How to identify pottery and porcelain marks
Look at how the mark was made
Turn the piece over in good light. How a mark was put on tells you almost as much as what it says.
- Impressed or incised. Pressed or scratched into the soft clay before firing, so it sits below the surface. Common from the mid-18th century.
- Painted or printed under the glaze. Applied before glazing, so the glaze runs smoothly over it. Before about 1850 these marks were almost always blue.
- Painted, printed or stencilled over the glaze. Added once the piece was glazed and fired. These marks can wear, and they are also the easiest kind to add later.
Full printed backstamps became common from the 1840s. Older pieces are often marked simply or not at all, though an unmarked piece is not necessarily old.
What the country name tells you
From 1891, under the McKinley Tariff, goods imported into the United States had to be marked with their country of origin.
| Mark | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| "England", "Germany" or "France" alone | 1891 or later |
| "Made in England" | 20th century; most makers adopted it around 1914, a few earlier |
| "Nippon" | Japan, about 1891 to 1921 |
| "Japan" or "Made in Japan" | After 1921, when US Customs stopped accepting "Nippon" |
| "Occupied Japan" | The Allied occupation, 1945 to April 1952 |
| "Ltd" in a British maker's name | After 1861, and common only from the 1890s |
These are rules of thumb for export wares. Pieces sold at home often carried no country name, and paper labels have often fallen off, so a missing country name does not prove a piece is earlier than 1891.
British registration diamonds and Rd numbers
From 1842 to 1883, a British design registered with the Patent Office could carry a diamond-shaped mark. A Roman numeral IV at the top shows the ceramics class, and the letters and numbers in the corners code the day, month and year of registration. The layout changed in the late 1860s, so use a chart for the right period.
From 1884 the diamond was replaced by "Rd" or "Rd No" and a running number. Approximate starting numbers:
| Year | Rd numbers began near |
|---|---|
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1890 | 140,000 |
| 1900 | 350,000 |
| 1910 | 550,000 |
| 1920 | 670,000 |
Either way, the date is when the design was registered, not when your piece was made: an earliest possible date, since popular patterns stayed in production for years.
Marks people find most often
Royal Doulton
Earlier wares read "Doulton" or "Doulton & Co." The "Royal Doulton" name and lion-and-crown backstamp followed a royal warrant from King Edward VII in 1901, so a mark that says Royal Doulton is 1901 or later.
Wedgwood
Wedgwood impressed its name into the clay from about 1759. "ENGLAND" was added after 1891, and "MADE IN ENGLAND" was in general use by 1908. From 1860 many pieces also carry a small impressed three-letter code for the month, the potter and the year. The letters repeat in cycles, so a code can fit two years.
Meissen crossed swords
Meissen has marked its porcelain with crossed swords, painted by hand in blue under the glaze, since the 1720s. It also has more imitators than any other European mark, from 18th-century factories across Europe and Britain to the Paris firm of Samson, famous for its copies. Lines cut through the swords are cancellation marks, used on pieces the factory sold off as seconds or undecorated.
Limoges
Limoges is a city, not a maker. Many factories worked in and around it, so look for a factory name or initials, such as Haviland, beside the word. "France" usually means 1891 or later. A second mark on top of the glaze often belongs to the studio that decorated the piece or the shop that sold it.
Noritake and Nippon
Noritake's maker, Nippon Toki Kaisha, was founded in 1904 by the Morimura Brothers trading company. The "M" in a wreath stands for Morimura and appears on many hand-painted Nippon pieces. Nippon marks have been reproduced on new porcelain, so compare any piece with known originals.
Royal Copenhagen
Three blue wavy lines have marked Royal Copenhagen since the factory was founded in 1775. They stand for Denmark's three main waterways.
Chinese reign marks
A reign mark names a dynasty and an emperor in four or six characters. Read the columns top to bottom, starting on the right. In a six-character mark, the first two characters give the dynasty, the next two the emperor's reign, and the last two mean "made".
Most reign-marked pieces that turn up at home were made later than the reign they name. Potters often used earlier emperors' marks out of respect, and the Chenghua and Qianlong marks have been copied endlessly. The four-character Kangxi mark, for example, was rarely used during his reign, and pieces bearing it mostly date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Auction catalogues call such marks "apocryphal", and write "mark and period" only when they believe a piece is from the reign on its base.
Signs of a fake or later mark
- The mark doesn't fit the piece. A famous name on a crude or modern-looking piece, or wording from the wrong period for its style.
- The wrong method. Meissen's swords sit under the glaze. One you can feel on top of the glaze needs a closer look.
- Ground or scraped patches on the base. Forgers grind away cancellation marks and copyists' own marks, leaving a small dull patch of bare ceramic.
- Wear that doesn't fit the age. A spotless glaze on a supposedly old piece, an artificially darkened foot rim, or damage that looks deliberate.
No single sign settles it. A genuine mark can appear on a later piece, and a genuine old piece can be unmarked.
What affects value
- Maker and pattern. The same factories made everyday tableware and rare pieces, so the exact pattern or model matters more than the name.
- Condition. Chips, cracks, worn gilding and old repairs all lower the price.
- Decoration. Fine hand painting, especially by a known artist, adds more than a printed pattern.
- Age and rarity. Collectors compete for early and scarce pieces.
- Completeness. Original lids and stands, and complete sets, are worth more than strays.
How to check what it sells for
- Search eBay for the maker, the exact pattern name or number, and the shape, then filter by Sold Items. Asking prices often run far above sold prices.
- Auction houses publish past results, a better guide for early or unusual pieces.
- For anything that might be early, rare or Chinese imperial, ask a ceramics specialist at an auction house before you sell.
Related guides
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