Antique Derby Plates between £0 and £0
Painted porcelain plates from Derby, made either for the dessert course of a formal meal or, later, purely to be displayed.
What Are Derby Plates?
Porcelain making at Derby began in the mid eighteenth century, and dessert plates were made in matched services for the last course of a meal, when the cloth was cleared and the decoration was meant to be looked at. From the nineteenth century onward, heavily painted single plates were made for display instead of use, and those are sold as cabinet plates.
What you'll meet on Sellingantiques is nearly always a single painted plate rather than a service. "Porcelain" appears in 27 of 64 titles, "dessert" in 14 and "cabinet" in 8, while pairs and plural lots are the exception. Titles lead on the painting far more often than on the shape.
Two streams split the field roughly evenly. Royal Crown Derby is named in 19 titles, mostly on pieces from 1880 onward and running through the 1900s to the 1930s, with Imari palettes, pattern numbers, six-inch side plates and signed cabinet plates. Bloor Derby is named in 13, almost all dated c.1820 to c.1825, with gadrooned rims, green grounds and armorial botanical dessert plates.
Earlier Derby turns up throughout: spectacle plates at c.1760, an eighteenth-century blue and white soup plate in the Chinese style, and a Kylin pattern pair of the late eighteenth century. Japanese-taste decoration is a smaller recurring note, including Kakiemon shell plates of c.1810-1820. A few listings under the heading are service companions rather than plates, such as tazzas, a teapot stand and an ecuelle with cover and stand.
Where Value Sits
Attribution, not shape, is the usual selling point. Titles naming or attributing a painter occupy the upper half of the range, and the two highest-priced entries in the samples are signed cabinet plates. Named and attributed hands include the Cotton Stem Painter, Moses Webster, Thomas Steele, Richard Dodson, George Robertson, F Garnett, Leroy and James Giles.
Specificity of subject pulls the same way. Botanical plates that identify the plant by species, Siberian Rhododendron, Cryptostegia, St John's Wort, Toothed Leaved Hibbertia, sit above plates described only as having flowers or small blue flowers and gilt. Armorial decoration behaves like a named subject, since the arms give the plate a history.
Then quantity and date. Plates from a named service, a seven-piece dessert service with comport, a set of six side plates and pairs all sit well above the single unattributed plate. Early pieces do the same: the c.1760 spectacle plates, the eighteenth-century blue and white soup plate and the Kylin pattern pair all sit in the upper part of the range.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for derby plates between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Derby plates have been listed on Sellingantiques since 2008.
The Antique Derby Plates between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Dessert plate
- Plate from a dessert service, and the commonest named form in this category, on 14 titles.
- Cabinet plate
- A plate made for display rather than table use, named on 8 titles and often the type that carries a signature.
- Botanical
- Decoration of a named plant specimen, usually titled with the species; it appears on 11 titles.
- Gadrooned rim
- A moulded lobed or ribbed edge, named on Bloor dessert plates of around 1825.
- Spectacle plate
- An eighteenth-century Derby plate type, recorded three times in the samples and dated c.1760.
- Pattern number
- A factory pattern reference quoted in the title, such as 431 or 1384; it turns up only twice across the archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often do Derby plates come up for sale?
Sixteen dealers have listed them on Sellingantiques, and about seven arrive in a year. The category comes in a slow trickle rather than in runs.
Single plates dominate. Pairs appear in 8 of 64 titles, and plural lots in 10, so a set or a service is the exception.
What dates do these plates cover?
The dealers' own dating field runs from 1800 to 1940, with Regency and Georgian leading. Only 18 of 64 listings carry a clean year, and nine are labelled no more precisely than 19th Century.
Title text is often sharper than the field, giving c.1760, c.1770, c.1805, c.1820, 1850-70, 1882, 1901, 1927 and 1941. The earliest samples are the c.1760 spectacle plates; the latest is a hand-painted plate dated 1941.
Is Bloor Derby different from Royal Crown Derby?
They are different periods of the same Derby porcelain tradition, and in this category they split the field almost evenly. Bloor is named on 13 titles, almost all dated c.1820 to c.1825.
Royal Crown Derby is named on 19, chiefly on pieces from 1880 onward, with twentieth-century entries clustering thinly and evenly through the 1900s, 1910s, 1920s and 1930s.
Why are the plants named in the titles?
Botanical painting is named on 11 titles, and dealers usually give the species because the naming was part of the original decoration and part of the appeal.
Specimens recorded in the samples include Siberian Rhododendron, Cryptostegia, St John's Wort, Toothed Leaved Hibbertia, Rose and Sweet William. Several were sold as pairs, and some carry armorials as well.
Do Derby plates carry pattern numbers?
Rarely in this archive. Pattern numbers are quoted only twice across all 64 listings, 431 and 1384.
Identification usually runs through the painter or the subject instead, which is why titles lead on names and specimens rather than on factory references.
What unusual forms turn up under this heading?
A few listings are service companions rather than plates: a serving dish, a teapot stand, tazzas and comports, an ecuelle with cover and stand, and a trio.
One-offs include a shell-shaped plate in Kakiemon style and a sample plate dated 1850-70. Two listings record plates made for named clients, including a pair of cabinet plates made for John Ford, Edinburgh in 1901.