Featured Wedgwood asterisk bottom mark What does it mean?

Sorry, missed the notification! Yes, about 1891 to early 20th is the right range. I can't find the book I want, but I've seen that asterisk style symbol before. Bother.

 

Hi

Did you ever discover the relevance of the Asterix?

 

Never got an answer

 

Ok, thanks for your reply.

 

(oops, deleted)

 

The asterix is found on early majolica decorative works, impressed..along with "WEDGWOOD" impressed with a moveable type stamp...and a single date letter, such as the letter, "O," for 1860, on the non-glazed backs of large, majolica, portrait plaques, representing various characters from famous English novels, such as "Ivanhoe," by Walter Scott, and Dickens. I have two examples of "Ivanhoe" character portraits which are about 13" x 8" in size, made in 1860, with this asterix, or starburst stamp.

Since there is a date letter present (1860) the asterix is not going to be a date indicator, but is most likely an artist mark, or a creating factory mark. 1860 was the first year Wedgwood started using letters to date, and started to make majolica decorative products.

The quality of these majolica portrait plaques are astounding, being they are the very first Wedgwood made.

 

@Ision isnt my piece jasperware and not majolica? Sorry, I am confused now. Ty for helping

 

I was noting the asterix on decorative majolica plaques by Wedgwood, which were made in 1860. Since these Wedgwood plaques are majolica, and YOUR urn is jasperware, I think it is safe to assume the asterix is NOT an artist identifier, but a mark indicating where the piece was manufactured. A factory mark.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

Oh, ok. Makes sense now. Ty somberly much for the help @Ision

 

this is very interesting, what is your source?

 

I own a very large antique ceramic collection, including the Wedgwood majolica bearing the asterix markings I mention.

 

none of the books I have read about wedgwood mentions that wedgwood ever used an asterix. so I was curious about the book in which this information can be found.

 

Since the Wedgwood decoration ceramics I own are all dated 1860, which have this mark on them, and this was the first year Wedgwood started to use Letter date codes, and get into majolica products...and, since I do not discover the asterix on plates...it is certainly a mark indicating which Wedgwood facility created the piece.

Wedgwood marks are difficult things, as the company has been continually making ceramics for over 200 years, and marks can be very transitory and undocumented by the company. Not all the information on Wedgwood marks is entirely correct, or complete. There is often a lag time involved, when marks change from one to another, too.

The three letter date codes, which they started to use in 1860, may not include three letters at all, but just a single letter for the year by itself, until management was able to properly communicate what it wanted to every one in production.

The documentation on antique ceramics is notoriously fallible, and often, outrageously wrong. It is just a matter of ignorance and not deliberate, however.

 

i would love to see yours majolica plates from 1860. could you please post the pictures here?

 

I am still trying to figure out how to post my images here.... Can I use images on my computer, or must I have them first posted to a web page?

 

yes you can use images on your computer to post hier.

 

Here are two Wedgwood majolica sculpted character portraits of "Ivanhoe," and "UrFried" (Ulrica), from the Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe - A Romance" published in 1819. These two portrait tiles are both marked with the ASTERIX impressed stamp, along with the DATE Letter "O" for 1860, and with "WEDGWOOD" with serif font. No other ciphers or marks. Verso without grip pattern and flat.

These plaques, or tiles, are rather large, being 13" x 8" without frames. The frames you see are modern plastic. The verso of the plaques are unglazed, pressed white clay, marked when the clay was still plastic. Single color green majolica glaze, using shadow painting to highlight sculpted portraits.

Plaques are flawless, save for a few specs of kiln dirt to glaze, which is very finely and tightly crazed. The sculpting, for a majolica plaque is exceptional quality and the glaze was expertly fired...without pooling...which meant the plaques had to be precisely placed in the kiln.

Male, "Ivanhoe," plaque was marked by pencil to the verso, below impressed Wedgwood, in cursive hand, "Ivanhoe."

These character portraits are known in this green and in a dark brown glaze. These two colors were the most stable in the kiln, making them the safest glaze colors to use...and the most common colors of early majolica works, especially majolica tiles.

No other internet site lists these tiles as fictional, literary, characters from Scott's novel, nor will any of the other fictional character portraits Wedgwood made. I have found Dicken's character "Scrooge" with the same size and markings, for example. Early 1860 creation, for all such portraits.

 

thanks for sharing. beautiful tiles. interesting that there is no crazing to be seen. I found some similar ones with a different color but they don't show the back.
scroll all the way down
http://etruscanmajolica.blogspot.com/2012/12/majolica-showcase-wedgwood-majolica.html

 

I am familiar with those portraits from your link above. They are characters from "Ivanhoe" and "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens. The top two are from Ivanhoe, and the bottom is a portrait of the spirit of Christmas from Dickens. Note the glaze colors are the early green and brown, which were the safest and most stable.

My two green tiles have an extremely small celled and tight crazing, which may only be seen if one looks carefully from up close. Most all antique majolica tiles will display some crazing, which is a glaze feature created when the tile is made. All glazes were created from various chemical formulations by professional chemists of the Victorian era. Each chemist created their own formulations, or modified formulas they found in texts, or took from other chemists.

If a chemist produced a desirable glaze, whose properties were stable enough, that chemist had a job, as it was the chemist, who owned the glaze formula, NOT the tile maker. So, if a maker liked a particular glaze, they sought out the chemist responsible and tried to hire them in order to obtain the use of this chemist's glaze palette. If the chemist quit, or was fired, he took his glazes with him.

All glazes were trade secrets, as was the manner by which the clays used were mined, refined, and processed...as was the technique used to create a tile.

Some companies became popular simply because of their glaze colors, offering colors other companies could not make. Others became popular because their glazes did not CRAZE, or their tiles did not craze as much, and this resulted in a higher priced tile.

Wedgwood simply had good chemists.

 

Since none of the books I had read mentioned that an asterisk sign had ever been used, I sent an email to the wedgwood museum asking if they were aware of the use of such a signature in conjunction with the wedgwood brandmark.

and luckily I got a response to my email today. Below the reaction I have received.