Treasures: From Limoges, a single mark tells the story

Dear Helaine and Joe: I've enclosed pictures of a vase that has been in my wife's family for more than 70 years. It is 19-1/2 inches high and 14 inches wide at the handles. It is decorated with completely different images on either side that appear to be hand-painted. It is also richly trimmed in gold and marked "Limoges W.G. & C. France." I would like to know the age and replacement value of the piece. Thank you.

— B.R.M., Sebastian, Fla.

Dear B.R.M.: Before discussing this item, we would like to take care of some business: We opened a group of letters today and were sad to have to discard a number of them because they had no enclosed photographs or the images were too fuzzy for us to form an opinion. We have not made this point in some time, so now we will reiterate: We cannot answer any question without a clear, in-focus photograph — and this is a rule set in stone.

Fortunately, B.R.M. has enclosed several nice photographs of his item, and if we were just to look at the photos and not examine the mark, we would say that this rather large and imposing vase was manufactured in a style popular during the third quarter of the 19th century (1850 to 1875). The mark, however, tells a different story.

Variations of this often-seen backstamp were in use between 1891 and 1932 by the Limoges, France-based William Guerin Company, which reportedly succeeded the Utzschneider porcelain factory. William Guerin (1838-1912) had worked at Utzschneider in the 1870s before becoming the factory's owner at an unspecified date.

One important twist is that this particular mark was only used on the company's "white wares," which are sometimes called "blanks" because they left the factory undecorated. Literally tons of these white wares were shipped to the United States, where they were favorites with china painters.

This is always an issue with Limoges china. The most valuable pieces were either made and decorated in the factory or made in the factory and decorated by a French professional decoration company or an American one (such as Pickard China in Wisconsin).

In either case, there should be two marks on the bottom of the vase to tell who made the porcelain and who did the decoration. (Guerin used a different mark on its wares decorated in-house.) Because there is only one mark on this item, we must infer that a gifted amateur painted this vase.