Wedgwood (Josiah) pottery, porcelain and ceramics are of course extremely well known. This is a company that has been "around" for a very long time, since 1759 when Josiah was just 29 years old.
My wife has now taken to collecting very early English porcelain and chinawares, pre-1900's and deciding that this "contemporary" Wedgwood needed to find a space in another person's home ... it is time to leave home!
I say "contemporary", being less than 50 years old puts it in this category for my wife, although this very popular pattern "Wild Strawberry" first made an appearance back in 1964 which is now just over 50 years ago anyway. My wife feels that this dish is more likely to date from the 1980's even 1990's though.
This dish is a slight variation on the standard Strawberry design with the lime Green banding around the top rim area.
So, let's look at this dish in detail ...
WEDGWOOD - Pin (or utility) Dish
Made in England (we believe)
While Wedgwood and British made have been linked together for a long long time, in the 1990's Wedgwood (and others) sent their production offshore to reduce costs. The backstamp on this dish does state ENGLAND but we would have preferred something like MADE IN ENGLAND to establish where it was made. At least there is no mention of offshore locations such as Indonesia.
Shape: Octagonal platform dish, meaning the top rim is wide like a platform. The inner central area of the dish is also octagonal in shape, not round.
Design: Strawberries abound, along with their flowers and foliage.
Finished with heavy Gold gilding around the top side edge of the dish.
I strongly believe this piece to have been hand decorated and there is the Gold gilders mark on the underside although not that of an artist. Looking extremely closely (under magnification) at the decoration, I cannot see the tell tale "dots" at all which are usually present with transferware and can see small "brush stroke" errors where colouring has not been quite correctly applied, such as within the leaves or flowers. Quite surprising really as this dish is pretty "late" and to be hand decorated even in the 60's is quite something as many ceramics makers were moving (or had although moved) to various transfer techniques - it is much more expensive to have items hand decorated in comparison to techniques such as transfers.
DIMENSIONS:
While not a tiny "thimble like" pin dish, it is not overly large either - perhaps medium sized is the best I could describe this as.
128mm side to side x 20mm height
120g
BACKSTAMP:
Here is a closeup photograph of the backstamp. In addition (out of the photograph) is a printed number 398 and the gilder's marking
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Clean
NO cracks
NO fleabites
NO discolouration to the base bright White OR the decorative work
NO damage to the decorations (scratching etc)
NO crazing is evident, both wet and dry checked
A nice "modern generation" example of the Wild Strawberry range from Wedgwood ... my wife says that some people collect only this pattern and I did notice online that folks even offer complete dinner sets in the Wild Strawberry pattern (for BIG money!)
