Vintage Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Sweet Dish – Royal Harvey Gibson Sons, Colour Portrait, Oak Sprigs, Quatrefoil Shape, England 1953

A little quatrefoil sweet dish for the coronation summer of 1953 — and a small detective story on the base. The mark reads Royal Harvey, Staffordshire England: not an independent factory but a trade name of Gibson & Sons of Burslem, who ran the Harvey Pottery as one of their two works and were, above all, one of Britain's great teapot makers. The firm that filled half of England's kitchen shelves with sturdy brown teapots put on its Sunday name for the new Queen's year.

The face of the dish carries no date at all — the heraldry does the talking. The young Queen's profile in colour sits within the blue and gold Garter band, Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense, beneath the Imperial State Crown, flanked by oak sprigs heavy with acorns, over thistle, rose and daffodil and the red ribbon Dieu et Mon Droit. It is the standard emblem of the 1953 coronation season — the same family face as the Shelley, Tuscan and Royal Winton pieces on this shop's 1953 shelf — though where most of those kept to sepia, this one gives the Queen her colours.

Condition is disclosed plainly below: the gilt rim shows real wear, and the price says so. The scalloped four-lobed form still sits prettily on a dresser, holding rings or sweets, its centre bright as 1953.

An honest, budget-friendly first royal commemorative — or the missing colour piece in a coronation collection.