lol, Have to hand it to you GrahamF, after all that it seems you've kept your sense of humor intact. :)

Here are your pics for easier viewing:

How about a picture of the tea set....that surely would give clues to the origin aas well as the crest. Is there anything besides the crest on the bottom?
Linda C

Weird, in Preview I could see all the images displayed in my post above. Now only the crest is showing. Is that all anyone else sees?

Just the crest....

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Here is a link that might be useful: teapot

Here's the cup. I hope you don't mind I just completed it for you.

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But I laborously loaded all the url's...
It looks like a british red transfer ware wannabe. Probably Chinese...or perhaps Japanese. No other marking on any other piece? Is it just the tea pot and the cup and that sort of snack plate?
Where did you get it....that might provide a clue.
Linda C

I did too, Linda. Then I thought I'd spare anyone else from having to. The pattern is interesting, almost Arabesque and I thought it was rather pleasant when I saw the teapot until I got to the snack plate part. I've never seen a mark like that, but enjoyed all the intitial comments about all the conflicting symbols on it. There are so many marks with crowns and crests on them, so if one set out to purposely confuse with a mark, that's a good one to use, I guess.

Thanks for doing that calliope. Don't know what happened with pics in my post.

The crest looks as if it was applied in the same way as the pattern. Same colors and "look" as if it was part of the pattern or transfer itself, rather than a real mark.

I would like the pattern on a conventional plate :)

'Faux Staffordshire' is a popular design for an 'antiquey' or shabby chic look. My guess is that these are fairly recent pieces -- last 15 years -- made in China or wherever else they're making cheap decorator pieces these days.

Not to say they aren't attractive -- just probably not antiques and not terribly valuable.

See how the crest is 'pixalated'?

Yes, I noticed that, but that can also be caused by certain methods of trying to expand a small image so I don't know if it means anything or not.

An expanded image isn't "Pixelated" unless it has pixels in it to begin with....like photographically reproduced.
I just turned over a Mason's vista piece and a piece of Woods ware....and the back stamps on both are transferred...like the pattern.
I think Sweeby has it nailed as to origin.
Linda C

I'm no china expert but the pieces look quite charming to me, with some design details that would lead me to believe them better than what is being postulated here. Alone the fact that there is a snack plate, which is a piece that I think is a very practical invention! And this one has a very inventive shape, quite in keeping with that crest. These were done by the better makers... Royal Albert does them. But I don't think they are so common that I would expect them to be included in a decoy set.

I agree I'd like to know where GrahamF got the set, to give some better idea of origin.

KarinL

If they were by a "better maker" that "better maker's" mark would be on the back.

An expanded image isn't "Pixelated" unless it has pixels in it to begin with....like photographically reproduced.
Yes.........that's right. It's a digital image of her mark, and when she enlarged it, it's pixelated. The other images weren't enlarged as much, and aren't. That's the point I'm trying to make......jut because the crest looks pixelated it doesn't suggest anything about the mark. Any image will look pixelated on a monitor if enlarged enough, expecially a jpeg

Yes an expanded jpg does become "spotty"...or pixillated....but not like this is pixillated. This has the dots of a photographic repro. A transferware piece is made like an engraving. The pattern etched onto a copper plate, which is inked then printed on paper which is then transferred to the china....no photographic pixels involved. But this piece the design ( and the backstamp) were photograpically reproduced onto the tissue to be transferred to the china.
This is not made like real transferware...it's a wannabe.
Linda C

I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, BidsGet.com

FWIW, I have a piece of red transferware with a similar pattern marked "Eastern Scenes", 1853, Pallisy, England. Impressed 'England' but no crown mark. I assume the pattern was a multi-motif & has been around since 1853 but I doubt if my dish has.