Manufacturer: Societe Ceramique Maestricht

Gorgeous antique plate which came out of a home, believed to be an international souvenir item from Holland in The Netherlands. This is a ceramic, earthenware or pottery plate (it is not china or translucent porcelain) using a white base pottery color with multi-colored décor. It is marked on the backside as made by "Societe Ceramique Maestricht", along with "Made in Holland" and "Mooi Nederland", with the last translating to "Beautiful Netherlands". On the front side of the plate it is marked "Holland" and "Jeugdige Buurtjes", with the last translating to "Youthful Neighborhoods".

The topside central décor shows 3 girls in Dutch or Holland dress wearing traditional caps, wooden clogs and aprons. They are standing by a canal with wood structures near/across it and two houses nearby. Surrounding this is an intricate geometric design having curlicues and flowers with leaves. This is an old transferware plate (transfer ware plate) with hand coloring as is common for these antique pieces, using black outlining for the design and picture, then painting red, blue, green, brown, yellow and a skin pink for detailing and highlighting. You can see where the outer border transfer design does not line up/match up completely in one spot as made, likely where the design began and ended as it was transferring. The vintage souvenir plate has a red circular line edging with a second red circular line around the inner central scene. The detail is excellent, even including some white laundry drying on an outside line near the houses. On the backside there are two holes in the ceramic for adding a string or wire for hanging on a wall.

Societe Ceramique was a company based in Maestricht, Holland which produced ceramics. This Societe Ceramique Maestricht circular mark containing a lion at its center and Made in Holland designation on the backside is believed to date this piece to having been made in the 1890s to early 1900s. Round plate with lower center section and angled sides, measuring about 9 1/8 inches in diameter. We've provided 8 images to show all details, front and back sides, with a close-up of the mark. Please use the zoom feature to examine closely and note that the camera lighting creates white "hot spot" reflections on the smooth surfaces. This is a heavy pottery plate, weighing just over one pound without packing.

Wonderful old condition, with no chips, cracks, or crazing. We can see a few top side scratches (nothing bad) and think this was a display plate, not used for eating, with the scratches due to handling, storage, cleaning, etc. There is a whiteish spot (about 1/2 inch long) on the border design on the right side near where the girls are shown, where some of the border transfer has worn away to white. We don't know if this is age/wear or whether this plate was made/sold with an incomplete transfer. There is also a curved sideways "S" area of transfer ware or transfer miss in the border area near the bottom of the plate and some other touches of transfer ware. If these are a bit of wear, this is to be expected with a plate of this age, which we think has survived really well and don't think would be a problem on display. On the backside there is some black dot smearing from the application of the manufacturer markings, as made.

A nifty find which would be eye-catching as part of a room décor. Would also make a great addition to any collection related to Holland or the Netherlands, as well as one related to Societe Ceramique pottery in particular.

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