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S. Fielding & Co. Ltd., Devon Pottery, Stoke-on-Trent. Makers of earthenware. Trade name: "Crown Devon" ware.

Fakes:

Crown Devon / Fieldings are being extensively faked at the time of writing (2007). The fakes carry the correct backstamps. The more expensive pieces are being targetted - such as art deco pieces (especially Dorothy Ann) and novelties. The relatively common fifties pieces below are not faked. For more information, go to the excellent and comprehensive Crown Devon Collectors Website (one of the most comprehensive ceramics sites on the web).

 

Gaiety Grill

One of the best polychrome kitsch food designs from the 1950s. Showing humorous, anthropmorphic vegetables and sausages presparing a barbecue. Presumably influenced by designs by Piero Fornasetti (1955), as was Midwinter's salad ware. Earthenware.

 

Gaiety Grill plate
Value: £10-15

 

Black and yellow striped ware

Please email me if you know anything about this range. I have seen two-handled serving bowls in the same patterns. The the matt black is applied over a yellow glazed body which shows through in the stripes. The effect is of zebra print or melon skin. Earthenware.

 

Fruit bowl
With freeform edge. In mint condition apart from a few long crazing lines scattered on the outside. Value: £5

 

 

Riviera

Little-known but sublime polychrome Mediterranean designs in typical 1950s style. Showing young ladies with trade and tradesmen. A less refined, but more colourful, equivalent of Midwinter's arty Riviera. Value: £3-7 per plate. Earthenware.

 

 

 

Couple on beach

Serving platter: dancer with guitarist

Couple on boat

Girl squeezing fruit at market stall

 

Oceania

A range of Hors-d'œuvre sets, and serving bowls and plates. C. mid-late 1950s. A version with a circular plate is seen with the impressed mark KAREN. Earthenware.

 
Oceania plate
This one carries the Crown Devon backstamp with the word OCEANIA. Value: £5.

 

 Hors-d'œuvre sets
The patterns on the bowls are of a lobster next to a lobster pot (although he is bright red, and therefore pre-cooked!); a sprig of seaweed, and a fish and mollusc shell. The dishes have a decorative imporessed band round the side, and carry a tripod mark underneath. The trays are stamped 1196 and the one below also has the Crown Devon backstamp. Value: £15-20 (complete set).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miscellaneous

 

Abstract pattern dinner plate
Presumably mid-late fifties. Some resemblance to the motifs on Denby's Cloisonné range. Mint condition. Earthenware. Value: £7-15

Click here for larger photo

 Hors-d'œuvre set
Four, segment-shaped dishes with a central circular bowl. Attractive, fifties-style colour transfer prints (undamaged). With the typical mottled matt glaze of Crown Devon, but no backstamp and no under-tray. Painters mark (see detail, right). Value: £5-10.

Freeform flower bowl (c. late 1950s)
with fern decorations and red interior. Earthenware. Similar to Burleigh Ware. Value: £25

Hors-d'œuvre dish (c. late 1950s)
with kitchen and food decorations. Earthenware. Value: £10