Plate, 9.5 inches diameter. Blue transfer with polychrome clobbering. Printed maker's mark for Thomas Till & Sons. This tableau features a foreground of two cranes standing in the water next to a large vase of peonies with a songbird perched in the blooms. In the middle ground is a bent tree in front of a lattice fence and another pot of peonies to the left. The background is composed of a body of water with a small structure on the shore at the right, couple of sampan boats on the left, and a tree on the far shoreline behind. The border consists of a band of scallops.

Thomas Till & Son was an earthenware manufacturer at the Sytch Pottery in Burslem, Staffordshire, England. Around 1833, Thomas Till was a partner in the business of Barker, Sutton & Till. In 1842 James Sutton retired and the business continued as Barker & Till. In May 1850, William Barker left the partnership which was continued by Thomas Till on his own account. At some point between 1850 and 1855, Till was joined by his eldest son Edwin and the business became Thomas Till & Son. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855, Thomas Till & Son received a certificate of merit. In 1861, Till’s second son William Thomas Till joined the business and it became Thomas Till & Sons. In the 1881 census Thomas Till, then aged 76, was described as an "Earthenware Manufacturer Employing 200 Work People." Thomas Till died sometime around 1882. In November 1890, Edwin Till left the partnership and the business was continued by his brother William Thomas Till. At some time William Thomas Till joined in partnership with Charles Henry Salt (of the Salt Bros. at the Brownhills Pottery). In December 1902, this partnership was dissolved and the business was carried on by C. H. Salt on his own and the name "Thomas Till & Sons" was retained. At some point Charles Henry Salt joined in partnership with Arthur Cecil Salt, but this partnership was dissolved in March 1914 and Charles Henry continued on his own, again retaining the name "Thomas Till and Sons." The business closed in 1928.