Della Robbia Pottery

Vase glazed with dark blues and greens, and with a trailing sgraffito ivy decoration.
Fully marked on the base - CZ DR 44, and a sailing boat in the middle (sail is only partially showing above the cream glaze)

Seems to be by Della Robbia or Charles Collis

climberg64 wrote:Della Robia, Liverpool?

Seems to be, but I'm getting confused by references to Charles Collis. Is one the pottery and the other the designer?

Top initials are probably CL with a line at the top and bottom. Unfortunately not one in the list of designers on the Della Robbia page on Wikipedia.

Nicer, now I know what it is. I was a little dismissive of it when I spotted it in the charity shop. If it hadn't had all those marks on the base I probably would have left it. The flash photography brings out the pattern.

I think the number at the bottom of the mark is for the glazes used and the CZ or whatever is the decorator's mark. Charles Collis joined the company in 1895 aged sixteen and work for them as a decorator and modeller intermittently until it closed in 1906. It does appear that his mark was just a C and, as you say, I have not been able to find a decorator whose mark is CZ or CL.

I have never seen any work of the factory except occasionally in specialist auctions and museums. Should be a good profit in the right place, if you want to sell.

Nice find Naomi , Iv'e looked through the book british ceramic art 1870-1940 , it' might be that the marks to the left are of Aphra Peirce a designer , the throwers monogram is usually incised but not always that would appear to be the C? mark , 449 is the pattern number , Iv'e found out that many designers mark are still unidentified .

Cheers for that Ed & SP.   

Not planning to sell it yet - it'll go into the pension fund boxes in the loft.

If you want to keep it fine but I don't think that it is a long term investment. It was almost certainly worth more 20 years ago than it is now.

I agree with SP on that , the more fanciful pieces can fetch into the hundreds of £££'s , but there's not many of them about .

Little Della Robbia vase, 1901

Missed this - They are both great finds N - Did you keep them or were they used for re-investment?

The smaller one was reinvested :)