A "Pair" of Bristol Plates
|
|
|
|
|
|
Above is a pair of Bristol dessert plates c1774-81. However only the plate on the left is original, the one on the left being a copy made in 1914. The original is hard paste porcelain the copy is bone china. The diameter of the plate on the left is 7.7 inches (19.2 cm) and that on the right 8.0 inches (20.3 cm).
The original has a label indicating that it is number 99 from the Trapnell collection. The catalogue for the collection refers to 99 as two pairs of dessert plates, this is presumably one of the pairs. Note that the two plates in pair do not have to be indentical. Trapnell illustrates numbers 95 and 100, which have similar decoration. Similar items (lots 185-187) were sold at Phillips (now Bonhams), in London, on 12th September 2001.
The plates labels stating "A.G.C. 1024" and "A.G.C. 1025" respectively, and the copy also ahs "Fired 13/11/1914" and what looks like "6 C&E book". The AGC is thought to refer to Arthur Gresham Copeland, of the Copeland potting family. The pottery was in Stoke, and later renamed Spode. It is now closed. 1024 and 1025 presumably refers to numbers in his collection. It would appear the second plate was broken after 1912 and a copy was made by the pottery to replace it. A G Copeland was born in 1889, entered the business in 1903 and died on 21st February 1967. There is also a sucrier and cover in existence that has the label "A.G.C. 1025 A" on the cover and "A. G. C. 1025 B" on the bowl.
Biographical information from Spode and Copeland Marks by Robert Copeland; published in 1993.
Can anyone provide any further information?