Dish, 9.375 x 6 inches. Black transfer. Printed maker's mark for Joseph Robinson of the Knowle Works in Burslem, Staffordshire, England. This pattern is part of a series and features a central image of two disparate birds standing on rocks at the water's edge. The large border consists of alternating butterflies and bamboo.

The oldest pottery which can be identified over any length of time in Burslem is the Knowle Works. This stood at the west end of Hamil Road adjoining what was later the Big House estate and can be traced back to 1651 when it was in the hands of the Malkin family. Richard Malkin was making black and mottled ware there c. 1710. The pottery was bought by John Breeze in 1793 and let to the firm of Enoch Wood and James Caldwell in 1818, but in 1827 the ownership of the works, then in the tenure of Enoch Wood and Sons, had passed with that of the Greenfield estate into the Adams family by marriage. Some ten years later the pottery was unoccupied but subsequently passed through various hands, coming under the ownership of Joseph Robinson in c. 176. It was demolished by the end of the 19th century.