Q: I do not know very much about the old china that I just
bought at an estate sale. I did not pay much for it, but it is beautiful and I
think that it must be very valuable. It is marked "Warranted 22 Karat Gold" so
it has to be worth a lot. Am I right?
A: No, probably not. Most good to excellent quality
pottery and porcelain manufacturers never put these types of marks on their
products. Normally only smaller, very inexpensive American dinnerware manufacturers
use a "Warranted 22 Karat Gold" backstamp. In doing so, they perhaps hoped that
their products would seem higher in quality than those patterns really were. Most
of this type of dinnerware was made between 1920 and 1970 and was normally made
of pottery, not porcelain, but in the style of more expensive fine china patterns.
Many of these patterns are charming to look at, and are starting to be more widely
collected. However, the prices that "Warranted Gold" patterns sell for are generally
low due to their quality.
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