The impressed seal was reserved for use on artwork produced in terracotta during the first three decades of the twentieth century.
Terracotta, in comparison to the industrial white clays used in mass production, is rough and very dense. It must, by its nature, be worked entirely by hand. Modern machines would be damaged by its demanding composition. This means that the terracotta must be hand worked into the molds and when the clay is dry it must be removed from the molds by hand. This process limits production numbers to a fraction of that created by industrial clays using machinery. Most pieces found with this mark appeared in the early Cantagalli Catalog.
Your glazed terracotta piece is not really a plate. It is correctly called a “Tondo” which is to say “Art in the Round”. Most tondos are large, usually two feet or more in diameter but the term has been expanded in modern times to include smaller examples.
Walter Del Pellegrino
