Circle with an arrow throught it? British mark

Hi everyone,

Any thoughts on this makers mark?

Its on a leaf shaped decorative shallow plate



heres the plate, its actually a pale blue, not white:

It looks like the mark of William Gordon, who made slip cast lamp bases, vases and dishes at the Walton Pottery Company, his pottery in Chesterfield. I haven't seen anything in this colour before but it would date from 1946 until the mid 1950s, although the date that he stopped producing such articles is not known with any certainty.

Brilliant thanks for the help - I was really drawinga blank researching this.

Would you have any links o this mark or other images of it referenced to William Gordon? The plates are in a set, they are graded in colour from a pale blue through to an almost black one, each has a slight raised pattern throught the middle as the 'vein' of the leaf.

I have checked and the mark is in British Studio Potters' Marks but the only major reference to him is in "The Work of the Modern Potter in England" by George Wingfield Digby that was published in 1952 by John Murray. There are a number of pieces in the V&A Museum collection that were donated by Gordon and are illustrated in the book by Oliver Watson of the collection, "British Studio Pottery".

Yes I saw those in the V&A website, niece stuff, I liked the birds too. The only image i saw of this mark was an inscribed one, a lot larger, i would like to find a blue stamp one as in the image here.

Thanks for the time you took to look this up, its appreciated, cheers.

I have had pieces with a printed mark on in the past and have never seen an incised mark in the "flesh". The V&A pieces I would imagine would have been one off/trial items that Gordon donated, hence the mark.

Can i then be 'fairly' certain that my blue printed mark is William Gordon's artist mongram you think? I would say the colouring of the set and styling fits other pieces at least, I just have not seen enough examples of the mark itself.

Would you say the incised mark is the exception rather than the rule?

For general information here is another reference i found about him:


St Aidan’s Church, New Parks Boulevard was designed by Basil Spence & Partners and built in 1957-9. In the porch is a large (24 feet by 17 feet) contemporary stoneware mural by William Gordon depicting scenes from the life of St Aidan.[9] This was the first major tile commission obtained by Gordon, who produced studio pottery at the Walton Pottery in Chesterfield throughout the 1950s, when he also experimented with salt-glazed porcelain tiles. Following the closure of the Walton Pottery in 1956, William Gordon concentrated on tile production; amongst other architectural commissions, he designed the Carter & Co abstract tile mural (now lost) installed at Basildon Bus Station in 1958.

There are odd bits like the above on the internet but going back to your plates/dishes I am 95% certain that they are by William Gordon and the printed mark is what I have seen on all items. It is logical that the incised mark would have been on one-off/prototypes and I have never seen anything like the V&A pieces on the market. Although he is described as a studio potter, he was unique for his time in that his work was slip cast and made by a small workforce. These days very few people who have a degree in Ceramics can throw, so slip casting is the norm.