Missing Shapes Discussion

As a Johnny-come-lately to number gallery contributions, having initially only collected coffee cans, it's been fun seeing the Museum pics and descriptions turning into photos, but all those number gaps without museum pics or descriptions are a bit daunting!

The pieces in the unnumbered gallery may yet take up some of those spots.

I marvel at forum members' ingenuity in selecting unmarked pieces of pottery that just have to be Crown Lynn, and how eventually their place in the grand scheme is found. Descriptions have helped enormously with the four digit shapes, but there have certainly been a few totally unmarked pieces such as Val's "Irish coffee" and "grape embossed" where (if not posting, then certainly) collecting the pieces preceded posting of the descriptions.

I know the four digit galleries are in chronological order: is it the same for the one, two, and three digit?

Jeremy Ashford wrote:
I know the four digit galleries are in chronological order: is it the same for the one, two, and three digit?

There are not many first dates added to the three digit records even though there is a column for this. What has been added has been put into our Gallery and these are mainly around the 1963 era.
The modellers notes from August 1959 to November 1964 give a good idea of the order that things were made and really there is no order, as cups in the 800's were modelled before vases in the 600's for example. Perhaps in the very beginning there was some order. Perhaps one day when I have nothing better to do I can add dates from the Modellers Log book ....
I asked an ex Crown Lynn modeller recently about the rest of the Modellers log books and shape numbers guides etc and he felt that all of this would have gone to Crown Lynn Malaysia.

I can see how the different hundreds are separately numbered but the 800s appear to be a continuation of the 700s, as all possible numbers 700-799 were exhausted. Within 700 and 800 I have the feeling that a chronology exists, as I believe you do too, sensing a relationship between 743 and 745. There are oddities such as the Navy mug at 419, but generally tableware is located in 700s and 800s.

Oh yes I agree that the 700's and 800's are mainly tableware. Though there is always exceptions when it comes to Crown Lynn, like those 184 & 183 salt and peppers of yours in with the animals   
I haven't looked at the order of the 700 and 800 shapes as yet, so I can't give you my thoughts about that.

Backstamps may not help either as some lines had very long runs and just because we have, say, a cup with a star backstamp indicating post -1955 it does not mean that one may not turn up with a 43-50 or 48-55. It may be telling that the first, 700, is the Railway cup. I'll have a look into this.

One I'm taking a great interest in is the coffee can, which I guess is not surprising. Finding a 792 saucer with a single star stamp (Reflections, but not marked as such) is very exiting. Some non-Cook-and-Serve 792 backstamps such as Napoli, Viking, and Athens MAY be later and the Fleurette is anyone's guess as the stamp persisted, but the single star stamp on vitrified ware indicates that it may precede not just the u/g transfer Cook & Serve range but also the green-stamped hand-painted range of cans (supposing Anne's "2" stamped demitasse indicates a change in how vitrified ware was marked).

As the 782 coffee can is just one number off the 781 tulip cup, and the 783 Air New Zealand follows immediately after, there could be useful information there regarding chronology. I will be picking up my 782 Reflections can next weekend. My interpretation from a barely exposed base in the trademe photo leads me to believe its mark is the same as the saucer.