Maker: Spode  Pattern: Louis Quatorze

With gilt. The border is part of the Louis Quatorze design and on the side are the arms for Christ's Hospital School. Copeland made tableware for the School from the 1840s through to the 1930s. The border design was registered 2 December 1844 under number 22919 and with a centre under number 22920. It was used with a number of different centres, most notably with the Continental Views Series.
The original use for this small sturdy bowl was as a butter dish, as breakfast at the School was bread and butter! Hence the need for many butter dishes and you can imagine it being filled and scraped flat with a knife across the broad rims. It may also have been used as an open salt, although its shape is not suited to that purpose, as salts usually have a convex rim that projects in, to help retain the salt when it is being spooned. The exact dimensions: diameter overall is 93mm and inner diameter 77mm, so the rim is 8mm. The height is 41mm and weight 220gms.
Backstamp: W T Copeland & Sons Stoke on Trent England.
The gilt is quite worn, there is a little pitting to the rim and underneath a little discolouration.

Dimensions: 9.5 cm diameter, 7 cm deep / 3.75 ins diameter, 2.75 ins deep