Platter, 10.5 x 8.5 inches. Brown transfer. Printed and impressed maker's marks for William Brownfield & Son. The pattern has two partial borders, with two quite distinctly different images at top and bottom. The images of hen and chicks, rooster, fruits and vegetables are seen upside down in this image, the assumption being that people on both sides of the table will have a pattern that is right side up. The assorted leafy root vegetables are viewed by the rooster from a small hill, while the hen and chicks are busily eating and scratching in the dirt. The other partial border of the platter is an assemblage of hexagons filled with floral images, overlaid by a semicircular cartouche containing the image of a Japanese woman seated by a low table. She is most likely about to prepare tea, with a teapot and cup on the table. To the left of the hexagons, a wisteria vine grows upward/downward.

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.