Mayer & Elliot - Dish (6) - Ironstone - 1858/1860 United Kingdom

6-piece set of plates in ceramic/ironstone – Mayer & Elliot, Longport, England, 1858-1860 circa

Splendid set of six plates (deep/soup plates, diameter 27 cm) in English ironstone-type ceramic, produced by the Mayer & Elliott manufactory of Longport, Burslem (Staffordshire), active under this corporate name only from 1858 to 1860 — a very short period that makes it possible to identify the production period with precision.

Decoration printed and hand-coloured in shades of pink, brick red, grey and black on a cream-white background, with a stylized palm frond/foliage in a neoclassical "Etruscan" style along the rim and a perimeter edge with wolf-tooth teeth. At the center, a circular medallion with a stylized six-petaled floral motif. Finishing with a silvered rim. Surface with fine crazing (crazing) fully coherent with the piece’s age.
Provenance: wedding gift of 1976, kept since then in a private collection.
Conditions: good overall condition, widespread crazing typical of the era,

The marks on the bottom
Impressed mark "MAYER & ELLIOT" — impressed in the body (not enamel-stamped), typical factory mark used by the manufactory between 1858 and 1860. It is the element that allows certain attribution.
Two small factory-impressed marks that are difficult to read.
Number "3696" handwritten in red is a typical pattern/reference number of the decorator, handwritten by the painter or the decoration department to identify the motif or the production lot. common on mid-19th century English hand-decorated ceramics.