Helpful Notes About Portmeirion Condition
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GENERAL COMMENTS
Our goal is to make your shopping experience at James_Antique as close as
possible to 'being there'. The most difficult part of this endeavor is
providing a complete description. We are professional sellers of vintage and
retired Portmeirion, handle a great deal of it and know what to look for. Very often, many Portmeirion items have
little factory flaws like little dimples or indentations, tiny specs of dust
in the glaze, small glaze skips, etc. Just about all plates have stilt marks
(little round disturbances in the glaze) on the backside from the
manufacturing process. Then, since most of our Portmeirion is retired and
most likely used, we also try to note any signs of wear and definitely will
detail any damage.
HOW AND WHAT WE LOOK FOR
Each piece is inspected under a 250 watt photoflood bulb and under normal
daylight. Sometimes, especially on older pieces, we will look over it with
a jeweler's loupe and/or soak in water (to detect crazing). But, occasionally
we might miss something substantial or our description might not be as you
imagined. In those rare cases,
WE OFFER A 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE.
SATISFACTION GUARANTEE
We put a great deal of effort into describing each item and since the item
description may not meet your expectation, we offer a 100% Satisfaction
Guarantee. You only have to let us know within 14 days of receipt and we will
refund your money promptly after we receive it. If something was missed in
the description, we will also refund your shipping costs both for sending
and returning.
CONTACT US
We are happy to answer any of your questions. Our contact info is:
You can contact us through either through the Ask Seller A Question at the bottom on one of our eBay
listings. Sometimes, we find that messages through eBay do not go through. If it takes more than
24 hours to hear back from us, you can also contact us by going to our eBay ME page and clicking on that link.
SIZE DESCRIPTION
Sizes are approximate, but accurate to within 1/4". Liquid capacity is
usually present for mugs, cups, casseroles, and other items where appropriate.
TRANSFER DESCRIPTION
The condition of the transfer will always include comments about:
1. Color - If a transfer is faded there usually are other severe condition
problems as well and do not usually offer such items. However, the newer African
Daisy transfer usually has a much brighter orange than older items. We
consistently see very bright orange on newer (Crest ID) plates and a more
muted (but not necessarily faded) color on older plates. The green foliage
usually is about the same green on both older and newer pieces.
2. Cuts - We often get emails from folks who want to know how much they
should have paid for a plate in 'excellent condition', but later found a
nasty cut or two that goes all the way through the transfer. We try to avoid
selling items with a scratched transfer, however, will always describe and
photograph it (if possible). If we offer a piece with a cut transfer, the
price is greatly reduced.
3. Anomalies -
A. Often, there are little areas of a transfer that are skewed. If we described
every little transfer imperfection (and they are very common), we would be writing all
day! But, we always describe a skewed transfer if it is large, on the face
of a plate, or is the center flower on a dish.
B. Some older transfers commonly have little bubbles and duller or matte glaze over that
area. An example are the yellow areas on an oatmeal motif Orchid. These will
be described unless they are very minor.
C. It is not at all unusual for leaves in the green laurel to be a little
uneven. Often, a leaf is closer to the one on its left and further from the
one on its right.
D. Little dimples in the glaze over a transfer are also common. We always
describe them if the dimple is not glazed over.
GROUND COLOR
This section to be completed soon...
GLAZE CONDITION
CRAZING
Generally, the older the Portmeirion piece the more likely it is to have crazing (or little
cracks in the glaze). It is likely caused by temperature changes where the
glaze (basically a coating of glass over the pottery) expands at a different
rate than the underlying pottery.
Crazing can be 'clean' (with no stains
present) or 'dirty' (where stains have started to leach into the glaze cracks). We
almost never offer items with dirty crazing, but at a greatly reduced price
if we do. Some pieces are too rare to throw away. We have not tried it,
but understand dirty crazing or stains can be eliminated by soaking the
piece in 40% hydrogen peroxide (or hair bleach used at the beauty parlor).
