Armorial dishes unknown mark

[TreasurePanda]

Hello fellow antique lovers,
I purchased a couple of small armorial nut dishes from an estate sale a while ago. Does anyone have any thoughts on who they were made by or what the meaning of the armorial crests are. I would be fascinated to find out who made them as I have had no luck tracking down the makers mark and it has been puzzling me for some time
Dove dish.

Smaller Phoenix? and griffin dish

Thank you if you can help

[mart]

Can you post some larger pics, Please ??  Those are really tiny !!    I forgot to say Hello and welcome to the group !!   Sorry about that but its been a busy day !!

[TreasurePanda]

Hi mart, thankyou for your reply and for the welcome. Sorry for the thumbnail pictures. Hopefully these will display them at a reasonable size.
Dove dish


And Phoenix? / Griffin nut bowl


Any ideas anyone??

[mart]

Thats an odd mark !! Have not seen that one before !!  They look to be a pottery/stoneware type rather than porcelain !!  Is that correct ??    Let me see what I can find tomorrow !!  They are nice !!

[TreasurePanda]

Thank you.
The mark is odd, my thoughts exactly  and even more so when you consider the nut dish is not very big in the first place so the mark itself looks like it has been hand painted with a very slim brush head or almost a fine-liner pen. The mark is like 2 conjoined boxey S's or a 9 and 6 back to back. I think you have correctly summized the material they are made from ie probably some stone or earthen wear rather than porcelain. The seller I purchased them from described them as antique and suggested they might be samson, although I took this with a large pinch of salt as I am a notorious junk magnet when I go online or to estate sales so if I was in the possession of an item made by a name recognized in the world of antiques no-one would be more suprised than me lol  .
Thank you again for your help with this mystery.

[mart]

How large are these dishes ?? Width and height ??  I am wondering if they are open/master salts rather than nut dishes !!  Might help in the search to know !!

[sapphire]

Is it possible that mark is a combination of 'S' and 'T' ?

[TreasurePanda]

Hello  
Thank you both for your responses. The items are quite small. The dove bowl or platter is  6 inches" across and a little less than this in length, it is only about a half inch in depth. The phoenix? / griffin dish is smaller than this approximately 4in" by 2.75in" and an inch" in depth. I hadn't thought of the possibility that it could be a master salt dish but yes it definately could be or for something like bon bons or sugar. I also hadn't thought of the mark as potentially being an S + a T, another good suggestion and yes now that it's mentioned that could definately be the case if the T was used as the top line of the S and then the rest of the S cut across it. Im intriqued by why you ask Sapphire? is this a known mark?

[sapphire]

Haven't got a clue TreasurePanda!   

It just struck me looking at it 'turned around'. I'm not at all up on pottery marks, but I know there are other here who are or who have access to books and reference material on them. Hopefully that may strike a chord and they'll know where to look or will be familiar with it or similar.

[sapphire]

Possibly an Oriental character too 

[mart]

I thought about the oriental aspect but the crests are not what I would expect if from Japan or China and the mark doesn`t look like any of the oriental marks I have seen !! I am still looking !!

[TreasurePanda]

In terms of whether the marks might be Oriental its strange I dont know how well it comes across in the photos but the crest and animals are hand painted in a naive way which makes me think of faience and therefore France but the colours seem all wrong to me.
The creature I have been describing as a griffin has dragon like wings and a triangular pointed tail but it's head has a cockrel like cob.  Whatever material they are painted onto has some indentations like when you chip paste or a thick set icing. I cannot see any crazing to them. I dont know if this will help to identify the materials used and therefore what they are and who they are by or whether I have just confused matters  but thank you again for any thoughts or comments you might have.

[mart]

Well, don`t give up !! Haven`t found anything yet that is even close, but I am still looking !!

[wendy177]

Your mark appears to be from Samson & Co. Paris France  this factory was in operation from approx 1873 - 1957  variations of this mark were used from 1941- 1957.   

[TreasurePanda]

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped me with this mystery. That is intriquing Wendy I like to have fun thinking what the armorial crests might mean especially the bird and griffin one which has white rampat cats with bushy tails or ponies on the red shield, not the most fear inspiring of crests  . With that in mind it might make sense for it to be a later, knowing decorative piece rather than a oriental one which didnt really grasp the subject matter or for them to be replacements for earlier actual heraldic pieces. I'm guessing the more recent Samson pieces like these are less valuable than the 19thc ones?
Also if anyone knows where I can see an example of the Samson mark from that time I would love to took a look.
 Thank you again you've all been wonderfully helpful