I have a buyer questioning the authenticificaiton of a Johnson Brothers Coaching Scenes gravy boat that I recently sold to her. She’s claiming that since it doesn’t have the blue imprinted “Johnson Brothers (Hanley) Ltd, Stoke on Trent, England Coaching Scenes” imprint with pictures, etc, the piece is a reproduction. I’ve found that the smaller pieces (sugar bowl, creamer, tea cups) instead are engraved with “made in England”. My pieces all came from the same set, purchased by my mother. Everything I know about these pieces are that they are authentic and NOT reproductions, but I am an amateur collector and need more experienced/expert advice. I want to be honest and represent myself correctly, and of course, refund the customer if I am mistaken. Any advice you could give would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
It is not at all unusual for anything with a small foot to only have the “Made in England” mark as required by law !! Many potteries did the same !! Problem is they rarely had but a single size stamp or ocassionally one slightly smaller and they would be too large to fit on the smaller pieces !! Since the stamp was applied before the glaze and final firing if it had been too close to the edge and could be seen after firing the item would have been only a “second” and could not be sold as part of the set !! Johnson Brothers has never made reproductions as such but the “Coaching Scenes” pattern was in production from 1963 to 1999 !! They had at one time 5 potteries so its possible that other marks were used depending on which fit the item in production at that time !! As long as its the correct pattern and color I would not have a problem in buying the gravy boat !! One lady had three different marks within a single Johnson Brothers set !! Its pretty common thing to happen !!
