Most Wedgwood sells for about $5-40 a piece as of late 2026. The pale blue jasperware with white classical figures that most people picture, the pin trays, lighters, trinket boxes, small vases and cameo plates, was made by the million from the 1950s through the 1990s and is the most common English ceramic in American homes after everyday dinnerware. The valuable Wedgwood is a specific and shorter list: 18th century jasperware and black basalt, especially anything marked Wedgwood and Bentley; the Fairyland Lustre bowls and vases designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones between 1915 and 1931; the 1930s matte-glazed designs of Keith Murray; the printed mugs and tableware designed by Eric Ravilious; good Victorian majolica; and the 19th century copies of the Portland Vase. Those sell for $200-5,000 as a rule and the best Fairyland and 18th century pieces for $10,000-50,000 and more.
Two things decide the price inside those ranges: the date, which the impressed marks give with unusual precision for an English pottery, and the line. A 1780s jasperware medallion and a 1980s one can look alike across a room and differ by a hundred times in price.
Quick answer
- 20th century pale blue jasperware, small pieces: $5-40. Larger vases and plaques: $40-200.
- 18th century jasperware, basalt and Wedgwood and Bentley marked pieces: $500-10,000+.
- Fairyland Lustre by Daisy Makeig-Jones: $1,500-20,000+.
- Keith Murray and Eric Ravilious designs: $200-3,000.
- Impressed WEDGWOOD with three letters dates to 1860 to 1906; ENGLAND means after 1891; MADE IN ENGLAND means after about 1908.
How to identify and date Wedgwood, step by step
- Find the mark and read the spelling. Genuine Wedgwood is spelled with one E in the middle: WEDGWOOD. "Wedgewood" with an extra E is a different and lesser maker or an outright fake. "Wedgwood & Co" is Enoch Wedgwood of Tunstall, an unrelated firm making ordinary earthenware, and is worth far less.
- Date by the wording. Impressed WEDGWOOD in capitals alone, with no country, dates to before 1891 on jasperware and basalt. The word ENGLAND added below the name dates to 1891 to about 1908. MADE IN ENGLAND dates from about 1908 onward. A sans-serif WEDGWOOD with MADE IN ENGLAND on a single line is mid-20th century, and the 1960s to 1990s pieces often carry a two-digit year number as well.
- Read the three-letter date code if there is one. From 1860 to 1906 Wedgwood impressed three letters beside the name. The third letter is the year: O is 1860, P 1861 and so on to Z for 1871, then A for 1872 through Z for 1897, then A again for 1898 through I for 1906. The ENGLAND mark tells you which cycle you are in. After 1907 the first letter was replaced by a numeral 3, and from 1924 by a 4, and from 1930 the year appears as two digits.
- Identify the body. Jasperware is unglazed stoneware with applied white reliefs; pale blue is the most common, then sage green, dark blue, black, lilac, terracotta and the modern Portland blue, and yellow, crimson and three-color pieces are rare. Black basalt is a dense black stoneware. Queen's Ware is cream-colored earthenware. Bone china carries a printed mark, usually the Portland Vase device, from 1878.
- Tell solid jasper from jasper dip. Solid jasper is colored right through the body, used mainly from 1774 into the 1780s and again on some later pieces. Jasper dip is a white body dipped in colored slip, used from the late 1770s and standard from the 19th century. Look at an unglazed edge or a chip: dip shows white beneath the color. Solid jasper from the 18th century carries a premium.
- Look at the relief quality. On 18th and early 19th century jasperware the white figures are crisp, undercut and slightly translucent at the thin edges, applied by hand and finished with tools. On 20th century pieces the reliefs are flatter, softer in detail and uniform from piece to piece.
- Check for the famous names. Fairyland Lustre is printed and painted in bright colors over a lustre ground with fairies, elves and fantastic landscapes, marked with the Portland Vase and a pattern number beginning with Z. Keith Murray pieces are plain, ribbed or turned shapes in matte green, straw, moonstone or black, with a printed or impressed KM or Keith Murray signature. Ravilious pieces are printed designs on Queen's Ware, including the Alphabet, Garden, Travel and Coronation series, and the later editions from the 1950s are marked as such.
