| Description
| White earthenware plate with clear grazed glaze. Flat circular base. Inner rim edged in 'bright gold' band. Black printing in scroll 'Avonbank Co-operative Society Ltd' with two hands shaking and 'Instituted 1871' beneath. Below this; 'Souvenir to commemorate opening of new premises at Chapel Street, Rutherglen. 23 December 1905'. Made by J & M P Bell & Co Ltd, Glasgow potteries, Dobbies Loan, Glasgow, 1905. This plate is one of a pair with RG.1978.477.b.
Bell’s Pottery was established by the Bell brothers in 1841, beside the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow. They made transfer-printed white earthenware but soon expanded into china and parianware. Bell’s produced a vast range of transfer printed china which became extremely popular with middle class families from the West of Scotland. Equally, wares were exported worldwide. The Pottery was in production until 1912. Items may be marked J. & M.P.B. & Co., J. & M.P.Bell & Co, JB (inside a bell, impressed), J. & M.P.B. & Co.Ld. or B (inside a bell). |
