#11 - Don’t Believe Everything You Read on that Plate

It's a painful thing to have to admit, because we all love our dishes and want to be able to trust them. However, the plain truth is that for almost two centuries, some of them have been deceiving their owners. We read the pattern marks and naturally take it for granted that what is printed there is accurate, but alas, that's not always the case. Perhaps some would think this is not an issue of the greatest importance, for just as a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, so a mismarked pattern is just as pleasing to the eye. Still, lest we forget that Staffordshire potters were not always above a bit of gentle skullduggery, here we look at some examples from the database that are in fact "ringers" inserted into series of views bearing a place name. When marked, it is with the series name, but they aren't identified individually.