- Search sold prices for the body, line and date together. A pale blue jasper vase from 1975 and one from 1790 are different markets. Filter to sold listings, match the color, the mark and the size, and note which comparables came from an auction house.
What the common lines sell for
Josiah Wedgwood founded the firm in 1759, opened the Etruria works near Stoke-on-Trent in 1769, perfected jasperware in 1774 and sold it across Europe through the partnership with Thomas Bentley that ended with Bentley's death in 1780. The company moved to Barlaston in 1940, and is now part of a larger tableware group with production largely moved abroad. The following prices assume undamaged pieces, as of late 2026.
| Line | Era | Typical sold price, undamaged, as of late 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Pale blue jasperware, small pieces (pin dishes, trinket boxes, lighters, ashtrays) | 1950 to 2000 | $5-30 |
| Pale blue jasperware vases, biscuit barrels, cheese domes, plaques | 1950 to 2000 | $30-200 |
| Jasperware in sage, black, lilac, terracotta, Portland blue | 1950 to 2000 | $15-150 |
| Jasperware in yellow, crimson or three colors | 1910 to 1990 | $100-800 |
| Victorian jasperware, dated 1860 to 1906, vases and plaques | 1860 to 1906 | $80-600 |
| 18th century jasperware medallions, plaques and vases | 1774 to 1800 | $500-10,000+ |
| Wedgwood and Bentley marked basalt or jasper | 1769 to 1780 | $1,500-20,000+ |
| Black basalt, 19th and 20th century | 1800 to 2000 | $40-400 |
| Portland Vase copies, 19th century editions | 1839 to 1900 | $1,000-6,000 |
| Fairyland Lustre bowls, vases, plaques | 1915 to 1931 | $1,500-20,000+ |
| Dragon, Butterfly and Hummingbird Lustre | 1914 to 1931 | $200-1,500 |
| Keith Murray matte-glazed vases and bowls | 1933 to 1950 | $200-3,000 |
| Eric Ravilious printed mugs, Alphabet and Travel ware | 1937 to 1960 | $200-2,500 |
| Majolica, Victorian, marked | 1860 to 1910 | $100-1,500 |
| Bone china dinner services (Wild Strawberry, Florentine, Kutani Crane), per place setting | 1950 to 2010 | $20-60 |
| Queen's Ware and Edme tableware | 1900 to 2000 | $5-60 per piece |
| Peter Rabbit and other nursery ware | 1949 to 2000 | $10-50 per piece |
| Collectors' society and limited edition pieces | 1970 to 2010 | $20-150 |
The first three rows are most of what turns up, and the honest reading is that a shelf of 1970s pale blue jasperware is a pleasant collection worth a few hundred dollars altogether. The money is in the first fifty years of the firm and in the three or four 20th century designers whose work collectors chase by name.
Condition, and what adds or subtracts
| Factor | Effect on price |
|---|---|
| Undamaged, reliefs crisp and complete | The baseline for the prices above |
| Chip to a rim or foot | Deduction of 40-70 percent on common pieces, 20-40 percent on rare ones |
| Crack or hairline | Deduction of 60-90 percent |
| Lost or chipped applied relief figure | Deduction of 30-60 percent |
| Staining to an unglazed jasper body | Deduction of 20-40 percent; it does not clean out |
| Firing cracks and kiln marks on 18th century pieces | Expected; minor deduction at most |
| Original fitted case or box for medallions and jewelry | Adds 20-50 percent |
| Documented provenance for 18th century pieces | Adds considerably at auction |
| Matched pair of vases | Worth well over twice a single |
| Complete dinner service with serving pieces | Sells as a lot, usually for less per piece than replacements dealers charge |
| Lid present on a biscuit barrel, cheese dome or teapot | Expected; a missing lid halves the price |
Jasperware is unglazed, so it stains and it holds dirt in the reliefs. Do not scrub it, do not use bleach, and do not try to remove old stains from an early piece; collectors accept them, and the damage from cleaning is worse.
