BESWICK Potteries (John Beswick Limited) were a fine English designer and manufacturer of quality ceramics and chinaware. Many of their products are now very collectable, including (but not limited to) their ceramic animal models and Beatrix Potter characters.
The works began in the late 1800's and were purchased by Royal Doulton in 1969
This Green printed script "BESWICK WARE Made In England" backstamp was first used in 1936, being replaced by an impressed backstamp with serial number after the mid 1950's
JOHN BESWICK - Novelty Tableware
Made in England
Circa 1940's
Ceramic
Hand painted
DIMENSIONS: 228mm Length x 103mm Wide x 30mm Height (highest point being the "fruit" end of the dish
DESIGN: Duo dishes, the left side featuring fruit and the right, an animal
LEFT: Plums (Purple) with foliage and the large, dominant "bowl" area appears to be a Peach, complete with the stem towards the top (it looks like a mark in the design but is in fact part of the artwork) Some areas of the decoration have a very "air-brushed" appearance - very pale colouring which graduates ever so slowly across the Peach
RIGHT: Lemon background colouring, a cow is the subject, standing on some grass. No pale gentle colouring here! In fact if one looks very closely at the animals body, you can see the brush strokes.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
We had this "handed down" to us and barely used it ourselves, it's a bit "special" and it was not often an occasion warranted it being bought out!
CLEAN
NO cracks
NO chips
NO artwork damaged or degradation
I checked very carefully for crazing, even using the "wet testing" and no crazing was visible at all - says a lot for the quality of craftsmanship used by Beswick
NOTE: If you notice a "darkness" near the animal's tail, it is an optical illusion! A shadow from the Gumtree near our verandah and in reality, there is NO mark there.
To be truthful we never did understand what Beswick's were trying to portray here, a bit confusing with fruit and an animal mixed.
Still, it is visually attractive and unusual and my wife even used this a couple of times for meal "sauces" at the dinner table!
