Crowther Plate

An extremely rare and important example of documentary porcelain from the Bow Porcelain Factory.

Painted in blue under-glaze with the monogram RC in a floral cartouche.

The underside in blue underglaze with the inscription ‘MR. ROBERT CROWTHER, STOCKPORT CHESHIRE, January 1770’. Grey-white body with blued glaze. No discernible translucency.

Prov: Taylor Collection; Winnifred Williams.

Robert Crowther, a Stockport silk merchant was probably a relative of John Crowther, partner in the Bow undertaking.

Other examples, presumably from the same set: British Museum (Gift Henry Willett, 1886 [I.36]), (i) with inscription (illustrated, Bow Special Exhibition, 1959, Cat. #139, Figs 53 and 54) and (ii) without inscription; (iii) V&A, with inscription, (Wallace Elliot Bequest C.59-1938, illustrated Young, 1999, Plate 4) and (iv) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, with inscription (Accession #EC.8-1946, gift Nicholas Radford, 1946).