Good afternoon, I inherited some lovely antique plates with gold rims. Each plate has a fish decor on front. On the back is no lettering but there is a single image of a rose. I was wondering if anyone knew the origins of the plates? My grandmother was Austrian and had great taste in collectibles so I am thinking this is from that region? Thank you for any insight! Oh, there is a tiny gold number on back. Says, “68”.
Not that recognize this particular marking but I have some comments: first, there is no country of origin stamped or written on the item. This would indicate production for a domestic market (which does not have to mean Austria). Let’s say your family now lives in New Zealand – she could have bought it there, years ago. Hard to guess where the item would come from; makes your task no easier.
Second, it’s no producer mark but a cover-up. These normally hide the original producer mark, due to legal requirements when an item was (re)decorated by a studio or other business. Problem here is that most decoration studios are badly documented (if at all) because they – per defiition – do not ‘produce’ anything. A few exceptions exist, but in most cases that is a dead end.
Conclusion: studio (re)decorated item with no hint on country of origin. Can not be identified or dated; only pure luck or coincidence may help here.
