Marco Polo
The transfers on this page are based on an image that appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1853.
Attributed to John Patton, Phoenix Pottery
The hand that inscribed these jugs is very similar to that found of wares with John Patton printed marks. When Carr and Patton parted company in 1846, they continued to make very similar pottery. However, I have not found the Marco Polo transfer on items attributable to John Carr's 'Low Lights' Pottery at North Shields. According to RC Bell and MAV Gill, John Patton's name last appears as owner of the Phoenix Pottery in a directory of 1855. The first jug below is dated 1854, so falls within the Patton period.
Unidentified pottery – John Hobson
The Patton-attributed transfers above appear on later bowls with the 'J H' underneath a Staffordshire knot. North East potters have form for trying to pass their wares off as Staffordshire items. You can read more about John Hobson on this page.
In the absence of an impressed mark or dated inscription, it is hard to know whether items were made by Hobson or Patton.
The 'Hobson' version of the transfer appears on plaque forms that I would previously have attributed to John Carr. See also the Gudrun page for similar Hobson-attributed examples.
So why not attribute the plaques to Patton? Well, similar plaques exist with the initials JH under the transfer. However, the Mariners' Compass transfer on the plaque on the right, with the initials 'JH' greyed out, is found on items I've attributed to Thomas Fell. So nothing is straightforward.
Thomas Fell & Co, St Peter's Pottery, Newcastle
This version of the transfer is very similar to those above, with seagulls in similar places, and must be a direct copy, perhaps by printing of the copied image onto a copper plate.. However, both the imprints on the bowl below have small traces of other transfers around the ship, suggesting the copper plate was very tightly packed with images (see below). I have not found similar on any of the other imprints on this page.
Also, on the 'Fell' version, there are two pully blocks on the rigging, shown circled in red below, that don't appear on the other versions of the transfer (see right below).
The wavy lustre decoration and the red, green and yellow enamelling (clobbering) are very similar to those found on North Shields items, and I would have attributed this bowl to John Carr & Sons, except that it has an impressed mark. Fell was known to use the crown impress, which appears in conjunction with 'Fell' marks on other items (see below).
The willow meat platter below has the whole array of Fell identification marks.
The transfer on an eel pot or butter dish with very similar decoration to the bowl above. The lid has cut up fragments of the Fell version of the Gudrun transfer.
Below, two jugs with the transfer, again paired with the 'Gudrun type' ship transfer, which could easily be mistaken for North Shields items.
Below, a monumental jug with the Fell version of the transfer. The handle has at some point broken and been taken to a blacksmiths for repair. Interestingly, the Mariner's compass transfer on this jug has greyed out initials for 'JH' so another link to John Hobson.
Below two plaques with what appears to be the 'Fell' version. Previously, this plaque form has been almost exclusively attributed to North Shields.
Unidentified Tyneside pottery
Note that there are no seagulls around the masts.
Late 20th Century Reproductions
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Sometime around the 1970s, reproduction plaques were reproduced in large numbers. The reproductions are easy to spot as they have the title 'Agamemnon'. Often Agamemnon appears paired with another reproduction titled 'Flying Cloud Boston'.
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