The Registered Designs of Belleek Pottery

1868-1884

By Brian Russell

Published by The UK Belleek Collectors Group

Chris Marvell

First published: May 2003, updated September 2006

Introductory Text

Table of Belleek Registered Designs

Closing Comments

How to decode Registration Diamonds

Examples of decoding Belleek Registration Diamonds

Go to Belleek UK Collectors' Group Home Page on the Internet

The Belleek Registration of Design from 1868-84

       Brian Russell,

         presenting this information to the UK Group,

         Cornwall, April 2003.

Belleek commenced to register their designs as a means of protection against copying by their competitors in 1868.  The designs and the process they used made their products unique so this was a good way of gaining this protection.  When Wm. Bromley began at the Pottery in 1863 along with 17 other skilled Potters, production started to change from being earthenware based to the beginning of high quality parian ware.  In spite of this, earthenware remained the mainstay of the factory and it appears that Belleek did not use the design registration process to protect this production until much later (1877).

Letterhead of the Belleek Pottery, circa 1879.

What started me looking into the Belleek designs, was one day looking at a book on antiques marks called “A handbook of Pottery & Porcelain Marks”.  Seeing all those registration numbers that companies, including Belleek, had obtained, started me thinking: what do these numbers mean? ... also, which pieces do the numbers represent?

So I started my research: first looking at my local library - no good, so I kept on: my next port of call was to telephone the British Library, and they suggested I try elsewhere... the Public Records Office at Kew in London.  So off I went, with Patricia in tow, to Kew... and there, for all to see, was what I was looking for: the original Belleek drawings sent in to be registered by the Pottery all those years ago.

To actually see these drawings, you must first book yourself in and become a "Reader"; then going to the second floor, you obtain a pager, this is so that when you have ordered, they can bleep you to collect your items.  So how to order your books?  You log yourself onto a computer with your ticket and then you order from the archives the book you require... but which book?  By knowing the registration number of the piece, you can look into the "Representations", these are under "BT", which stands for Board of Trade.  If we take (for example) the first item that the Pottery registered (No.221217/9), we know that it is in the pottery class  (class 4), so we can then look under the appropriate section, which happens to be section BT43/64-74. The Belleek registrations are spread through the eleven books, book 64 to 74,  amongst submissions by all the other manufacturers,  each book contains a very long series of the numbers.

Taking the first Belleek registration number(s), No.221217/9,  registered on 5^th Sept 1868, as our starting point, we ordered our first book, BT43/68, and there, for all to see, were the original drawings that the pottery had sent to the Board of Trade all those years ago.  The three items were, No 221217 (Plate), 221218 (A Vase) and 221219 (A Vase), today we call these three items, Echinus Plate, Echinus Footed Bowl, and the Prince of Wales Ice Pail.  In that year, 1868, Belleek registered only one other item.

The next items we found were the drawings sent by Robert W. Armstrong his designs for the Echinus Dejeuner set registered on 20^th Feb 1869 under No 227409.  The drawings carry his signature.  You can see from the drawings that Armstrong had been trained in Technical drawing.  The quality of the draughtsmanship is shown in his skill in presenting the drawings to the Board of Trade.

We must look deeper into what the Pottery was doing during this period and how they used the registration process.  We know the pottery was founded in 1857 and following this, the production was solely in earthenware, furthermore no items were registered until 1868 (registration was available to be used from 1842).  Why did they not use this method to protect the earthenware?  If we now think of the arrival of the potters from Goss Pottery, Stoke on Trent in 1863 and the skills in the use of Parian that they brought with them, we may now suppose that only then the Belleek Company (Armstrong himself?) felt it needed protection from copying.  Nothing was actually registered until 1868: the reasons for this are not clear and need more investigation.

It is now worth mentioning some of the people involved: if we look at the arrival of the 17 skilled potters in Belleek in 1863 (From Goss in Stoke on Trent) and the first Belleek design registration in 1868.  The five years in between could have been the time needed to train local craftspeople in the process of making Parian.  We know that William Bromley had the knowledge of how to make Parian from his time at Goss, and he remained until production was well underway at Belleek in 1868.  Mr. Ferran a Parian caster, also from Goss trained the first Belleek apprentice.  William Gallimore was the designer of many pieces.  Armstrong himself is stated as the designer of many registered pieces, by his signature on the submitted drawings (such as the Echinus dejeuner tray).  Other known Belleek designers such as Henshall (for Baskets & Flower making) are not formally credited, as these designs were never registered.  The legacy of these people is what makes Belleek today one of the finest producers of fine parian ware in the world.

