Two Georgian Staffordshire Blue and White Pearlware Buffalo Pattern Scalloped-edged Plates, c. 1790

Two blue and white plates featuring a boy on a buffalo with a pavilion and an island with a clump of banyan trees. The nankin or inner border below the shoulder of the plate is of a honeycomb type. The border is brocade with rosettes of four rows of petals. Unmarked except for a workman’s mark (a blue dot inside a circle).

The plates have some scratches commensurate with age and fritting around the edges. Three stilt marks can be seen on the underside.

The Buffalo pattern was one of the earliest to be transfer-printed on earthenware and copies Chinese porcelain designs. It was produced by several manufacturers, but it is unusual to find pieces marked with a manufacturer’s name, so attribution remains difficult. At the Spode factory twenty four copper engravings of this pattern are known. Other potters who used the pattern in the 1780s and 1790s include Thomas Wolfe, Joshua Heath and Leeds.