The design was
a result of years of work by Harold Holdcroft who said; We decided
to incorporate all the ingredients we knew would be acceptable, richness
of colour, softness of colour, good quality and a good value look.
All these qualities are incorporated in the pattern. It has lush deep
red roses, warmth from the tea roses, delicacy from the bluish pink
and an overall softening off of the pattern by using a shade of soft
warm green. The rich gold stipple trim gives the sprays continuity
and the china good value for money.
Enhanced by the
elegant traditional Royal Albert Montrose shape and the attractive
scalloped edges finished in 22k gold, from the twist and curl of the
teacup handles to the fluted trim on the teapot lid....the attention
to detail has contributed to a superb original design.
BACKSTAMPS
Where size allowed,
all English produced backstamps consisted of :
Floral Spray....
3 roses - red, yellow and pink against a green leaf background
Pattern Name....
Old Country Roses in red
Trade Name.....
ROYAL ALBERT or ROYAL ALBERT (r)
Type of China...
BONE CHINA
Country of Manufacture...
ENGLAND or MADE IN ENGLAND
Copyright... (c)
ROYAL ALBERT LTD 1962 or (c) 1962 ROYAL ALBERT LTD
as shown below
Please
note the difference between these two 1973-1993 English produced backstamps
is in the Copyright wording... the last line of the backstamp starts
(c) ROYAL or (c) 1962
It
is not known at this stage which came first, however because both
use the name ROYAL ALBERT without the (r) registration mark, we can
safely assume it was after 1973 and before 1993 which was the year
ROYAL ALBERT was registered as a trade mark.
The
company of TC Wild & Sons Ltd was renamed Royal Albert Ltd
in 1970, but ownership did not change until July 1972. It could
be possible that the (c) ROYAL was used in that time and the
(c) 1962 was used by the new owners Royal Doulton from July 1972
onwards.
More
research in the near future will confirm this.
For the 1993-2002
backstamp, the major difference from other English backstamps is the
(R) trade mark registration character located after ROYAL ALBERT.
The trade mark
ROYAL ALBERT was registered in 1993, which was also the year that
Royal Doulton demerged from the Pearson Group and listed publicly
in their own right on the London Stock Exchange.
This period of
some ten years represents the last of the English produced china
in the district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire England.
FACTORY SECONDS
Whenever a product
was too good to discard but not good enough to meet the factory's
first quality standard, the backstamp was scratched or marked and
then either given to staff or sold in staff or retail stores at a
discounted price, usually 50% or even more. Common flaws of seconds
were; mis-alignment of graphic transfer, size variation, glazing or
gilding flaw, colour variation etc.
Do not believe
a claim that a second quality is as good as a first quality, the seller
is just admitting that they cannot see the flaw. The item became a
second for a specific reason.
Don't be afraid
to ask questions such as...
Can you explain
in more detail why you have described this item as mint condition
and what is your return policy if we do not agree with your claim?
Is this an actual
photo of the item and it's backstamp?
This second has been scratched on the red rose to indicate it
is a second |
A factory second is exactly that...
It is an item that
was rejected by the factory's quality control staff as unsuitable
for first quality specification and sale.
It could have been
a glazing flaw, mis-alignment of one of the graphic transfers, a colour
variation, a firing or gilding flaw, variation in size...the list
could go on.
Just remember,
no matter what anyone claims, the second was rejected for a specific
reason, if the seller can't tell you what it is, it just means that
they can't find it....not that it's not there....
ASIAN OCR:
Production in Asia started as early
as 1998 and by December 20, 2002. most of Royal Albert's production
including Old Country Roses, was transferred to Indonesia, and some
to China. Indonesian backstamps are mainly detectable by the abscence
of the word ENGLAND. Apart from that, they look the same as the English
one to the untrained or unwary eye.
This is Indonesian
|
This is Chinese |
As you will see, most of the Asian backstamps look very similar
to the English backstamps and so to the unwary eye, it is easy to make
a mistake.
Most important of all is that whenever
you do not see the word ENGLAND on a backstamp, you can be sure it
is Asian and most likely INDONESIAN.
The four most common
mistakes people make when buying Old Country Roses;
Buying Indonesian
or Chinese OCR and thinking it is English
Buying 1962 backstamps
in the belief that it is the year of manufacture
Buying factory
seconds thinking they are first quality
Not checking descriptions
for accurate condition of product
SUMMARY
If you want to
get what you paid for, look closely at the photos, the backstamp and
the item description. From that and the above information, you will
be able to determine where and approximately when it was manufactured,
if it is first or second quality and the actual condition of the item.
~ Guide created:
21/01/06 by Written by Ian McCallum
