Dear Helaine and Joe: These two plates were given to me sometime in the 1950s, and I would like to know more about their history and value. — L.B., Clarks, Neb.
Dear L.B.: Realistically, most Limoges china found in American homes has only modest value, but every now and then a piece (or two) will turn up that is very rare and exciting. This is the case with the two very special "plates" in today's question.
Limoges is a town in France that is located about 200 miles south of Paris, and it is here that the raw materials for making Chinese-style hard paste porcelain were discovered in 1768.
Before the porcelain clay ("kaolin") was discovered at Limoges, the Pouyat family had been making faience, a type of tin glazed earthenware, in the nearby town of St. Yrieix, but by the end of the 18th century they actually owned some kaolin deposits.
In the early 1800s, they opened a porcelain-making factory in Paris, but Jean Pouyat did not start the family's porcelain company in Limoges until 1842. It was here in the early 20th century that these two "plates" decorated with meticulously detailed portraits of Native Americans were made.
L.B. has drawn the two marks found on the back of her pieces. The first mark, which is "J.P." over an "L" with the word "France" under the initials, is the mark the Pouyat factory put on pieces to signify that they had made the white porcelain.
The second mark is a green wreath with a pink ribbon running through it and the words "Pouyat, Limoges" inside. This second mark tells us that the hand-painted decoration found on these two items was done in the Pouyat factory, and this is very important to the value of these pieces.
Pouyat and the other Limoges factories sold vast quantities of their undecorated white wares either to amateur or professional china painters who then decorated them, and some of these outside decorated pieces are of very poor quality.
Collectors are most interested in the Limoges pieces that were embellished either in the factory where the white porcelain was made or by French or American professional decorating companies (notably Pickard and a few others).
Examples with only one mark and maybe the name or initials of an amateur decorator are very common and are not, as a general rule, nearly as valuable as the factory or professionally decorated pieces.
The beautifully executed, factory-done designs of Native Americans on the two pieces in today's question are very rare. It is unfortunate that L.B. did not tell us the size of her "plates" because we believe they are really "chargers" and are probably somewhere between 12 and 16 inches in diameter.
If this is the case, the insurance replacement value of these circa 1920 pieces is between $4,000 and $5,000, but if the diameter turns out even to be a little bit smaller, the value would be significantly lower.
Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of Treasures in Your Attic (HarperCollins, $18). Questions can by mailed to them at P.O. Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208.