Within the last several years there have been a flood of ironstone imports from China, generally blue transferware, bearing a mark which looks like or mimics the 19th century English coat-of-arms mark. These marks also generally include the words 'Victoria' or 'Victoria Ware' and 'Ironstone'. These items are modern fakes, some are even 'aged' at the factory. The only British potteries who reportedly used this mark with 'Victoria Ironstone' were the  Meakin potteries who included their name in the mark. Even the importer of these new pieces has a rather suspicious name 'Staffordshire Figure Company, Ltd'.

Many sellers of these pieces are also using the phrase 'flow blue' to describe the transfer.  We have never seen a true flow blue example with this imitation mark.  The transfers are generally quite crisp.

Important update (2009):  Asian export imitation transferware is now being seen with marks that include the words England and Staffordshire.  Therefore, country of origin marks are no longer guarantee of origin. Beware. Some of these have sold on ebay for significant amounts of money.

For further info, consult the guides to fake or forgery pottery marks or the Staffordshire pottery history website.

wwwdotthepotteriesdotorg/fake/index.htm