POTTERY

English

LIVERPOOL DELFT c1765

This English Delft plate (9 inches diameter) was made in Liverpool circa 1765.
This was my first antique purchase in Australia.

It was early 1972 at the dispersal sale of BERNARD SMITH'S Collection in Sydney.
 I bought it for my wife's first Aussie birthday present, because we met in Liverpool, her home town, and have been in love ever since !

Much of the English pottery and porcelain of the 18th century had oriental decoration, because the makers were trying to copy the Asian quality porcelain that was being imported from China.
It was some time before the English perfected their version of hard-paste porcelain and could compete.

Interestingly, my late brother Dr. Bernard Watney, wrote a book  'Liverpool Porcelain of the 18th century'.  Another link on this site giving a short account of Bernard's corkscrew collection auctioned in May 1997 can be found at Dr. Bernard Watney's Corkscrew Collection