British Pottery & Porcelain
Registration Numbers & Marks
Guide to Marks and Dating
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Introduction

Marks

Examples

References

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Introduction

The McKinley Tariff Act required imports into the United States to list the country of origin on their products beginning in 1891. This provided well-known marks such as "Bavaria," "England," "Nippon," and "Co. Fermangh Ireland." In 1921 the Act was amended to require the phrase "Made in" preceding the country of origin, and Japan was required to replace "Nippon" (the Japanese name for Japan) with "Made in Japan." (Interestingly, Irish Belleek retained the "Co. Fermangh Ireland" labeling without adding the "Made in" phrase and switched to Gaelic in 1926.) The labeling at individual British potteries varies somewhat from the 1891/1921 dating requirements described above (e.g., Wedgwood adopted the "Made in England" around 1908/10 and may have used it on some pieces as early as 1898), and only pieces exported to the United States required these marks. Also, newer items are sometimes imprinted with the earlier (i.e., 1891) style labeling, so this "system" provides only a rough dating guide.

British Pottery & Porcelain Registration Numbers
Year	Rd. No.	Year	Rd. No.
1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909	1   19754   40480   64520   90483 116648 141273 163767 185713 205240 224720 246975 268392 291241 311658 331707 351202 368154 385088 402913 425017 447548 471486 493487 518415 534963	1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935	552000 574817 594195 612431 630190 644935 653521 658988 662872 666128 673750 680147 687144 694999 702671 710165 718057 726330 734370 742725 751160 760580 769670 779292 789018 799097
Recommend reference: Geoffrey A. Godden (1999), New Handbook of British Pottery & Porcelain Marks. (Published by Barrie & Jenkins, London) Buy this book or buy the more comprehensive volume by the same author.

About this Page

It seems that everybody is selling something on the Internet and few sites provide any free information about antiques and collectibles. Well, we sell things too but we also provide some free information about the items we sell and collect. This page is designed to provide a quick reference for the experienced collector in identifying and dating some items. It is not intended to be a definitive guide but only a quick reference (This information should not be used as a buying or selling guide.). The information provided is accurate to the best of our knowledge; however, the user should consult the standard reference sources for confirmation of this information -- we assume no liability for the information provided herein. Indeed, the references we consult often conflict in identifying and dating items.

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