H & K Tunstall | 'Crinoline Lady' | Gold Lace Cake Plate | England, c. 1940s

H & K Tunstall | 'Crinoline Lady' | Gold Lace Cake Plate | England, c. 1940s

A lady in a pink crinoline steps out of a cottage garden, framed by a cloth of gold lace.

Hollinshead & Kirkham made earthenware in Tunstall, Staffordshire, from the 1870s until 1956, when the works was sold to Johnson Brothers. Crinoline lady scenes, with bonneted women in full skirts among cottage-garden flowers, became a familiar decorative theme on English pottery in the early and mid-20th century. The printed "Made in England, H & K, Tunstall" backstamp belongs to the firm's later production; the large "B" beneath it has been associated with wartime manufacture.

The cake plate is approximately square, with rounded, shaped sides, projecting lug handles and a gilt-edged rim. Its surface is covered in an intricate gold lace pattern of small dotted flowers, circles and scrolling motifs on a cream ground. In the centre, a lady in a pink crinoline, blue jacket and bonnet carries a basket of flowers through a colourful garden; tall blue and purple flowers rise beside her, with a birdhouse on a pole and a bird in flight behind. The green printed backstamp shows what appears to be a unicorn above "Made in England, H&K, Tunstall", with a large "B" beneath and small painted marks beside it.

The plate is in excellent condition, with no chips or cracks and minimal wear to the gilding.

Key Details

• Maker: Hollinshead & Kirkham (H & K), Tunstall, England
• Decoration: 'Crinoline Lady' centre with a gold lace-patterned ground
• Date: c. 1940s (backstamp)
• Material: earthenware
• Form: shaped cake plate with projecting lug handles
• Marks: green printed mark with what appears to be a unicorn, "Made in England, H&K, Tunstall", "B"; small painted marks
• Dimensions: 25.3 × 22.6 × 2 cm
• Weight: 460 g
• Condition: excellent; no chips or cracks; minimal gilding wear
• Buyer profile: collectors of crinoline lady pottery, and anyone dressing a vintage tea table

Collector Appeal

Crinoline lady scenes have a distinctive place in 20th-century English decorative pottery. Here, the colourful garden scene is surrounded by a richly patterned gold ground, giving the plate a more formal character than examples decorated on plain white.

Other 'Crinoline Lady' pieces from the shop: milk jug, trio and open sugar basin.

She walks the same garden path, her basket of flowers forever full.