Flowing blue pottery pieces

[MountainThrifts]

I’ve found another big find! Though yet again I am stuck on what it could be! �� At first I thought it was a plate because I found so many pieces of it! But after trying to piece it together like a puzzle I noticed the bottom rim of two of the pieces are pretty small. This now makes me think it is either a bowl, tea cup saucer, or another item in similar size.

I’m pretty sure no one could figure out what the item actually was, and so I’m looking at the pattern for help! I found it very funny there were four chicken heads staring back at me!! (Two of them had parts cut off, the poor things XD)

I’m nearly certain the color is “Flowing Blue”. It’s called that for a reason! When these were first made the color would run and stain the items due to the structure of the paint itself. Eventually they fixed this error and very few originals remain today, they’re really rare and sell for good money. If I ever found one I wouldn’t let it out of my sight haha, but anyways, getting back on track.

I will search for the design myself but I’m curious if anyone here already knows about it! Last time I posted I got an awesome response within a few hours! So if anyone knows anything about this item’s design origin please let me know!

Photos attached below, but I can never get it to work easily on mobile so if they aren’t there I’ll try to fix that soon ����

 

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[DizzyDigger]

I think you're missing a whole bunch of pieces, as I don't
see any pieces there that would be on the edge of whatever
it is.

If you actually want to re-assemble it, a trip back to where you
found those pieces is in order..there's got to be more there.

 

[MountainThrifts]

Oh I know I’m missing a lot of pieces, I couldn’t find them all and it was getting dark so I took what I had. I was wondering if anyone had seen a similar design on other items! I’m not even 100% sure they’re all from the same item, lots of things get broken within the same area. I only have the blue print to go off on this time, I can’t see any clear structure to the piece with the bits I have. I said saucer or small bowl because of the bigger pieces’ circled edge. The bottom of a plate would have a much greater rim then what this has, it seems to be very small so a small plate or bowl is more likely what it once was.

None of them seem to match up easily as of now so there’s many more pieces to find! I’m sure if I dig deeper and further out I could find more, but I fear some pieces will never be found by me so I’ll never have all the bits to put back together. Siiiiigh.. but I’m not upset XD

 

[DizzyDigger]

None of them seem to match up easily as of now so there’s many more pieces to find! I’m sure if I dig deeper and further out I could find more, but I fear some pieces will never be found by me so I’ll never have all the bits to put back together. Siiiiigh.. but I’m not upset XD

Do you have a sifting screen? Easy to make one with nothing more
than a few nails, an 8' 2x4 and some 1/4" construction cloth.

 

[smokeythecat]

You are correct, it is generally called "flow blue" and was a 19th century invention. A lot was made in Staffordshire, England. It is quite popular and came in hundreds and hundreds of patterns. Ebay would be the place to look once you can get a few pieces assembled to get a better idea of what it looked like.

 

[Retired Sarge]

One would think that seeing there are roosters/chickens/birds, your choice there, in the design it would be easy to nail down. But after looking for 1/2 hour and getting a headache, I have found out otherwise.

 

[Red-Coat]

I don’t recognise the pattern but personally I would say that this is not “flow blue” (sometimes also known as “flown blue”). Generally, there are some misunderstandings regarding this kind of china and its potential value.

What you have is ‘transferware’ but not all blue on white transferware is flow blue. The flow blue glaze was an accidental (probably) discovery by Staffordshire potters in the 1820s, arising from attempts to replicate the classic Chinese blue on white porcelain pieces which were much in demand, but expensive. However, subsequent to the discovery, it quickly became not an error that needed to be corrected but a desirable feature that could be exploited.

The classic feature of flow blue is the bleed of the pigment into the white ground to create a soft image with a rather attractive ‘halo’ effect around the design. Like this:



People liked it, even though it was a long way from the crisp oriental hand-painted pieces. It had a style of its own. Secondly, from a manufacturing point of view, it was quickly realised that the bleeding helped to disguise pattern defects arising from kiln stilt marks, misalignment of the paper stencils used to apply the pattern and general issues that were a consequence of mass production rather than hand-painting.

Take a close look at this piece of your find. The diffusion is minimal and there is no significant halo. The numerous discontinuities and defects in the design are clearly visible and not at all obscured by any bleeding:



Call it ‘flow blue’ if you want (and many people do) but one of the reasons why a lot of ordinarily-glazed blue and white transferware china has insidiously become termed 'flow blue' is that (especially when the blue is deep) from a marketing point of view it makes the piece more desirable to inexperienced collectors. Much of what is sold on fleabay under that description is nothing of the sort and just trading on it being a trendy term in the collector market.

Even if this was flow blue, such china is not inherently valuable. It was widely produced in Staffordshire in the 1800s as affordable tableware for working class and middle class families; copiously exported as ‘seconds’ to America when the bleed was more extensive than intended; imitated elsewhere (including, ironically, in China/Japan, commissioned as exportware to the West) and underwent a number of revivals over the years. What can be potentially rather valuable are original early ‘first grade’ Staffordshire pieces from named potteries. Things with handles, spouts, or lids (cups, teapots, jugs, tureens etc) command better prices than plates since they were produced in smaller numbers and fewer of them have survived without damage. Also, although primarily used on transferware, there are hand-painted pieces of flow blue in much smaller numbers and those can be rather valuable too.

 

[invent4hir]

This might help -> https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/di...ed Earthenwares/index-PrintedEarthenwares.htm