Identifying True Etruscan Majolica

In the past five years there has been quite a bit of confusion about the term Etruscan Majolica.
Etruscan Majolica was a brand name given to the earthenware pottery created first by Griffen, Smith and Hill, then later manufactured by Griffen, Smith and Company; Griffen, Love and Company; and Griffen China Company, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania in the years between 1879 and 1892.
Recently this term has appeared on Ebay with increased frequency to describe majolica of a rustic nature, which is incorrect. Only true Phoenixville majolica should be labeled with the name Etruscan.
Reproductions of Etruscan majolica are numerous and well represented on Ebay listings so the novice buyer should be aware of certain qualities of the pottery that will help them identify the real thing. Never go by the mark--there are hundreds of fake, marked pieces out there.
Identification
One of the easiest ways to identify true Etruscan Majolica is by the color. The Etruscan Works used a very limited palette in creating their majolica. For one thing there is no turquoise in the Etruscan palette. Whenever you see a turquoise piece advertised as Etruscan, you know it's either a fake or wrongly attributed. All Etruscan glazes have a clear, transparent quality to them. The company was famous for the pastel glazes they used--another way to recognize real Etruscan majolica. The long time collector will recognize an Etruscan glaze on sight. The glazes are also quite true to the design they are representing. If you see very runny glazes with little or no definition, run in the other direction!
The underside is also an easy way of telling true Etruscan Majolica. During the eleven years that the company was in production they only used three underside treatments for their multicolored pottery: solid white; yellow and green sponged; and the most common, brown and teal-grey mottled. Any pottery with a treatment other than this is not Etruscan.
Markings
The vast majority of Etruscan Majolica is marked with either the GSH logo or the circular Etruscan Majolica mark but, as I mentioned earlier, many reproductions are also marked. The lack of a mark shouldn't deter you from buying an otherwise desirable piece because most of the later pieces were not marked at all, so there are quite a few out there. There are other telltale signs to distinguish a piece's pedigree. One thing that virtually all Etruscan majolica has on the base is a decorator's mark. Decorators were paid by the piece so they were diligent about marking the wares they worked on. The decorator's mark will appear as a small unglazed area on the underside of the piece with either a stamped or hand written two digit number in the unglazed area. These marks can often be attributed to specific decorators who worked at the pottery. In fact, the decorator's mark is actually a better indication of the piece's origin as many unmarked pieces have the decorator's mark but not the GSH stamp. Otherwise, reproductions with fake Etruscan marks never have decorator's marks.
Another way of telling a fake marked piece from a real marked piece is by looking at the mark itself. Etruscan marks were pressed INTO the body of the piece--the words ETRUSCAN MAJOLICA as well as the stars in the circular Etruscan logo itself should be pressed into the clay. If they stick out it is certainly a reproduction. Marks, if they are present, are almost always crisp and clear in the colored majolica pieces. If the mark looks at all distorted or muddy, it should send up a red flag. Don't forget that Etruscan Majolica is sometimes not marked with the usual Etruscan logo. Sometimes it is only marked with the catalog number.
I should also mention printed marks. The Etruscan Works NEVER marked their wares with ink marks. I have seen pieces that have come out of Europe with ink Etruscan logos on the underside. These are categorically fakes. While the later potteries that took over the Phoenix Pottery did indeed use ink marks, the name "Etruscan" was never used in these marks. Ink marks that were used in these later pieces include: Griffen, Love

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