Plates

1920? Eight cream-colored plates with colored designs. Each plate reads "Fables de LaFontaine" at its top, with the individual fable title at the bottom. Each back reads "Porcelaine opaque de Gien." €200 from entrepot*d on Ebay, Jan., '21. I was sure that we had some of the plates in this series; it turns out that we have plates from at least four other series, but not from this series. We have a similar but smaller plate for hanging depicting TT. I picked up from the kind seller that the plates have numbers, though I could not find them at first on the plates themselves. We have, from what seems to be a set of 12: #3: "Crow and Eagle" #4: BF #5: "Fox and Goat in a Well" #7: FC #8: FK #9: OF #10: "Rabbits and Frogs" #11: WL Ebay.fr has revealed to me that #6 is CJ. From our other holdings, it seems that TT is #12. The other two (#1 and #2) seem to be FS and BC.

1975? These six smaller plates -- including one double of FC -- with an unusual teal-colored stripe around the rim of each plate are marked by a circular cartoon of a scene, with its title, from La Fontaine's fables. To judge from the accompanying cake plate, the set is missing only a TH plate. With the accompanying cake plate for $199.99 from Gail Ward, Temple City, CA, through eBay, Nov., '05. These five smaller plates include FC, GA, MM, WC, and "The Lion and the Mosquito."

One green plate, with the same dimensions and designs as the pink and blue. Its back reads, as does the pink plate's, "The Spode Archive Collection." $9.99 from KeyStrokes, Lebanon, CT, through Ebay, August, '00.

One pink plate, with the same dimensions and designs but in pink. Its back reads as the others with one change in the first phrase: "The Spode Archive Collection" (emphasis mine). $15 from Walter Fisette at the Craftsmen's Gallery, Manchester, CT, through Ebay, Oct., '99.

Three blue plates, 10½" in diameter, showing "The Lion and the Fox" in two scenes, the first in the foreground with a cringing fox and the second in the background with the fox facing the lion. $9.99 from John Harper, Chesterton, Newcastle, England, through Ebay, August, '99; $22.50 from Paula Brickhouse, East Amherst, NY, through Ebay, Sept., '99; and $19.99 from Darlene Furlong, Menominee, MI, through Ebay, Oct., '99.

1835 Transferware Plate "The Fox and the Grapes." 6¼" diameter. "Aesop's Fables." Copeland and Garrett. $50 from Alphabetiques, Montague, MA, through Ebay, Sept., '19 The artistry of the green illustration occupying the center of this small plate expresses the fable well. The fox is walking away but he is still looking back at the grapes. He has given up on them and, though he is bad-mouthing them, he would still want to have them. The verso includes "Copeland and Garrett Late Spode."

1835 Staffordshire Plate "The Lion, the Bear, & the Fox." 8¼" diameter. "Aesop's Fables." Copeland and Garrett. $50 from Alphabetiques, Montague, MA, through Ebay, Sept., '19. Here is a lovely presentation in green of the fable in which the lion and bear wear each other out in struggling over the carcass of a deer. Exhausted, the two need to lie and watch as a fox carries away the prey that they have fought over. The verso has clear markings of "Spode" and the quoted titles above.

17 further pieces of earthenware from the same set for €129.90 from La Lanterne Rouge through Ebay, March, '25. How nice to find more of the set 25 years later! And now, of course, I wonder how big the complete set might be. A quick Google search came up empty-handed.

1925? Two cream-colored small plates 5" in diameter with 2½" green-and-blue stencilled figures of FS and FC at the center. Around the central picture runs a yellow band. Most likely made by Montereau or Choisy-le-Roi. The theme of this tea-service set for children or "service de poupée" was, no doubt, the fables of La Fontaine. $20.50 from Mary Ellen Kennedy, Larchmont, NY through Ebay, Nov., '99. I was and am sure that there must be a number of such sets around France, and so I was delighted to find these two little dishes on Ebay. Their paint-work is very attractive. Particularly well done is the stance of the fox with one paw on the vase he cannot penetrate for its food, while the stork does so easily. The two-color approach, which works effectively here, means that the cheese in the crow's mouth is green! Both plates seem to have a registry mark of "Z" inprinted in their backs, and FC adds a "P."

Le Renard et la cigogne The joke here is that the fox has a straw ready to work on the vases in which the stork is preparing to serve the meal. This fox has read his fables! Do not miss Mademoiselle Stork's high-heeled shoes. She is, after all, a female in the French language.

Le Loup et l'agneau Like the other plates, this presentation presumes that a viewer knows the standard story. Then the plate can present a surprise. The surprise here is that the lamb is waiting for the wolf with a big club behind his wolly little back.

Le Corbeau et le renard Here the cheese, dropped by the crow, has landed on the fox's head and made a major bump. The fox is still dizzy from the experience. This kind of humor, which I have found frequently on French post cards, I find here for the first time on tableware.