Sorting out ceramics – by piece or pattern ... Of course there is always the hope that a visitor to the show might be able recognise and match a sherd to a complete item in their own possession.

Four years ago Roderick Jellicoe mounted a ground-breaking loan exhibition in his Campden Street gallery. It was devoted to the porcelain of William Reid and was based on excavations that Mr Jellicoe and other members of the Liverpool Porcelain Rescue group had made at the site of the factory where Reid produced his wares from 1755 until 1761 when he went bankrupt. These excavations overturned our knowledge about Liverpool porcelain by providing firm archeological evidence of Reid’s output. For the 2000 exhibition, the sherds that the rescue team uncovered were matched up to extant pieces in other public and private collections, pieces that, in many instances, were formerly thought to be either from other Liverpool manufacturers such as Chaffers or Gilbody or from factories in other parts of the country such as Vauxhall.

As Mr Jellicoe and his co-researcher Maurice Hillis explained at the time, one result of the excavations and the show was that the securely identified output of fellow Liverpool producers Richard Chaffers and Samuel Gilbody was much reduced, while Reid’s output turned out to be much more wide-ranging and sophisticated than hitherto thought. But by limiting themselves to showing sherds that could be matched to extant complete tablewares, Hillis and Jellicoe were not able to show the full breadth of that output, hence Roderick Jellicoe’s new exhibition mounted this month.

Where are they Now? features several hundred sherds retrieved from the excavation that do not appear to match any surviving examples, thereby providing the opportunity to see the full range of Reid’s diversity and inventiveness. Roderick Jellicoe reckons the variety of shapes and patterns will come as a surprise to many.

There are a number of different shapes and 20 new patterns in underglaze blue and coloured enamel. Mustard pots and patty pans feature alongside sauceboats, cups and saucers. There is an interesting array of moulded decoration, including sprigged prunus motifs and even some fragments moulded with acanthus and strawberry leaves in a similar manner to those produced at Chelsea.

What these tantalising fragments imply is that only a tiny percentage of the full range has survived intact to the present. Of course there is always the hope that a visitor to the show might be able recognise and match a sherd to a complete item in their own possession, thereby filling in another piece in the jigsaw.

A few yards down the road, Stockspring Antiques will be celebrating not one factory but one design. Opening on May 6, the show, titled The Two Quail Pattern: 300 Years of Design on Porcelain, has both Oriental and European wares. The exhibition is being held to mark the publication this month of a book by Dr Chris Girton which summarises all known 50 factories and 120 pattern variations that feature these distinctive little birds. Dr Girton has drawn on pieces in private collections, museums and auction houses for this work, but the final section of the book features an extensive catalogue from the author’s own collection and it is from this source that the display of around 100 examples on show at Stockspring are drawn.

Where are They Now? runs at Roderick Jellicoe, 3a Campden Street, London W8 020 7727 1571, until May 15.

The Two Quail Pattern is on view at Stockspring Antiques, 114 Kensington Church Street, London W8, 020 7727 7995 until May 20.