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.

Can you identify my Maling?
Possibly, but only if you SEND A PHOTOGRAPH including 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. For an example see our Pattern Numbers page

Send pics in JPEG (.jpg) format only and please keep the total of your attachments to less than 1 Mb!

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 get more information?
Suggested books are on our Links page.

Contact us at: info@maling-pottery.org.uk.
AND PLEASE KEEP YOUR TOTAL ATTACHMENTS UNDER 1Mb!
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.