Minton Landseer Plates, ca. 1870

Appraised on: August 9, 2008

Appraised in: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Appraised by: David Lackey

Category: Pottery & Porcelain

Episode Info: Grand Rapids, Hour 3 (#1315)

Originally Aired: May 4, 2009

IMAGE: 1 of 9  

Appraisal Video: (3:42)

GUEST: My husband bought them in England-- in London, as a matter of fact.

APPRAISER: When was that?

GUEST: 1944.

APPRAISER: Here you brought today the receipt when he bought these plates, and I love to have old documentation on things like that.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And I see here there's a description. It says "6 China plates, Pierced Rim, white & gold turquoise band, Landseer Subjects." And he paid a little over £31. We can see that they're all entirely hand-painted. This is really high quality hand-painted work. Three of them have dogs, which is a very desirable subject.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: And two of them have stags, or bucks, which is also a good subject, and then one here is like a pastoral scene with a wagon and horses.

GUEST: Yes, that's my favorite.

APPRAISER: Let's look at the back here and see what the marks say. They say Thomas Goode & Co., Minton, and then there's the address in London where the Thomas Goode store was located. But as you may know, when these plates were bought by your husband, they were antique at the time, so to speak.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: They were actually made in the 1870s.

GUEST: Oh, my.

APPRAISER: And sold when they were new by Thomas Goode and then they entered the marketplace, were owned by some family, and then Thomas Goode bought them back and resold them again in 1944. Which is really interesting that they owned them twice. Now, one good thing about Minton is there's always an impressed date mark in it, which is a colorless impress mark. And I had a hard time deciphering that mark. It's underneath the purple mark, so I couldn't really read it. But it most likely is from the late 1870s. Also on the bottom is a blue-painted pattern number and then another red mark with the number of the plate. Now, these plates were from a whole series done by Minton, and all these plates were after paintings by Sir Edward Landseer.

GUEST: Oh, that's interesting.

APPRAISER: Landseer died in 1873, and during his lifetime, he was a really famous and prominent British painter of especially dogs and game-type subjects. And they were licensed to copy his paintings on plates. Now, a couple of your paintings are artist-signed. This one here is signed "H-M." And those are the initials of Henry Mitchell, who was an artist who worked for Minton. Now, one of the plates, I understand, got broken.

GUEST: Yes. I put it in a plate hanger, and it was bumped and chipped, and they told me in the States that they didn't have the right gold to repair it, so when we went to England on our 50th wedding anniversary, I took it back to Thomas Goode & Co. and they repaired it.

APPRAISER: And they did an excellent job. The repair is across here on the top,

GUEST: Yes, uh-huh.

APPRAISER: But it's really hard to see, so it's a really well done repair. I understand that you had to pay £120 to have that one repaired, which was a lot more than you paid for the whole set in the first place.

GUEST: Yeah. It was worth it.

APPRAISER: Well, these plates are really desirable in today's marketplace. A retail price is usually between $1,000 and $1,500 each

GUEST: Oh my.

APPRAISER: for the ones in perfect condition, and occasionally in certain circumstances, it might be a bit more.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So you've got five perfect plates. For the set of five in perfect condition, the total would be between $5,000 and $7,500. Plus you have one additional plate that's damaged and restored well, and that plate would probably be about an additional $500.

GUEST: All right.

APPRAISER: So you've got a really valuable set here.

GUEST: Yes, that's wonderful to hear.

APPRAISER: Well, thanks for bringing it in. It's a great set; we loved seeing it today.

GUEST: Thank you.