could be unique blue and white plate unknown

[4725shane]

 hi guys i have a plate i bought a few of a bloke on ebay ........to decorate a  country kitchen  well 2 have turn ont  well i can find to much  aa one is a RC& co   with AUSTRALIA  on it its dated about 1850  well the only one i can fin is a few shards in a museum   we think its  a artist  veiw of  the melb parliment house  OR THE EXHABITION CENTRE  any way has any one got any clues or ideas

[4725shane]

 this might be a better picture

[4725shane]

 the building 

[siddieswans]

Hi Shane Nice Plate. The maker is Robert Cochran & Co, Verreville Pottery, Glasgow. As I think you know. Date should be around  1850. If it's meant to be the Melbourne Parliament buildings they were partially finished in 1856, though parts were not completed until the 1880's.The classical  colonnade and portico were not completed until 1892. The central building does not look anything like Melbourne Exhibition Building to me.

As http://repository.nms.ac.uk/329/1/329_-_Ceramic_Resource_Disk_9_-_Campbellfield.pdf

shows you, the pottery tended to use exotic names for its patterns - the edge design to me looks a bit Eastern Mosque like. I suppose it is possible that the centre decoration was based on a design for the Melbourne Parliament buildings but I would suggest that they just chose an exotic name (Australia) and put in some sort of design. There are a couple of Cochran "Syria" design items on eBay (1 active, one completed) and the design doesn't look like Syria to me.

Anyway I could be quite wrong; there may be an expert on Scottish transfer ware who could help; I would suggest you contact the Scottish Pottery web site

http://scottishpottery.weebly.com/west-coast-potteries-and-marks.html

and ask if they could suggest an expert who could give you more information.

[4725shane]

  hey siddie ya are the best   i found this image    it could be  this place mate if this was made latter  maybe for the great syd exhabition  this  is the palace gardens  in syd  were the  great exhabition was  and this looks so much like the uter image ............

 

[siddieswans · Accepted solution]

Sorry Shane I don't think so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verreville_Glass_and_Pottery_Works,_Glasgow

suggests that the blue and white transfer ware pottery finished around 1859. So 20 years BEFORE the Sydney Palace Garden buildings. I just think that they were stylised ideas of buildings that might have been found in places with exotic names. Almost variations on the theme of the Willow pattern. Where potteries actually made designs that were copies of famous buildings or scenery, they usually actually gave that specific name to the pattern, rather than something general like Australia (or Syria). But that's just my guess.

[4725shane]

 thanks mate     there are a few   all from te same time   ad most are very unusual  idead 

 thanks again siddie