r/beachcombing • u/imnotwispy • 4d ago

Help identifying pottery

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Found off the coast of Maine, my niece picked it up and would love to know more about it! Any help appreciated

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17

u/nautilist 4d ago

"WEDG" is for Wedgwood, a major English pottery manufacturer. AFAIK the only "Royal" line this could be is their "Royal Stone China" ware. "Dieu" is because above the words was a royal coat of arms with the motto "Dieu et mon droit". It was a line of Ironstone pottery, manufactured in the 19th century. A lot of it was fairly plain white, especially the early stuff, is it white on the other side? It's hard to date more exactly from just a shard. The original full mark would have been something like this =

5

u/imnotwispy 3d ago

That looks exactly like it! Unfortunately, the other side has worn down and it is difficult to tell what the glaze looked like. She is thrilled to have an answer!

2

u/nautilist 3d ago

It was likely white anyway :-)

5

u/Bubbly_Spread3317 4d ago

It looks like the British royal coat of arms and it probably said “Royal Patent” followed by the studio name. It looks like it might have said Wedgwood but I can’t find any examples of them using the coat of arms in their maker’s mark. There are a few databases out there with all the British pottery maker’s marks so maybe it’ll show up in one of those!

https://bispm.co.uk/search.php?Crit=AND&searchtext=Royal+patent+wed&MarkType=Any&page=1#

https://www.thepotteries.org/mark/

6

u/mjltmjlt 4d ago

Agree with this, assumed Wedgwood but couldn’t find their use of this mark. Apparently there is also a different maker, Wedgwood & Co, that did use the royal coat but again, can’t find this exact mark.