Several years ago an antiques dealer in Texas acquired a number of very nice pieces of Belleek from an elderly collector. I purchased one of the first she put on eBay, a very nice toy shell sugar bowl with the crest of Dublin on it—I'm still searching for a matching creamer, but that's another story.

After a few friendly e-mails, I started to help her with some of the harder identifications (for instance, she had put the sugar bowl on eBay as a "nut cup").

When I saw this plate, I had to have it. I offered her a nice sum for it, and eventually she decided to sell it directly to me, rather than putting it on eBay.

It is first black mark, with an impressed British registry diamond that coded out to January 9th, 1871.

The elderly collector referred to it as a "strawberry plate."

I had best warn you that some people will believe it is the bottom plate of an Institute butter dish, but it is not. The pattern is similar, but is not quite the same; also, the registration mark date is different than for Institute.

—Susan Lane