Posted 3 years ago
Adirondack…
(6 items)
Beautiful Royal Crown Derby plates that I can not find a thing about. Easily found in all white but not with the blue band. I would love to know the pattern name. I believe they are stamped 63? Thank you for any help!
https://www.replacements.com/china-royal-crown-derby-rcd92/c/265279
keramikos, yes, I saw that also and have contacted them. It's odd they have the pattern name as RCD92. Thank you for your help.
AdirondackMimi, Yeah, that pattern name of RCD92 is slightly suspect.
It might be that replacements dot com assigned it that name, because they couldn't find the real name. On the other hand, Lenox might have given it that name.
In days of yore, throwing elaborate parties with fancy china and flatware was popular, because people didn't have all of the other entertainment options available today. China companies tried to keep up with the demand.
A company like Lenox might well have had so many patterns that they assigned unromantic names to them like RCD92.
A looks at the "Refine Results" search function (Image Available) shows that replacements dot com has 946 Royal Crown Derby patterns:
https://www.replacements.com/china-royal-crown-derby/b/001-800990
Whoops, I still had Lenox on the brain.
Here's Royal Crown Derby's "About Us page" from their website:
https://www.royalcrownderby.co.uk/about/
keramikos, Thank you for all of you help. 949 patterns, wow!
AdirondackMimi, You're welcome. :-)
Actually nine hundred some patterns isn't all that much, but then replacements dot com doesn't necessarily have all of Royal Crown Derby's patterns.
@keramikos, Any idea what one is supposed to do when they fall in love with a pattern and can find no more?
AdirondackMimi, Oh dear. :-(
You can try registering with replacements dot com and other similar services, with the caveat that the former is unholy expensive.
At the risk of making you ill, somebody sold a large service in that pattern last year, and at what I would regard as a very low price for that many pieces:
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/a-royal-crown-derby-porcelain-table-service-7131-c-ef745f5872
In the process of looking web-wide for your pattern, I stumbled on more tidbits about it:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e56cdd0442621615cc07a5/1468160568512-9Z2NNLYXMCB1456FKL3M/IMGP1709.JPG
*snip*
Royal Crown Derby® provided a replacement service during most of the period, so earlier patterns were reproduced so as to complete a set where a piece had been broken, but with an up-to-date factory mark. The piece in the image above in pattern 4550 (designed well before 1927) with date cipher for 1964 (possibly 1965) is perhaps an example of this.
*snip*
https://rcdcollections.com/new-page-53
So they call the pattern by the highly romantic name of 4550.
You might ask Royal Crown Derby themselves for help:
https://www.royalcrownderby.co.uk/contacts/
AdirondackMimi, Sorry, I've been multi-tasking more than usual, so I'm a bit scattered. >8-0
The vintage of your Royal Crown Derby pieces might actually be 1907, because the date cipher at the bottom of the back stamp looks like it might be an "M" character:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e56cdd0442621615cc07a5/1460468334450-AP38TZLGU5ZIJZSLFZ8U/image-asset.jpeg?format=2500w
https://rcdcollections.com/new-page-53
The Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Museum offers expert service:
https://www.royalcrownderbymuseum.com/ask-an-expert
keramikos, I cannot thank you enough for being so generous with your knowledge! Yes, at first the auction price realized did make me slightly nauseas, however, it gives me hope that I can afford a complete set. The search is on.
keramikos, I thought the stamp at the bottom says, 63 or 68? Would that be the year?
AdirondackMimi, You're quite welcome, although I think I should tell you that I'm very far from being an expert. I'm just an old Internet surfer. };-)
As to the the other markings on your plates, I don't know.
From what little I've gathered, pattern 4550 was one that RCD revived in the 1960s, but the back stamps on those revival pieces clearly reflect that:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e56cdd0442621615cc07a5/1468160677633-Z54VVAMYQHG1KLM88UMK/IMGP1710.JPG
https://rcdcollections.com/new-page-53
The back stamp on yours looks like the original, pre-1927 one.
I'd ask the Royal Crown Derby Museum about it.
As to you acquiring a complete set: it could happen. Good luck. :-)
@kersmikos Again, you astound me! I just reached out to the RCD museum. Looking forward to their analysis and I will def share their report.
AdirondackMimi, I look forward to reading what the museum has to say. :-)
RCD did not name all of their services. It is highly likely that you will never find a name or identifier other than the Replacements.com issued identifier. Lucky find though regardless!
carmenisacat, I suspect that you're right in the sense that Royal Crown Derby probably never gave a lot of their patterns aesthetically appealing names.
However, in this case, there is already a discrepancy between what Replacements dot com calls it (RCD92), and what the website rcdcollections dot com calls it (4550).
Where the latter got that 4550 number is TBD. It might well be that Royal Crown Derby gave the pattern that numerical name. After all, RCD would have needed to give all of its patterns some kind of ID to avoid confusion.
@Keramikos this is the response I received from the RCD museum:
Thank you for the excellent photograph.. The date cipher of an x and two dots is for the year 1903. The impressed numbers below the impressed 'DERBY' give the exact month and year when the plate was made, I think it is 5 - 03 which would mean it was made in May 1903.
I do hope you enjoy owning these very pretty plates.
Best wishes,
Olivia
As you can imagine, it is Exciting news for me! Never imagined they were so early. Thank you again for all of your help.
AdirondackMimi, That's great to read. :-)
Do have a look at this ebay listing - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304381605780?hash=item46de8eb794:g:ZggAAOSwujRiIOVng - you will see that the pattern number - 4550 - is clearly marked.
Most patterns were given a number and recorded, but only a few were actually named.
The pattern numbers given in my website are either by reference to the pattern books, some of which I have been able to access, or by recording marked pieces when these come up for sale. The reference numbers etc. given by Replacements.com are their's alone. To be fair to Replacements they have to catalogue a huge range of manufacturer's products and not all pieces are marked.
Lovely to see that you are so enthusiastic about RCD
Hope this helps
rcdcollections, Thanks, I do see it. :-)
Good to know that the 4550 number does indeed come from RCD.