Most Noble Order of the Garter? Cups/Saucers - Swan?

Greetings!
I picked up 12 cup/saucer sets today: six are regular "tea"-sized and six are espresso/demitasse size. Both sizes are shaped identically. Several of the pieces are unmarked, several have the green Royal Falcon mark and only one has the blue Adams mark. A popular pottery mark website indicates Adams didn't come out with "Microtex" until the 1960s... but as I said, only one piece has this mark. Could it have been commissioned as a replacement for a broken piece? Any suggestions on age?
The bigger question, though, is the design. "Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense" is used by the Most Noble Order of the Garter... there IS a garter in the design, surrounding the swan. I can't find anything about this motto in connection to swans. I did think about the annual Swan Upping but couldn't find that any of the three groups associated with that activity use this motto. And what about the hat? Perhaps it's associated with whatever group used this insignia. It looks like a bishop's mitre.
Thanks for any help!

 

In case you need a translation...
"Shame comes to those who think evil", more or less...
Maybe "Evil comes to those who think it" is better...
Those two semesters of French were worth it!
No idea about your other questions...

 

Thanks!
I read that it is often paraphrased as "Evil be to him that evil thinks".

 

Same general idea, yes!
Hey, two semesters... !!! lol

 

The Adams mark is most likely 70s, but possibly 60s.
'MICRATEX' is the name for a extra string ware introduced in 1963
http://www.thepotteries.org/mark/a/adams2.html

 

The Falconware has been around since 1925, but this mark is much newer. The factory closed in 2000.

 

Thank you, dlk777, so these are not very old, then.
I'm still hoping for info on the insignia. I've been googling for several hours, searching swan, mitre, garter, etc. Can't come up with anything that marries the three.

 

The insignia motto is definitely the Order of the Garter. There is a tea and a luncheon associated with it. Maybe these are from that and therefore a special order. Just a thought.

 

The 'hat' is a bishop's mitre.

 

Thanks, I had found that out and edited my initial post.

 

Yes, I agree that these must have been specially ordered... but I've been pouring over the list of members and haven't yet come across someone with this particular design in their coat of arms/crest. When someone is inducted into the Order, they then redesign their crest to include the garter. I have found designs with swans and designs with bishop's mitres (ie: for the prelate), but not a design with both.

Unfortunately, the Order of the Garter doesn't seen to have it's own website, LOL, or I'd just ask them!

 

I've just come across the fact that Scottish clans often use the "strap and buckle" in their crests. Maybe it's a clan crest.
From electricscotland.com:
"The strap-and-buckle is NOT a "Garter", and it should NEVER be shown coloured blue with gold buckle and edgings like the insignium of the Order of the Garter. Crest Badges are for wear by the clansmen, and as they are made of silver or white metal they should never be illustrated on paper or other materials in colour, other than white or silver. Line drawings should be printed in monochrome."
Time to do more research...
Editing to add: Hmm, I can't find any Scottish clan crests that use "Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense". That does seem to point toward the Order of the Garter.

 

The only Order of the Garter with swan I could find is an heraldry is for a George Carey, 2nd Baron of Hunsdon. Don't get excited for the swan is different.
https://armorial.library.utoronto.ca/stamps/CAR003_s2

Here are a couple of pages of the use of a swan device in heraldry. George Carey's is the only using the Order of the Garter with slogan.
https://armorial.library.utoronto.ca/ordinaries/swan

--- Susan

 

I'd be looking at some kind of public body, council or something municipal. That's restaurant type china, not fancy. Might be diocesan, I suppose. The Garter folks would have bone china or porcelain, if anything.

 

I agree with Bear, just a bit surprised that it is proving so difficult to identify.

 

Indeed. My sort of thought is transport related. It's got that look.

 

Yes, it's certainly not fine china or something that would be associated with high-level personages. I'm still thinking it must be church/religious related in someway due to the bishops mitre.

 

Suspect it has a connection to Corpus Christi College - believe the armorial belongs to founder Bishop Richard Foxe (Fox). If you see a swan-like bird associated with Christian symbology, it's more likely a somewhat fanciful pelican, often resembling a swan with the head of an eagle - a vulning pelican feeding her young, or a pelican in her piety, representing Jesus Christ. The clip below is from an 1898 book on the college, noting at the end that Foxe's arms was sometimes used alone for the college:



~Cheryl

 

Thank you, Cheryl!!
I had been investigating the pelican, rather than swan, idea but hadn't gotten anywhere. You've hit the nail on the head. Here's a 19th C etching of Richard Foxe with the various coats of arms he has used, depending on his association. It includes his personal coat of arms, which appears to be what's on my set of cups/saucers. So... the c&s sets were perhaps a purchase by a Corpus Christi member/alumnus, or a descendant of Foxe...?

 

Frankly, as already mentioned, they look like pretty standard mid 20th century restaurant ware to me - have a hard time seeing them as any sort of fancy special commission for an individual...

~Cheryl