Product Details

This is what flow means. A lace-like pattern of tiny fleur-de-lis and dots that has bled so deeply into the glaze it reads as a halo of blue around the white well. Pattern name printed right on the base. A flow blue collector's butter pat, full stop. SPECS | Approx. 3 to 3.25 in. diameter (confirm). Heavy flow blue on white earthenware, softly scalloped rim. Pattern: Fleur de Lis. Backstamp: FLEUR DE LIS printed in blue with an impressed 8; no maker mark. Dating: est. c.1880-1900; no country of origin suggests but does not prove pre-1891. HISTORY | Fleur de Lis was produced by several Staffordshire firms in the flow blue era, and without a maker mark this stays attributed to the pattern only. Flow blue came from cobalt oxide transfer prints deliberately flowed with volatilising salts in the kiln so the ink softened and spread; the heavier the flow, the more collectors tend to love it. Butter pats are the entry ticket to flow blue collecting. CONDITION | Brown staining on the front rim