Car Boot Sale Vintage Crockery Sweep

I've been planning ahead this week for my birthday party next month and have decided on a Mad Hatter's Tea Party theme, so a trip to the car boot sale was in order on the weekend. The plan was to source some cheap and cheerful teacups, saucers, plates and teapots that aren't valuable enough for me to be worrying about when everyone's had a few too many Pimms.

This is a picture of my haul - the whole lot for £3!



There's a fair bit of modern, chinese made stuff, and the Duchess 'Tranquility' teacups were made from the late 1940s through to 1999, so I'm guessing they're the later version. This afternoon I decided to take a closer look at what I'd picked up and have realised that among the modern stuff there are a few pieces that are more than likely from someone's vintage kitchen, including a very retro looking opaque Arcoplan 'milk' set of 4 cups and plates with tiny orange and grey flowers. Armed with Miller's pottery and porcelain marks guide and google, I've spent a good few hours trying to decipher backstamps and am no closer to finding out where the handpainted white and gold plates are from, the only clue being a mysterious scripted gold letter 'f' on the back of the largest plate.

As for the teapot, it's from Kernewek, Cornwall, but again I have no idea of the age. I'm off to the library tomorrow to find a bigger book with more marks in it, but if anyone reading this has an in-depth knowledge of how to date china, please get in touch! It's all very exciting and I'm predicting the start of a crockery collection...