DO NOT EVER USE HOUSEHOLD BLEACH ON YOUR POTTERY!
It gets under the
glaze, never goes away, and will eventually eat away at and ruin the plate.
We find crazing by looking both under a 250w photoflood light and by looking
in normal daylight. Very often, we do not notice it under normal lighting
conditions, but will be seen in the brighter light. If a piece has an older
1st Trophy ID and does not appear to have crazing, we also soak it in water
for a few minutes to be sure.
By pattern, we find:
Botanic Garden
1st Trophy ID - Very common and almost impossible to find a plate without it.
2nd Trophy ID - Much better chance of finding pieces without it, but would
say at least 50% of items have it.
Crest ID - Almost no pieces have crazing. Out of many hundreds, We have seen a
Christmas Rose pitcher, well used Mexican Lily plate, well used Woody
Nightshade plate, and handles on a large Dog Rose casserole.
Newest 1st Quality green Portmeirion Oval ID - Never have seen crazing.
Pomona
Brown Goddess Of Fruit ID - Often seen especially on 'well loved' plates.
Usually Pomona crazed items do show other signs of use.
Pink or Peach Goddess Of Fruit ID - Have seen a few pieces with crazing, but
is fairly rare.
Newest 1st Quality green Portmeirion Oval ID - Never have seen crazing.
Birds Of Britain
1794 Donovan Backstamp - Crazing is common on the older 'green band' items,
especially dinner, salad, and B & B plates. There is still some chance of finding
crazing on the newer items with an acorn decoration.
Newest 1st Quality green Portmeirion Oval ID - Never have seen crazing.
Other Patterns
Generally, the newer the pattern the less chance there is of seeing crazing.
We have never seen crazing on Welsh Dresser, Harvest Blue, Welsh Wild Flowers,
Studio Hand-Painted, etc.
The important question about crazing is whether or not it is safe to use for food
service. Below are a few other (somewhat technical) articles about crazing
and address food usage.
Personally, we use our older pieces with crazing quite often for dry foods like
sandwiches, chips and cookies. We do not put wet or very moist foods like
uncooked chicken or milk on them. We wash them by hand in warm water (not very hot
for fear of making the crazing worse) and do not let them sit in the
dishwater very long. And, we are still alive!
We found the articles below on the internet and seem to be written by glaze
experts. One article mentions using lemon juice or bleach to sanitize
dishes. DO NOT USE BLEACH!
http://fantes.com/ceramics.htm
OTHER GLAZE CONDITIONS
Stilt Marks - Especially on the back of plates (but some other
pieces as well) there usually are three or so little round disruptions in the
glaze. These are Stilt Marks and were formed when the plate was made. They
are completely normal on pottery, nothing to worry about, and on just about all dinner, salad,
and B & B plates have them. We only mention them in the auction description
if they are very large or discolored.
Pin Holes - Unfortunately, these little holes in the glaze are
very tiny and cannot be seen until they start to stain. The stains are
usually circular and brown or orange-brown. When stains appear, then you can
see the tiny hole at the center. I do not know if they are there from the day
of manufacture or are caused later.
The most common place we see pin holes are on
the inside bottom edge of cups and mugs, so we soak all cups and mugs in
water to see if any little grey spots show up. We know then that pin holes
in the glaze are present. We generally don't offer those for sale.
ABOUT STAINS
To be added soon...
ABOUT CHIPS / CRACKS
To be added soon...
MARKS FROM USE
To be added soon...
NON-POTTERY ITEMS
To be added soon...
TEXTILES
ENAMEL COOKWARE
ENAMEL TRINKET BOXES
MELAMINE TRAYS
PLACEMATS & COASTERS
We specialize in rare, retired and discontinued Portmeirion China. Our
offerings include a nice selection of Botanic Garden, Pomona,
Birds of Britain, Cardew Teapots, and vintage 1960-1970's Portmeirion.
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