Contact the society

Please use the e-mail address below to contact us with any queries, information, comments etc.

Before submitting any correspondence please read the following FAQs:

Can you tell me how much my Maling is worth?
No. The society is purely a research organisation. You will find some tips on valuations on our Links page. Requests for valuations will be dumped, and the sender listed as a spammer. You have been warned.

Can you identify my Maling?
Possibly, but only if you send a photograph and full description of all marks. Maling produced over 16,500 numbered patterns. A verbal description of "flowers" or "birds" just isn't enough to go on. And a pattern number may be wrongly-read or wrongly-painted.

Here's an example. The correspondent who sent it suggested 6142 or 6172. Neither is right. Checking "Peony Rose" on this site will reveal it is 6562 ("rose waved"). So the 5 isn't fully joined-up and can be read as a 1, while the second 6 has been finished with a flourish which makes it look like a 4. And the horizontal bar of the 5 has joined up with that 6 to make something which looks like a 7. If you initially saw it as 6542, you're still 20 out!

Send pics in JPEG (.jpg) format only and please keep each file around 100 Kb! Our filters will dump oversized attachments.

What are all these numbers and letters on the bottom of my Maling?
A hand-painted number (usually up to 4 digits) is the pattern number. It will almost certainly be accompanied by the initial or monogram of the paintress beneath it. (That should tell you whether a number is 6116 or 9119 - you have to know which way round you should hold your pot.)
Small impressed numbers are dates in mm.yy form - thus 11.29 would be November 1929. Big impressed numbers (e.g. on vases) are usually the shape number, but may occasionally relate to the size in inches.

Can you tell me about other British potteries?
No. We only claim to know something about Maling - not other potteries.

What can you tell me about my marmalade jar?
There is information about Keillers marmalade in the History section. Maling produced these jars from the 1850s to the 1930s, and Keillers exported them all over the globe. As the jars changed little in appearance over this period, dating them is problematic

What is Maling "thumbprint"?
It is an erroneous description of a distinctive form of background decoration. The correct term is "waving". It was a skilled technique by which a swirled design was applied using a brush - not a thumb!

My grandfather worked at Maling. What can you tell me about him?
Probably nothing. Most records were sold off as scrap paper when the pottery closed in 1963. We have contact with workers from the 50s and 60s, but cannot go further back in time.

Which page of the History section do I need?
Have a look at our Summary page. It should get you started

Where can I buy Maling or get more information?
There are links to books, dealers, etc on our Links page.

Contact us at: info@maling-pottery.org.uk.
AND PLEASE KEEP ANY ATTACHMENTS AROUND 100 Kb!
We automatically filter out oversized attachments and dump them as spam. So you won't get a reply. Requests for valuations get the same treatment.