British Royal Family commemorative ware - Elizabeth, the Queen Mother

Commemorative ware comprises items that are made to commemorate an event within a short time, before or after its occurrence.

Manufacturers have never been slow to exploit the commercial possibilities afforded by the tourist trade, or by events of national or even local interest, and souvenirs and commemorative ware offer the collector a wide and varied field.

Although commemorative pottery was known to exist from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the industry really got under way with the invention of transfer printing in the 1750s. George Ill's jubilee in 1809, the death of Princess Charlotte in 1817, and George IV's coronation, were among the earliest events to be commemorated on a large scale by the ceramics industry.

Thereafter coronations, royal weddings, births, jubilees, etc have all been memorialised on china. In the Victorian period commemorative wares were produced in ceramic, glass, wood, papier-mache, stone, metal, ivory, more... and many other materials.

Much commemorative ware is based on important events - coronations, weddings, anniversaries, visits - in the lives of the British Royal family. There were wares made for the coronation of Edward VI in 1902, and in 1935 there was a great commemorative burst for the silver jubilee of George V and Queen Mary. When George VI and Queen Elizabeth were crowned in 1937 there were at least six 'only authentic' souvenir booklets, quite apart from the official guides. There were also pencils in red, white and blue, bearing tiny pictures of the King and Queen or the Union Jack in paper, hats, flags, lapel pins, brooches, cufflinks, models of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, diaries, tablemats, napkin rings, spoons, and ashtrays. The romance and subsequent marriage of Prince Charles and Diana in 1981 produced a spate of commemorative ware, as did the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.

Doulton & Co were one of the major producers of ceramic items. Other producers in this category include Moorcroft, Pratt , Royal Winton, Aynsley and Paragon. Staffordshire potteries poured out a stream of commemoratives. less...