Mystery Hohenzolleran H & Co. Porcelain Mark on Plate

by Gary G.
(Tumwater, WA, USA)

Hi Everyone!

My wife has periodically collected plates at thrift shops and the like. Not looking for a "find," just things that caught her eye for a few dollars.

We recently moved and in going through all of our things we decided to identify and catalogue her little collection. It was pretty easy to identify the marks and corresponding date ranges on the plates that had marks, but not on this one.

I was able to figure out that the "H & Co." almost certainly stands for Heinrich and Company, which made hundreds of designs, none of which that I could find look like this.

I also discovered that Hohenzollern is a famous Prussian name associated with a still famous tourist attraction castle, a province, and a family dynasty that became the rulers of Germany up until the end of the first World War. Or something like that.

There is also some Hohenzollern plates, but again none that I could find pictures of that look like this. I could also find nothing, absolutely nothing, linking H & Co. to Hohenzollern.

The design of the mark doesn’t seem to make much sense at all. It doesn’t even vaguely resemble any other Heinrich marks I’ve seen and also bears no resemblance whatsoever to any coat of arms or family crest.

So that’s a head scratcher right there. And with such a well known manufacturer and such a well known national name, it is completely mystifying to me that I cannot find this mark on the internet the way I have found so many others and seen so many others.

My current theory is that the plate is from somewhere between 1871 and 1918, because 1871 is when Germany as we know it today, more or less, was created. Prior to that time I think anything connected with Hohenzollern would have said “Prussia” rather than “Germany.”

And I don’t think Heinrich & Co. would have made a Hohenzollern plate after the family dynasty was overthrown. Plus the plate looks pretty old.

But again, I can’t figure out why there isn’t some record on the internet of this mark. To me that just is mindboggling. But maybe I’m just such a newbie at hunting this stuff down I haven’t looked in the right places.

Although I have seen literally hundreds of German and Prussian marks. However, it has been very interesting. I have learned a fair amount in a short time.

My wife also picks up Nippon plates and it was interesting to learn that the plates were first marked as such in 1891 because of a United States tariff law, and that for the most part the word “Nippon” wasn’t used after 1921 because of an interpretation of that law.

I thought it was Nippon on all Japanese china until World War Two. It’s also interesting that signed Japanese plates don’t seem to have a greater value than unsigned.

Also, I didn’t know about some manufacturers just making blanks and then another company did the design work and that this can often be seen by the marks on the back of the plates.

But I’m sure that is very elementary stuff to the folks who read this site.

Thanks,

Gary G.