13 Copeland Spode Painted Plates
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GUEST:
Well, I moved to Tucson ten years ago and I sold everything to come. And so I was looking at Goodwill to find a few things for the kitchen, and I walked in the door and there was a display case, and here were these plates. And I asked if I could see them, and she said, "Oh, those are real expensive." And I said, "Well, may I see them?" And so she picked one out. And I turned it over and it had "$20" on it, and I said, "I'll take them all. "I'm an artist, so I really appreciate the fine hand painting." I do believe they're hand painted. The work was just exquisite. And I've heard of Copeland before, and I knew it's fine porcelain.
APPRAISER:
Yes, they are made by Cope Spode, or Copeland's, which is the same company. They were originally known as Spode, and in the 19th century, the name changed several times and became Copeland, and then they changed it to Copeland Spode and by the 20th century, they went back to the name Spode. So it's all the same company.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And you're right. These are completely hand painted. This set has birds on them. What I like best about them, though, are all the insects. There are everything from ants and butterflies to perhaps a housefly, some of them have ladybugs, there's caterpillars... Colorful, exotic birds are always good, but people like bugs, and that helps as well. Now, the other set, they're by the same company, completely different decoration. The best thing about them is each plate has hand-painted scenes of lakes. They're also decorated with these hand-painted roses, which is a motif which Spode used over and over, which they called Billingsley rose, named after a 19th-century artist whose last name was Billingsley, who originated this design of a specific type of rose. Each one of them is marked with the name of the company, in this case "Copeland, Spode, England," and above it, this one says "T. Goode & Co.," which stands for Thomas Goode & Company in London. That was a high-end store which sold very expensive goods. We also have a hand-painted number, which is the pattern number, and this one has a colorless impressed year code. It's right here, it's really hard to see. In fact, it's upside down. But the date code includes the number 92, which stands for 1892.
GUEST:
Ooh.
APPRAISER:
Which is when these plates were made. Now, the marks on the other plates, they're about the same. There is a year code, which is 1917. But the value on these is not the year. The maker is good, but the value is not in the maker. The value is in the very high quality and very decorative decoration. Even though these are different sizes, different years, they are worth about the same. I would say a retail value for these plates would be between $100 and $150 each. And the same would be for these. So the total value of all the plates on the table would be between $1,300 and $1,950.
GUEST:
That was a very good day for me.
APPRAISER:
It surely was. If you had had a set of 12 of either plates, the value would double.
Appraisal Details
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