Soup plate, 10.25 inches diameter. Blue transfer. Printed maker's mark for William Brownfield. The impressed registry diamond which marks the manufacture date for the form is mostly illegible. There is a number '30' in the right-hand corner, which indicates it was created between 1842 and 1867. The impressed year letter in the top corner might be a 'P' or an 'R,' indicating a possible manufacture date range of 1851-1861. This all suggests the pattern was printed between 1851 and 1871. 'Blackberry' features a blackberry sprig of berries and leaves in the center of the well and placed equidistant around the well are three larger blackberry sprigs of berries, blooms, buds, and leaves. The rim is decorated with a continuous, repeating border of stylized acanthus leaves framed by half-circles and beads.

The Brownfields were potters in Cobridge, North Staffordshire from about 1837 to the 1890s. William Brownfield began as a junior partner in the firm of Robinson, Wood & Brownfield, at a pottery formerly owned by Ralph & James Clews. Eventually William Brownfield appears to be the sole owner, the first reference appearing in White’s 1851 directory where we find under china and earthenware manufacturers, Brownfield Wm. Cobridge. The factory produced a range of earthenware, stone china and added stoneware and parian to their productions. In the International Exhibition of 1862 they were awarded a medal for “printed earthenware,” but no details are given of the patterns. Entries at other International exhibitions followed. In 1871 William Etches Brownfield entered the business and it became William Brownfield & Son. William Sr. died in 1873 and William Jr. continued and his brother Edward Arthur Brownfield joined the firm. They continued to make a wide range of ceramics with occasional tour de force pieces for national and international exhibition, becoming one of the top ten Staffordshire factories. The company’s last swansong was an unusual venture fostered by Arthur Edward Brownfield, who in 1892 created a Potter’s Guild based on John Ruskin’s principles. But this “cooperative” was unfortunately destined to failure and the company was wound up in 1900.