Masons Ironstone or Regency Ironstone? - 3 footed, faux handled 'blue & white' glazed pot

by sue
(plymouth england)

Masons Ironstone or Regency Ironstone? - 3 footed, faux handled 'blue & white' glazed pot:- Hi am confused ..and new to all of this....Having gone to my local charity shop,as I had flowers bought for me and desperately needed another vase, I picked up a vase that to me was very attractive. It is as described below but when I have checked on the internet, looking for Regency Ironstone it keeps referring to "Masons" Ironstone, where as mine says Regency....

It is approx 7 inches tall, has cobalt blue feet of an inch in height, from there it gets a little more bulbous as it reaches full height. The top is scollped or frilled on the outside edge, has two cobalt or dark blue funny handles.

It is covered in blue flowers and leaves, where the edge is, on top it has two holes either side, as if it had something perhaps like a wire going through, maybe to hang it up not sure. Seems a tad strange, and the holes the same area other side are uneven too.

Slight indentation inside rim, so maybe at some time a lid too? Has a white/off white glazed interior, on the bottom of it, in between the four feet, it has a blue mark on a white bottom, encased in a two lined rectangular shape, saying "Regency" over the top of an emblem or crown, then "Ironstone" underneath that same crown/emblem.

Have taken a few pics for you all to look at....

I would be interested to find out if it is a new or whether it has any age to it ...

Thank you for your time ...

Sue

====================================

Reply by Peter (admin)

Hi Sue

You are right, a lovely pot indeed. Very attractive.

I fear though, your suspicions are dead right, it is new - probably made in China quite recently.

Masons Ironstone is one the best most collected of the antique English china companies from Staffordshire (for details see my makers guide, on this site). They are very famous, and their markings very specific and very easily identified and dated - that is, apart from the numerous fakes around.

This area is rife with fakes at worse and mis-information at best. To my knowledge, I have never seen (which means, I have not seen listed in Goddens Encyclopedia, or any other references or in any previous posts on this site) any previous Mason's mark which includes the term 'Regency'.

Here is a picture of a mark on an item for sale online I found today mentioning the name 'Mason's' and also 'Regency', but despite the very official looking registration numbers, I can't find this mark as ever being associated with the actual 'Masons Patent Ironstone China' in my Goddens book.

I would love to know the story of how this mark and this product range came to be. We would have to show it to an expert in Mason's. Maybe it's real, but I can't get rid of the image of a smoke filled basement somewhere in the Orient where men in vests and strange tatoos are saying things like "NO! THAT IS NOT HOW YOU SPELL REGENSY. THAT IS TERRIBLE WRITING. WHY YOUR HAND SHAKE SO MUCH?"

I noticed there are quite a few items knocking around eBay and other places online which include this dodgy looking crown mark and "Mason's Regency Made In England C4475 Rd No 821349 in Gt Britain Permanent Detergent Proof Decoration".

Perhaps I'm wrong and it is a marketing label of modern owners of the Masons brand? The pattern always seems the same on these wares. The marking of Mason's Ironstone were pretty consistent until their absorption into a huge faceless group in the 1960's, showing their crown and banner underneath saying "Patent Ironstone China". There were variations, but the changes were minimal.

On balance I would be wary of anything else and assume it is modern until proven otherwise.

Also be aware that Mason's classic standard mark dating from the 1820's has been shamelessly ripped off by Chinese makers, trying to do exact copies. They are not bad, but small clues give it away. Look at the shape of the banner on the fake mark - it isn't curved enough.....

The message I am trying to get across is 'buyer beware' don't rush in of you are a person specifically thinking they are buying the famous Mason's brand.

If you are just casual buyer like you, Sue, it doesn't matter. If you like something, buy it, but don't pay pumped up antique prices.

The term 'Ironstone', was a word coined in the Victorian era for a from of hard, crack resistant earthenware (or stoneware) which was supposed to have some of the qualities of porcelain (i.e. harder and more light and translucent, but also very strong).

The reason this ironstone body came about was because porcelain/bone china was desirable but very expensive and difficult to make. The clay body was always very expensive for makers to buy and also the kilns had to be fired at a much hotter temperature. So some makers decided to go down the earthenware route and, which was safer and less of a gamble. Josiah Wedgwood himself shrewdly steered clear of porcelain making for a long time, inventing a hard earthenware based body called 'creamware' which became very popular with his international Royal clientelle, and made his fortune, whilst many porcelain makers were losing their shirts.

So the Ironstone makers were following this business model, set a hundred years before.

Although your pot says 'Ironstone', it probably isn't.

Regards

Peter (admin)