Antique Worcester Plates between £0 and £0
Porcelain plates made at Worcester, from 18th-century dessert and dinner plates for the table to 20th-century hand-painted fruit plates made to be looked at.
What They Are
Worcester has made porcelain since the mid-18th century, and plates were a staple from the start. The heading covers two centuries of it, but the weight sits in one place: of 248 titles on Sellingantiques, 173 are Royal Worcester, and the hand-painted fruit plate of the 1920s to 1960s is what you'll meet most often.
That plate is a single piece with a still-life of fruit in the centre and a moulded border. The border shape gets treated as a defining feature rather than a detail: 49 titles name a rope edge, 22 a star edge, one a plain edge. Sizes run from 6-inch tea plates to 10.75-inch and 27cm dinner plates, and the dated profile peaks in the 1960s and 1950s. They sell singly, in pairs, and now and then in sets of six or twelve.
Behind that comes the older stream. First Period plates, the 18th-century factory, are named by pattern rather than by painter: Pine Cone, Blue Scale, Dragon in Compartments, Earl Manvers, with Mansfield, Old Japan Fan, Brocade and Kakiemon appearing once each. Then the Flight and Barr-era and Regency dessert and soup plates, armorial, topographical and botanical.
Around a fifth of titles name a painter, and about a third of the live stock is described as cabinet plates, made for display rather than use. A handful of listings stretch the word plate a long way: a patty pan, a reticulated basket, a leaf dish, a shell-handled dessert dish, a ribbon-handled sandwich plate.
Where The Range Splits
Fruit is the default, so anything else stands out. Swans, peacocks, sheep, game birds, fancy birds, botanical subjects and armorial crests each turn up only a handful of times, and they cluster in the upper reaches. The top of the range isn't held by the fruit plates that make up the bulk at all: early armorial service pieces and swan-painted cabinet plates sit there, while the bottom is a single small hand-painted tea plate.
After subject, it's the painter's name and the number of plates. Signed appears in 26 titles, with a further group described as by a named hand, and those sit above the unattributed ones. Pairs run to 19 titles, and sets of four, six and twelve go higher again: a set of six star-edge plates and an armorial service set stand at the very top.
Size and finish do the rest. Sizes are stated in titles rather than measured across the category, but the large-size dinner plate recurs among the higher-priced painted fruit, and 6-inch tea plates sit at the other end. Jewelled, cobalt and tooled gilt, acid-etched gilt and gilt-centred plates form their own decorative tier.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for worcester 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.
The word plate stretches a long way in this archive: a patty pan, a salad junket bowl, a leaf dish and a reticulated basket have all passed through.
Richard Sebright
The Antique Worcester Plates between £0 and £0 Glossary
- First Period
- The 18th-century Worcester factory, named in 30 titles and often set alongside a circa date in the 1760s or 1770s.
- Painted fruit
- A hand-painted still life of fruit filling the plate centre. The commonest decoration in this category by a wide margin, with 100 titles using the phrase.
- Rope edge
- A moulded twisted-rope border, named in 49 titles and treated as a way of telling one Royal Worcester plate from another.
- Star edge
- A moulded pointed border, in 22 titles. A set of six star-edge plates sits at the top of the range.
- Cabinet plate
- Made for display rather than the table. Thirty-one titles use it, and it accounts for a larger share of what's currently listed than of what has sold.
- Armorial
- Decorated with a family crest or coat of arms, found here on Barr-period and earlier 19th-century plates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Worcester plates mostly 18th century?
No. The dated field runs 1750 to 1960, but the 1960s and 1950s together account for more listings than the 18th century, Georgian, Regency and 19th-century entries combined.
The 18th century is recorded loosely. Twenty-five listings say only 18th Century, 15 say Georgian, 10 Regency, so these read as era labels even where a title adds a circa year.
What does painted fruit mean on these plates?
A hand-painted still life of fruit in the plate centre, usually within a moulded border. It's the standard decoration for the 20th-century Royal Worcester plates, named in 100 of 248 titles.
Because it's standard, other subjects stand out. Swans, peacocks, sheep, game birds and botanical work each appear only a few times.
How many Worcester plates come up for sale?
About 25 a year are listed on Sellingantiques, and 31 different dealers have offered them.
That spread matters. This is a category held widely across the trade rather than by two or three specialists.
Do these plates sell singly or in sets?
Singly, most often. Pairs appear in 19 titles, and sets of four, six and twelve turn up less frequently.
Multiples go higher in the range than single plates. A set of six star-edge plates and an armorial service set stand at the very top, and a set of twelve game bird cabinet plates appears just once.
What sizes do Worcester plates come in?
Sizes are quoted in inches in the titles, from 6-inch tea plates up to 10.5 and 10.75-inch dinner plates, with one at 27cm.
Sixteen titles say large size. There's also a miniature tea plate and a very small First Period plate at the older end.
Sizes only appear where a title states them, so there's no measured profile across the whole category.
Which First Period patterns turn up by name?
Pine Cone, Blue Scale, Dragon in Compartments and Earl Manvers all recur more than once. Dragon in Compartments also shows up in Flight and Barr-era titles.
Mansfield, Old Japan Fan, Brocade, Kakiemon and a Wigornia-marked plate each appear once. Earlier Worcester tends to be listed by pattern; the 20th-century plates by subject and border.