Q: I have a pretty plate decorated with flowers and a fairy sitting on a stone wall. It’s marked “Carltons Fantasia Ware, Burslam.”
A: This is not the Carlton Ware made at the Carlton Works in Stoke-on-Trent, England, beginning in about 1890. That company started out as Wiltshaw & Robinson and was renamed Carlton Ware Ltd. in 1958. It went bankrupt in 1995. It was never called “Carltons,” and the town name in the mark on your plate is misspelled (it should be “Burslem”). Many items marked like yours have been made in the last few years. They are fakes masquerading as the work of a company whose pottery is popular among collectors. You can find more information about this mark and other fakes at www.thepotteries.org.
