Vintage Royal Winton Canada Coat of Arms Plate – Grimwades Cream Ground, Gold Trim, Patriotic Canadiana Souvenir, England 1940s–1950s

A Royal Winton square plate carrying the full armorial bearings of Canada in colour — lion and unicorn supporting the quartered shield of England, Scotland, Ireland and France above a sprig of maple leaves, with the CANADA banner below and roses, thistles, shamrocks and fleurs-de-lis entwined at the base. Cream ground, rounded-corner square form, gilt edge and double gold ring.

The dating sits in plain sight, on top of the arms: the crown is the domed Tudor "King's Crown", which Canada's official arms carried only until the 1957 revision replaced it with St Edward's Crown. That, together with the gold script Royal Winton Grimwades Made in England backstamp, places the plate in the 1940s to mid-1950s.

Grimwades of Stoke-on-Trent is best known as the chintz king of the 1930s–50s — a firm whose "Royal" prefix dates to a 1913 factory visit when Queen Mary bought a Winton tea set (by most accounts, formal permission for the title was never actually granted, which has become part of the brand's charm). Beyond chintz, the firm ran a steady sideline in export souvenir ware — and here is the pleasant irony of that trade: the patriotic Canadian souvenirs sold in Canadian gift shops were, for the most part, made in Staffordshire. This one crossed the Atlantic once to be sold, and now ships again — from an antique shop in Canada's capital.

For the Canadiana collector, the heraldry-minded (that pre-1957 crown is the tell), a Canada Day table, or a thoughtful gift for a new citizen.