designed interiors, carpets, wallpaper and metalwork. He wrote extensively on design and spent time in Japan and the U.S. where he lectured on design as well as studying manufacturing processes. He died in 1904 while on a business trip to France. Reference: British Museum

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Susannah Margaretta “Daisy” Makeig-Jones (1881–1945) was a pottery designer for Wedgwood. She is best known for her “Fairyland Lustre” series.

Makeig-Jones was born in Wath-upon-Dearne near Rotherham, Yorkshire, the eldest of seven children. Her father, K. Geoffrey Makeig-Jones, was of Welsh descent and was a medical doctor, and her mother was the daughter of Thomas Reeder, a solicitor. Makeig-Jones was taught by a governess at home, then attended a boarding school near Rugby. After her family moved to Torquay, she entered the Torquay School of Art. After an introduction from a relative to the managing director of Cecil Wedgwood, Makeig-Jones joined the firm as an apprentice painter in 1909.

Daisy Makeig-Jones’s fascination with fairies, following such illustrators as Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and the Danish artist, Kay Nielsen, proved very popular in the 1920s. Wedgwood have always produced a huge range of styles to capture different market tastes. The cosy drawing room and nursery atmosphere of the decoration of these works, and the monumental forms, contrast sharply with the modernist works being produced at Wedgwood’s in the same period.

Targeting the luxury end of the market with these pieces, they represent one of Wedgwood’s most extraordinary technical achievements in the ceramic industry. The richly coloured ornament of Fairyland Lustre was extremely popular throughout the 1920s as expensive collector’s pieces. But by the 1930s the appeal of lustre was waning and the collapse of the American market had a noticable effect on the demand for ornamental wares. Fairyland was gradually phased out in the 1930s as Keith Murray and Norman Wilson were taken up. Fairyland was considered too expensive and old-fashioned.
[Susan McCormack, ‘British Design at Home’, p.113] Reference Victoria and Albert Museum

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Porcelain Makers Marks and Information.  Kangxi transitional porcelain was manufactured at China’s principle ceramic production area of Jingdezhen until 1683 when the production of “official ware” was resumed.

The Manchu regime was established in 1644. For those many intervening years a variety of porcelain wares were created in private kilns for domestic use and export to client markets such as Japan. Prior to the reinstatement of the Imperial Kilns the private use of the dynastic reign name on ceramics was officially forbidden in the 16th year of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing Dynasty (around 1677). Previously in the years of the Wanli Emperor (1573–1619) of the Ming Dynasty, ceramics under government sponsorship slowly degenerated in quality until production itself was abandoned. Reference: Wikipedia

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Information and makers marks for KPM Berlin porcelain.

The Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin (German: Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin, abbreviated as KPM), also known as the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin and whose products are generally called Berlin porcelain, was founded in 1763 by King Frederick II of Prussia (known as Frederick the Great). Its actual origins, however, lie in three private enterprises which, under crown patronage, were trying to establish the production of “white gold” (i.e. porcelain) in Berlin from the mid-18th century onwards.

The company logo is a cobalt blue sceptre, which is stamped (painted prior to 1837) on every piece. All painted pieces produced by KPM are signed by the painter. KPM is still producing to this day; each piece of dishware and decorative porcelain is entirely unique. Reference: Wikipedia

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Below are some examples and price guides of Lladro ceramics including a figure entitled Camelot, a mermaid bust and an example of Lladro’s maker’s mark

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Information and makers marks for Meissen porcelain. The Meissen Porcelain Factory is located in the town of Meissen, near Dresden, in Saxony. It was the first hard-paste porcelain manufacturer in Europe, thanks to the 1708 discovery of the secret of porcelain by Johann Friedrich Böttger and Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. Products are still made by hand, ensuring that a high standard of quality is always achieved. In the early-twentieth century the factory introduced new patterns, in response to changing fashions, and began to commission designers to create new forms. The ‘T glatt’ service is one example of this practice. Reference: The British Museum.

Highly admired for its lightness, translucency and mysterious origin, Chinese porcelains became more easily available in Europe from the late 14th century. For the next three centuries Europeans tried, and failed, to emulate the secret Chinese recipe for true or hard-paste porcelain.

The breakthrough came in 1709, two years after the German alchemist, Johann Friedrich Bottger, abandoned his attempts at making gold in favour of porcelain research. His patron, the great porcelain collector Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Saxon Elector, set up the first European porcelain manufactory in Meissen, Germany, in 1710. Reference: Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

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The history of the ownership and management of the factory is complicated. The first formula, used in 1813-14, gave excellent results, but had an unacceptably high wastage rate, being very prone to deform (“slump”) during firing. This formula was also being used at Swansea, and pieces can be impossible to allocate between the two with confidence. After a period of experimentation, in 1817-1820 the original paste formula was used again.

After ceasing to make or decorate porcelain in the 1820s, and a period of closure, the pottery reopened in 1833, making earthenware and stoneware, as well as clay pipes, before finally closing in 1920, when cigarettes had replaced pipes. The site is now a museum, and also a working pottery. In 2017 a limited quantity of porcelain was made there, using the original formula, as reconstructed. Reference: Wikipedia

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Nymphenburg Porcelain Makers Marks and Information.

The Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory (in German: Porzellanmanufaktur Nymphenburg), manufacturer of Nymphenburg porcelain, is situated next to the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, capital of Bavaria, and since the mid-eighteenth century has been manufacturing porcelain of high artistic value. Reference: Wikipedia

Nymphenburg porcelain has been manufactured since the mid-eighteenth century and is renown for porcelain of high artistic value.

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