Why early Wedgwood and Fairyland cost so much
Josiah Wedgwood spent years and thousands of trials perfecting jasperware, and the pieces of the 1770s and 1780s were finished by skilled modelers working from designs by John Flaxman and others. They were luxury goods sold to aristocrats, few were made, and the Wedgwood and Bentley mark covers only eleven years. That scarcity, plus the crispness of the early reliefs, is why an 18th century medallion can sell for thousands while a near copy from 1975 sells for twenty dollars.
Fairyland Lustre is the other peak. Daisy Makeig-Jones designed the series during and after the First World War, the pieces were expensive and slow to make, and the line was discontinued in 1931 when the Depression killed demand. Bowls and vases with the rarer patterns in bright condition now sell for five figures. The related Dragon and Butterfly lustres are prettier than they are rare and sell for far less.
How WorthPic reads Wedgwood photos
WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. From a photo of the base it reads the spelling of the mark, the presence of ENGLAND or MADE IN ENGLAND, the three-letter date code and any pattern number, and places the piece within a few years. From a photo of the body it reads the color and the line, the sharpness of the reliefs and whether the figures are hand-finished or softer modern applications, and it recognizes Fairyland Lustre, Keith Murray and Ravilious designs by their patterns. It then gives an honest value range for the line, date and condition it can see. What a photo often cannot settle is whether a piece is solid jasper or dip, whether a stain or a hairline is present under the reliefs and whether an 18th century mark is on an 18th century body, and it says so and names the photo that would help, usually a raking-light close-up of the reliefs or an unglazed edge. It identifies and estimates. It does not authenticate, it does not appraise for insurance and it does not vouch for a piece. Anything marked Wedgwood and Bentley, any Fairyland Lustre and anything that appears to be worth more than about $500 belongs in the hands of a ceramics appraiser or an auction house ceramics specialist.
Common mistakes
- Reading a 1950s to 1990s jasperware piece as antique because the design is classical. The MADE IN ENGLAND mark and the soft reliefs date it.
- Buying "Wedgewood" with an extra E. It is not the same firm.
- Treating Wedgwood & Co of Tunstall as Josiah Wedgwood's company. The & Co is the giveaway.
- Reading the three-letter date code without checking for ENGLAND, which tells you which 26-year cycle the letter belongs to.
- Scrubbing stained jasperware or bleaching it. The body is porous and the damage is permanent.
- Assuming a dinner service is worth what a replacements dealer charges per piece. Services sell as lots for a fraction of that.
- Pricing from asking listings. Jasperware is listed everywhere at hopeful prices and sells slowly.
- Selling a Fairyland Lustre bowl locally without a specialist opinion. The pattern and the condition move the price by thousands.
What to photograph
- The base, square on and close enough to read every impressed and printed mark, the date letters and any pattern number. This is the photo that dates the piece and settles most cases.
- The whole piece from the front in daylight, showing the color true.
- The reliefs at a raking angle, close up, to show their sharpness and any losses.
- Any chip, stain, hairline or restoration, with the lighting from the side.
- An unglazed edge or the inside of a foot rim, which shows solid jasper against dip.
- For lustre ware, the interior and exterior in soft light, so the colors and the pattern are visible.
- A ruler in one photo for size.
When to get it looked at in person
Mid-century pale blue jasperware does not need an expert; sold listings price it and a local antiques dealer or estate sale is the usual outlet. The pieces that deserve a specialist are anything marked Wedgwood and Bentley or with an 18th century mark, any Fairyland Lustre, Keith Murray and Ravilious pieces, Portland Vase copies, good majolica and anything that appears to be worth more than about $500. A ceramics appraiser or an auction house with a British ceramics specialist can look at the body, the reliefs and the mark in hand, tell restoration from original and reach the buyers who pay the top prices. Wedgwood rarely arrives alone, and our guides to how to read pottery marks and old china dishes cover the rest of the cabinet, while Hummel figurines and antique silverware handle what usually sits beside it.