 The registration process itself came from a number of Acts of Parliament that cover registration.  There are actually three Acts that cover design. The first is the act of 1839, the "Design Copy Act", this act protected designs for three years, next came the "Ornamental Design Act" in 1842, and lastly the  "Non Ornamental (useful) Design Act" of 1843.  These acts were brought in by the Government of the day largely to protect the Lancashire weaving industry but they were extended to cover other designs.  There are, in total, thirteen classes, starting with class one (Metal) and going up to class thirteen (Lace). The part of the act we are concerned with is class four, which became active on 22nd October 1842 and finished on 29th December 1883.  The numbers start from 1694 and continue up to 408849, these being the actual design registration numbers, allocated sequentially.  The actual drawings, photographs and descriptions sent to the Board of Trade are filed under these numbers.

- Patricia and Brian Russell

Table of the Designs registered by Belleek Pottery 1868-1884

in the following list, to obtain a detailed image of the actual registration document, just click on the thumbnail image

Reg. No.	Year	Day	Month	Description when Registered	Description Today	Parcel No.	Notes
221217	1868	5th	September	A. Plate	Echinus Plate	6	Original date 1st sept, no. 2 scratched out above no. 221218 drawings
221218	1868	5th	September	A.Vase	Echinus Footed Bowl	6
221219	1868	5th	September	A.Vase	Prince of Wales Ice Pail	6
223309	1868	22nd	October	Tea-Breakfast service	Artichoke Dejeuner set etc.	1
227409	1869	22nd	February	Tea- Breakfast service	Echinus Dejeuner  set	1
229837	1869	3rd	June	Design for dejeuner tray	Echinus  Tray	6	Dates on drawings 29th May 1869
234465	1869	14th	October	Spill pot	Cleary Spill Pot	3
235168	1869	27th	October	Egg Holder	Egg Holder - "Egg floating on waves"	5
235827	1869	8th	November	Design for Flower Vase	Marine Vase	1	Original date may be 6th
235828	1869	8th	November	Design for Water lily Vase	Water lily Vase	1	Original date 5th
235829	1869	8th	November	Design for Flying Fish Vase	Flying Fish Vase	1
236184	1869	13th	November	Design for Trinket Box	Jack-at-sea	5	Original date 10th
236185	1869	13th	November	Design for  Trinket Box	Jack-on-shore	5
236585	1869	23rd	November	Stilton cheese stand	Papal Tiara cheese stand	5	Original date 18th
237230	1869	18th	December	Design for Table jug	Harp Jug	3	Original date 16th
239610	1870	17th	March	Winged Fish & Water		4
239611	1870	17th	March	Dolphin Shell	Dolphin on harp shell on waves	4
241264	1870	6th	May	Ribbon Pattern	Same	5
The original filing for this design was undergoing conservation by the National Archives at the time we attempted to obtain it.  The drawing and details will be added at a later date.
241265	1870	6th	May	Harts Tongue Fern	Harts Tongue Flower pot	5
247248	1870	12th	November	Marine Subject	Institute Tea Ware	3
249388	1871	9th	January	The Tridacna Species	Tridacna Tea Set	4
249389	1871	9th	January	Flat Ware	Institute Plate	4
249390	1871	9th	January	Not Named	Institute Dish	4
249391	1871	9th	January	Not Named	Institute Covered Sugar	4
249392	1971	9th	January	Not Named	Institute Bowl	4
249393	1871	9th	January	Not Named	Institute Butter Tub and underplate	4
249479	1871	12th	January	A Jug	Mask Jug with Leaf Handle	7
250168	1871	6th	February	Not Named	Honey Pot Stand & Cover	5
250169	1871	6th	February	Not Named	Seaweed & Shell design for plate (Institute Pattern)	5
250170	1871	6th	February	Not Named	Institute Pattern Covered Dish	5
250171	1871	6th	February	Not Named	Institute Pattern large oval Covered Dish	5
251453	1871	4th	April	Not Named	Shells/Seaweed design for plate borders	4
252709	1871	22nd	May	Not Named	Flower Troughs of scallop shells and coral	9
256598	1871	11th	October	Not Named	Celery vase	4
256689	1871	14th	October	Not Named	Boy and Swan Comport	8
258816	1871	16th	December	Not Named	Table Fountain	7
259264	1872	5th	January	Not Named	Minstrel comport	3
260503	1872	16th	February	Not Named	Chinese Tea Urn (not on stand)	6
261016	1872	9th	March	Not Named	Chinese Tea Urn on stand	1
265666	1872	2nd	September	Ornamentation based on "The Onion"	Onion spill vase	3
274704	1873	28th	July	Not Named	Light house night light	3
280853	1874	2nd	March	Not Named	The egg cup holder or "Egg Frame" with egg cups - see note below.	1	Previously wrongly described as "Grass Tea Ware"
307525	1877	5th	February	Not Named	Design for ornamentation	2
307526	1877	5th	February	Not Named	Design for a jug and bowl	2	Previously wrongly described as "Thorn pattern earthenware jug and bowl" (note that the original is on old tracing paper and is in poor condition)
307527	1877	5th	February	Not Named	Another design for a Basin & Ewer	2	(note that the original is on old tracing paper and is in poor condition)
312421	1877	31st	July	Not Named	Design of spray Hawthorne & Bird.	1
320373	1878	13th	April	Not Named	Freemason's Plate	9	Three images supplied to show detail and minimize reflections from shiny tracing paper used.
320793	1878	27th	April	Not Named	Thorn Tea set	12
322477	1878	13th	June	Not Named	Thorn Tray	3
332296	1879	17th	February	Not Named	Amphora Oil Lamp Base (Oil container)	6
335744	1879	30th	May	Not Named	Wash Basin	3
338559	1879	22nd	August	Not Named	Border Pattern	4
366634	1881	2nd	July	Not Named	Lace pattern plate	1
367516	1881	28th	July	Not Named	Shell & coral border	3	Last application made by the Pottery for a "Diamond Mark"

