Plate, 10 inches diameter. Brown transfer. Maker is either Pratt & Simpson, who registered this pattern 10 November 1882, or Wallis Gimson & Co., the subsequent firm at the Lane Delph Pottery. The upper center well features an oval cartouche containing a young woman labeled Pandora in both English and Greek in profile looking down at a sphinx-lidded container she is holding. This cartouche is superimposed over a flowering branch. To the right of the oval cartouche fly two small butterflies. In the lower left float two round cartouches with geometric infill and the lower right features a three-legged vessel with a ram’s head in front of ivy. The border consists of a thin rim of alternating triangles infilled with geometric designs.

Pratt & Simpson, the originator of the “Pandora” patterns, was a partnership between John Pratt and Joseph Simpson. They operated at the Lane Delph Pottery in Fenton between 1878 and 1882. At some point John Pratt retired and Joseph Gimson joined the business, which continued on as Pratt & Simpson. Joseph Gimson had been listed as the Chairman of the Members of John Pratt & Co. Ltd., which had operated in the Lane Delph Pottery prior to the Pratt & Simpson partnership.

On 9 March 1882 the partnership between Joseph Simpson and Joseph Gimson, operating as Pratt & Simpson, was dissolved and the business was carried on by Joseph Gimson. It would seem Joseph Gimson took Thomas Wallis Gimson on as a partner sometime after 1882 and they operated as Wallis Gimson & Co. at the Lane Delph Pottery. At some point between 1882 and 1888, Joseph Gimson Jr. took over his father’s role in Wallis Gimson & Co. and on 15 February 1888 their partnership was dissolved. On 7 March 1890 Wallis Gimson & Co. declared bankruptcy.