Brand new to Flow Blue

[auntyshanny]

I just recently picked up this wonderful plate at a large church garage sale to add as part of a funky plate collection that I was planning for my kitchen wall. It was so pretty, old and special looking that I thought that perhaps I should check it out before I glued up the back of it. Glad that I did! It is a Royal Staffordshire Pekin pattern Flow Blue Plate, worth considerably more than the two dollars that I paid for it and definitely not something that I want to damage. I also got a Lord Nelson Flow Blue Chintz patterned plate at the same time. It has been a little harder to find  much information on, apparently it is not a common pattern. Anyway, I love them and all my researching is giving me an education in Flow Blue. Previous to this, I had no experience with any of this but now I have the bug!

[vicki hufstetler]

Hi There Aunty - Welcome to iantique! I have good news and not so good news for you. First - please - when posting items show us any markings that are there as well. This will help a great deal, and probably get you more responses.

Your plates are very pretty and decorative - but neither are "Flow Blue" What you have there is "English Transferware" A tradition in England for at least a few centuries. The difference is that old "Flow blue" means exactly that - Real cobalt was used in decorting those old pieces - it is now outlawed due to the possibility of poisening from ingesting cobalt - a mineral.

When those old pieces were fired the cobalt ran over the transfer decoration - if you go to a site like Loversofblueandwhite.com - you can see some really fantastic examples - and right away you will notice the difference. The difference in value is stunning too! A pretty and decorative English transferware plate like yours should bring something like $15 - $35 depending on age, pattern etc. On the other side - a "Flow Blue" piece would be easily double that amount. The site I gave you also has pricing - it is in English pounds - but you can easily translate it into American USD.

 

I would love to see the makings on your pieces and please share your chinz piece - too - those are a different story altogeather ( LOL)  - It's a lot to learn - but it's lots of fun too - Happy Hunting!

[auntyshanny]

Thanks for the reply! That will teach me to believe everything I see on the Internet! I saw two plates exactly like mine on Ebay selling for $75.00 and $100.00 respectively. .

I was also reading about transferware but as I saw these listed as Flow Blue I just assumed it to be true.

I will put the back markings on in the future, in fact I think that I do have a photo of the back marking of the Lord Nelson which is the plate on the top. I have seen it listed as Flow Blue Chintz on a few web sites.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply, on the plus side now I can enjoy them on my wall without feeling guilty about ruining something really pricy!

I have other plates as well including what appears to be a hand painted Myott and Sons and a few Limoges which I now understand could really mean just about anything...lol!

[Susanna Pickle]

The Pekin plate is definitely flow blue, recognized in multiple books and the FBICC's online database of identified patterns. Your other plate is definitely chintz and very lovely. Great finds!