Plate Made by A. W. Buchan & Co. in the "Iona" Pattern

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

52422

Title

Small plate made by A. W. Buchan & Co. in the "Iona" pattern

Description

One plate or side plate. Iona pattern, comprising dark blue leaf scroll motifs. Made from buff stoneware. Circular base with slightly everted sides. Handpainted swirl design on surface in dark blue and green also single band of dark blue around rim. White background. Brown rubber stamp on base "289/8" and "IONA" and "M1-288" also "OVENPROOF" together with handpainted brown "JF" monogram.

Type

Ceramic

Accession number

HH4030/95/79

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

The Buchan company had a range of set designs with evocative names such as "Brittany", "Iona", "Bluebell", and perhaps their most famous, the "Thistle" pattern. Each painter decorator had their own mark which they painted by hand on the base of each piece they painted.

The Iona pattern (non 228) was the last named design from the Buchan's Pottery at Portobello. The alpine pattern (no 227) was designed in 1967, which suggests that Iona was designer between 1968 and 1972, with 1968 being its most likely date. In this particular example, the decorator has used too much glaze and it has pooled a little on the large swirling leaf motif. Once fired, this pooling has created a shiny rough section. It was difficult to use the right amount of glaze to avoid this happening, making the apparently simple Iona pattern one of the hardest to get right.

This plate is marked 'OVENPROOF' - a term which was introduced in about 1960 to replace the term stoneware on some of the Buchan's products. The ovenware was not a new material, but was a marketing term for their existing stoneware. The ovenware with its decorative patterns were designed to be used from oven to table - dishes in which you could cook food as well as serving it, such as casserole dishes, pie and vegetable dishes and skillets. These ranges would also include other associated items in the same pattern, such as jugs, cups, mugs salt and pepper shakers, A catalogue was produced in about 1960 to help publicise their ovenware ranges which included Brittany as a new pattern, along with existing patterns Edinburgh, Tuscany (also recently introduced) and the popular Thistle pattern.

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Plate made by A. W. Buchan & Co. in the "Iona" pattern