It was Felix Edward Pratt (1813-94) who spotted the commercial
possibilities of using new printing technology to decorate the lids
of containers for popular products such as bear's grease,
gentleman's relish, potted shrimps and cosmetics, with
sophisticated designs.
After 1840 his firm, F. & R. Pratt of Fenton in
Staffordshire, became the leading (but not the only) manufacturer
of multicoloured transfer printed pot lids and a huge range of
related wares.
Long admired for their technical excellence, for their sheer
variety and as a social and historical record of their era, pot
lids have a venerable collecting history and rank among the most
desirable everyday items from the Victorian period.
The process of transfer printing on pottery, which had its
origins in the 1750s, was taken to its zenith in the mid
19th century. By 1848 a process of colour printing on
paper patented by George Baxter in 1835 had been adapted for use in
the ceramics industry - employing four different plates (blue, red,
yellow and the black outline or key plate) to create polychrome
decoration previously only attainable by hand decorating.
The genius of Felix Edward Pratt was to apply the technology to
pot lids. He employed Jesse Austin (1806-79), a gifted artist and
engraver who joined Pratt in about 1843, to produce hundreds of
designs over a 40-year period.
It was not just the Pratt factory that produced these
transfer-printed wares. While less prolific, T. J. & J. Mayer
produced items of an equally high standard and, like Pratt,
exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851. As a general rule, few
lids are marked by the potter. Together more than 550 different
designs and variations have been recorded and serious collectors
aim to own a good example of each one.
The subjects printed on many lids gave a clue to their contents
(Pegwell Bay for potted shrimps, floral subjects for ladies'
cosmetics, bears for bear's grease etc), but others depict subjects
as diverse as British and European landmarks, scenes from
Shakespearean plays or the Crimean War.
Above: a Bear's Grease Manufacturer pot lid, 4in (10cm)
diameter, restored which sold for £5800 at Historical &
Collectable (formerly Special Auction Services) in September
2009.
Black and white printed lids, which performed much the same
function, are typically the preserve of the bottle collecting
community but there is some crossover among some collectors.
In the main, three sizes of polychrome lids were produced (in
approximately 3in, 4in and 5in diameters) with the moulded shape
varying only slightly. Variations to the border decoration and the
addition of a manufacturer's name can also be important when
distinguishing between a common and a rare design.
However, equally distinctive is the Pratt output. Pratt also
produced a small number of lids known to collectors as 'exhibition
pieces' (some were shown at the Great Exhibition in 1851). Often
large in size and featuring the very best examples of each print,
these highly prized lids were further embellished with gilt bands
and seated upon similarly decorated bases. As a general rule bases
were undecorated and do not command a premium.
The same transfer-printed designs that featured on the pot lids
were also reproduced on a range of related domestic items, from tea
wares to tobacco jars, collectively known as Prattware. Again the
scope of production is vast but these wares, too, are easily
identified and the subject well covered in the collecting
literature.
Pot lids have a collecting history as old as their manufacture
(many were mounted in frames to hang on the wall) and as early as
1897, just three years after the death of Felix Edward Pratt, an
exhibition of factory productions was held in Blackpool.
Specialist auctions were held as early as 1924 when the input of
wealthy industrialists from the Midlands saw pot lids and the
associated field of Baxter prints reach collecting fever pitch.
A collectors' clubn the Pot Lid Circle, started in the mid 1960s
and the market peaked again in the early 1970s when - with the best
lids touching four-figure sums - even the mighty Sotheby's held
specialist sales devoted to the subject. Just occasionally a lid
comes to the market with a collecting provenance to prove the
point.
The rare lid known as The Spanish Lady sold
in 2001 for £2700 as part of the Ken Smith collection. It had first
been bought in 1925 by an early collector, G.E. Lambert, for the
then considerable sum of £31 - a good two months' wages for a
skilled working man. In 1960 another great name in pot lid
collecting, J. Cohen, bought it privately for £65 and when the
Cohen collection was sold in 1970 it made a huge £650.
But, collecting pot lids today need not be an expensive pastime.
With fewer new collectors coming onto the scene, some prices have
fallen substantially in real terms.
Antique fairs, eBay and auctions - including the regular
specialist sales held by Historical & Collectable - are good
places to find them. Undamaged examples are available from £30 each
and the majority of lids cost under £100.
Many collectors will distinguish between a good and an
indifferent example of the same lid - those with bright, sharp and
precisely registered colours being preferred above those with signs
of 'ghosting' or fading. Naturally restoration will detract heavily
for all but the rarest lids and there is relatively little interest
in the reproductions made first in the 1920s by the firm of
Kirkhams (a subsequent owner of the Mayer factory) and later in the
20th century by Coalport. Fakes, although not difficult
for the seasoned eye to detect, have also appeared periodically on
the market.
Above: Huntley & Palmer's plaque (455) - £3800 as part
of the Crowther collection sold by Historical &
Collectable(formerly Special Auction Services) in June
2004.
However, there has been some new blood into the top end of the
buying spectrum and in recent years a clutch of rare lids and
exhibition pieces have been sold for prices in excess of £3000. It
gives some idea as to the movement in prices that the rare Bear's
Grease Manufacturer lid sold in 1996 as part of the Abe Ball
collection for £3800 was subsequently re-sold in the sale of the
Hart collection in 2005 for £6600. Another version of this lid, dug
up in two pieces from a disused tip in the West Midlands, was
restored and fetched £5800 in September 2009.
Prattware will vary in price from £5 for one of the more common
pieces to over £2000 for one of the very rare and highly decorative
advertising plaques produced for firms such as Crosse &
Blackwell and Huntley & Palmers. Serious collectors also seek
out Jesse Austin's original watercolour designs and the engraved
printing plates used in the production process.
Pot-Lids and Other Coloured Printed Staffordshire Wares:
Reference and Price Guide by K. V. Mortimer, ISBN-10:
1851494383
Miller's Bottles and Pot Lids: A Collector's Guide by
Alan Blakeman, ISBN-10: 1840005394.
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