... Has anyone else seen a Davidson dish like this? ...
Chris — No, but I've had a pair of quite similar Sowerby plates through my hands, one with blue ornamentation, and the other with green, made under Patent No. 2433 of 15 September 1871 for
Ornamenting pressed glass with designs in glass of a different colour. See Hajdamach pp 338–9 for the illustration from the patent application and a description of the process,
The patent was in J.G. Sowerby's name. Judging by the huge number of items which have appeared on the market (my two plates), the process was not a success. In 1901 it was thirty years since the patent was granted, and Cottle tells us that five years earlier J.G. Sowerby had retired from ill health to Symonds Yat in Herefordshire, so it was unlikely that Davidson's use of the process would have been even noticed by Sowerby's management, had the patent not already expired. Apologies, I don't know how long patents granted to individuals in 1871 lasted.
I've been trying to find the photographs of my plates — no success yet, hence the delay. I will post them when I find them.
One final note about my plates. I informed T&W Museums, the V&A, and Broadfield House, but there was no interest whatsoever, despite my also pointing out that they were the earliest examples of marked Sowerby glass known. Perhaps they might have shown more interest had a posh London auction house been selling them. Nevertheless I am delighted that they are now prized items in two major private collections of Sowerby glass, one in N. America, and the other here in the UK.
Bernard C.