Originally part of a toy dinner service, this is the most classic Wedgwood miniature dinne...

Originally part of a toy dinner service, this is the most classic Wedgwood miniature dinner plate we can imagine.  The sole decoration is a heavy brown enamel pinstripe around the outer edge and a finer pinstripe around the well. Otherwise the creamware or "Queen's Ware" surface is unadorned.

Toys such as this saw double duty in the nursery--amusement and training for budding hostesses about their future household responsibilities. 

Miniatures and children's pieces can be particularly difficult to date, especially when th...

Miniatures and children's pieces can be particularly difficult to date, especially when they are as simple as this toy plate. Neither the technology or mark give us conclusive evidence. 

Wedgwood continued to make "Queen's Ware" far beyond the subsequent introduction of the pearlware glaze. On adult wares, the absence of a  tablering generally indicates an earlier piece; however, children's wares continued to be made without tablerings for most of the 1800's--probably as a matter of economics. The Wedgwood mark is also of little assistance in dating as it was in use from the eighteenth century until "England" was added around 1890. 

We are left with a broad "nineteenth century" date range for this piece. In fact given the shift to Neoclassical design, it could even date to the last decade of the eighteenth.