Some of the items, as found in the Registration Books, have some element of doubt or uncertainty associated with them.

This teapot, Registered as No. 322476, is apparently accompanied by the usual "McBirney and Co...." text but it does not appear to be typical of any known Belleek production.  It is possible that the text actually referred to the next design in the book, Regd. No. 322477, the Thorn Tray.

This is a well-known Belleek piece, the Egg Cup Holder (or Egg Cup Frame) with six Egg Cups.  This item should not be confused with the "Egg Holder", Registration No. 235168, 18th October 1869.  The Egg Cup Holder is clearly marked with the number 280853 which was previously (wrongly) listed as the "Grass Tea Set".  It appears that this was a mistake in the listing:  Reg. 280835 is the Egg Frame, not the Grass Tea Set.

This item, described as a "Table Fountain" (Regd. No. 258816) is a spectacular but so far unrecorded item of Belleek.  It may never have been put into production.  On the registration submission, the drawing is a sketch only.

REGISTERED MARKS - from 1842 to 1883

For example, this large size Belleek Chinese teapot has the following registration:

IV     Class 4 for Ceramics

16     day of month

I       year = 1872

G       month = February

6       parcel number

If you look this up in the table given in this article, it is registration number 260503 – A “Chinese Tea Urn – Not on Stand” which is confusing as this is clearly a single-spouted teapot!  It appears that Belleek lumped a whole lot of Chinese ware together under this registration number.

This example of a large earthenware ewer is even clearer:

IV         Class 4 for Ceramics

5          day of month 

P          year = 1877

G          month = February

2          parcel number

This is listed as number 307526 – a “Basin and Jug” – this is obviously just the Jug!  There also exists a potty in this design, which was not included in their original description but has the same registration diamond. Please note that the number 295 under the printed first period mark has nothing to do with the design registration, this number signifies the type of decoration used on the piece (pale blue and gilt): for more information on these numbers, refer to Bev Marvell's article on Belleek painted numbers.

The text written here “Robt. W Armstrong invenit  - Rose Isle – Belleek – Octr. 1868” sums up the historical significance of this registration information – here we have, in Armstrong’s own hand, his claim to this design – and his address!

Brian Russell has also done extensive research on Robert Williams Armstrong's family tree, including finding some living descendents of the Great Man.  For this research, please go to Brian Russell's Armstrong Family Tree Research.

At the end of the presentation, here we have Jan making a presentation of his own to Brian – the talk was extremely well received.

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