Featured I've got this far with the reseach but....

Today being a bank holiday in France there were naturally street markets of junk and of course it was cold. But my eye was caught by this rather lovely milk jug and sugar bowl:



The mark on the bottom was small and I couldn't see it, and I didn't want to bring out a loop in front of the stallholder. Getting home...





I found 'Copeland China' and the hand-written numbers 2880, not sure what the mark above the 2 implies. The problem is that I can't find any Copeland marks using an 's on the end of the Company name. So first I confirmed that the items were legitimate.





and they were. Presumably my blue one was some years older, except I still hadn't found the 's.







There it is, number 29, from William Chaffers 'Marks ad Monogram on Pottery & Porcelain. But no 's. Chaffer also says that Marks 17 to 30 have [all] been used since 1847, and that Mark 29 with the ENGLAND added since c.1891.

Thepoteries.org says that "From c.1867 onwards "& SONS" was added to the mark. Prior to this date just the name "COPELAND" was used".

So the blue set could be from before 1867. But still no 's.

I assume that the the Mark has been applied from a stamp and is not hand written. How do I treat it; as a fake or that the mark is missing from the records. DOES ANYBODY HAVE IDEAS OF WHERE THE 'S HAS COME FROM?

 

Your mark, Copeland's China, is shown in the book 'Spode-Copeland-Spode, The Works and Its People, 1770-1970' by Vega Wilkinson, page 281, as being used from 1862-1891.

 

Also, here's a page from Table Talk, 1893, vol 8, pg 152. It states, in the upper left corner, "Third Period, 1867-present. Yada, yada. An occasional mark is simply 'Copeland's China'. These marks are in green."

 

@JB Miller Thank you so much for those references. It's good to have it confirmed as a genuine Copeland.

On first look I thought the name was in blue; but now I see it could be green, it certainly is a different blue to the blue used on the decoration.

I managed to date it back to 1867; but even on that the specialists can't agree, one says 1862, the other 1867.

 

Pretty pieces! I love this style.

You have a very specific date range there, as long as you know within a decade or so, it doesn't matter for most purposes, nor get much more accurate in my experience. If you don't have a registration mark on the pieces, or a maker that habitually uses thier own date mark, not much to be done.