What is transferware?

Earthenware decorated by printing a design from an engraved copper plate onto tissue, which is then laid onto the plate before glazing. It replaced hand-painting and made a patterned dinner plate affordable from the late 18th century. On Sellingantiques it's the largest single block in this category, and the pattern name is usually quoted in the title.

Why do so many plates name a place?

Printed patterns in this category are unusually literal. Titles quote destinations and scenes: Boston State House, Fair Mount near Philadelphia, Glasgow Cathedral, Linlithgow Palace, Nuneham Courtenay Park, the Mausoleum of Sultan Purveiz. The plate names the view it carries, which is why series titles and pattern names carry weight in a listing.

How old are these plates?

The dealer date field spans 1750 to 1940, but only fifty of 214 listings carry a clean year. The rest sit in century buckets, with 19th Century and 18th Century doing almost all the work. The oldest pieces aren't English. A Chinese Wanli kraak deep plate and a Ming Swatow charger are the earliest in the samples. The latest are three Continental faience chargers in Moorish style given as 1940.

Are Imari plates blue and white?

Not strictly. Imari is a palette of underglaze blue with iron red and gilding, and it appears under this heading alongside polychrome delft and painted dessert plates. Japanese Imari runs to under a tenth of the category and is almost entirely current stock, dated between 1890 and 1920. Scalloped, octagonal, shell-shaped and fish-shaped examples all turn up.

Do these come as sets or singles?

Singles dominate, but pairs appear in a good many titles, and sets of four, six, seven and ten recur through the samples. Graduated sets of meat plates and sets of six named-pattern plates sit high in the range.

Which dealers list in this category?

Sixty-one different dealers have listed blue and white plates, with roughly twenty-seven pieces coming to market a year. It's a category spread thinly across a great many stockrooms rather than held by a few specialists, which is why the mix of delft, printed pottery and Asian porcelain stays broad.

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Antique Blue and White Plates

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Flat ceramic tableware painted or printed in blue on a white ground, running from tea and toy plates through dinner and soup plates to meat platters and wall chargers.