Plate, 10.375 inches diameter. Black transfer with polychrome clobbering. Printed maker's mark for William Kirkby & Co. This pattern features a branch of apple flowers, blossoms, and leaves. The border consists of a simple line.

Sometime between 1870 and 1877, William Kirkby was a partner at the Portland Works on Sutherland Road in Longton with John Aynsley and James Broadhurst. In 1877 this partnership was dissolved and the firm was carried on by Aynsley and Kirkby. By 1879, however, John Aynsley was operating out of the Portland Works with his son John Gerrard Aynsley as John Aynsley & Sons, and William Kirkby & Co. was operating out of the Sutherland Pottery in Longton as a china and earthenware manufacturer. The Sutherland Pottery had been in existence from at least 1869 and by 1877 the factory had become an encaustic tileworks, as noted on the Ordnance Survey map. William Kirkby & Co. declared bankruptcy in 1883, but continued until 1885 when it was again declared bankrupt and ended business. The Pottery was then taken over by the firm of Thomas Forester, Son & Co.