potter’s mark

potter’s mark, device for the purpose of identifying commercial pottery wares. Except for those of Wedgwood, stonewares before the 20th century were not often marked. On some earthenware, potters’ marks are frequently seen, but signatures are rare. One of the few found on ancient Greek vases reads: “Exekias made and painted me.” The red pottery of Roman times is signed by means of stamps. Potter’s marks are most commonly found on porcelain. Chinese porcelain marks usually record the dynasty and the name of the emperor; but they are unreliable because the Chinese often used the mark of an earlier dynasty as a sign of veneration for the products of antiquity and, in recent times, for commercial gain.

Most European pottery factories adopted an identifying device, the earliest example of which is the mark of a cathedral and an F on some Florentine wares of about 1573–87; but these devices also cannot be regarded as a guarantee of authenticity. Not only were false marks added to contemporary forgeries but the smaller 18th-century factories often copied the proprietary marks of their more august competitors.