Vintage John Maddock & Sons Minerva Plate – Royal Ivory, Floral & Fruit Bouquets, Greek Key Border, Art Deco Square, England 1930s

A ring of autumn-coloured bouquets — golden flowers, deep crimson fruit, purple blossoms, and sprays of red currants — circles the ivory ground, framed by a narrow band of black-and-gold Greek key that follows every curve of the scalloped edge. The centre is left clean, just warm cream inside a single gilt ring, letting the border do all the talking.

The plate is square with softened corners — each side scalloped into gentle waves rather than meeting at a hard angle. It is the Minerva shape (Regd 737954), an Art Deco silhouette that turns a serving plate into something closer to a tray or a frame. The ivory ground has the warm, faintly yellow tone that gives the Royal Ivory line its name.

John Maddock & Sons Ltd was founded in the 1830s at Burslem, Staffordshire — the oldest of the six pottery towns. John Maddock began with granite ware for the American market before shifting to fine tableware. His sons John Jr. and James took over in the 1870s, and by the early twentieth century the firm was producing its Royal Vitreous and Royal Ivory lines. The company won a gold medal at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The Minerva pattern (No. 4150) belongs to the Royal Ivory range — earthenware with an ivory-tinted glaze — and dates from the late 1920s to 1930s. The factory closed in the mid-1960s.