2/678 (Herons in Flight)

Plate, 9 inches diameter. Black transfer with polychrome clobbering. Maker is the Old Hall Earthenware Co. Ltd. Red painted pattern number "2/678." The impressed lozenge with “Enamel Porcelain” inside was used by Charles Meigh & Son and was used by the subsequent Old Hall Earthenware Co. Ltd. This pattern features three large water birds resembling night herons in flight over water with a clump of cattails, framed by palm fronds on the right. The border consists of a simple double line.

The Old Hall Earthenware Co. Ltd. as an English pottery established in the Staffordshire town of Hanley in 1805 by Job Meigh (d. 1817). It was successively known as Job Meigh (1805–1812), Job Meigh & Son (1812–1834), Charles Meigh (1834–1849), Charles Meigh, Son & Pankhurst (1850–1851), Charles Meigh & Son (1851–1861), the Old Hall Earthenware Co. Ltd. (1861–1886) and the Old Hall Porcelain Works Ltd. (1886–1902). In March 1861 Charles Meigh Jr. transferred the business to a limited liability company called the Old Hall Earthenware Co. Ltd. This was the first limited liability company in the Staffordshire Potteries. In the 1880s the designers included Christopher Dresser. The pottery closed in 1902 and the Old Hall Works was demolished in 1904.