Poole Pottery Celebrating Thomas Hardy Festival 1968

This plate dates from 1968 - fifty years after Thomas Hardy died.  The trapezoid shape was first used for Delphis decoration in 1966, and the early examples, I think, like the dish here, have little feet at the back to stand on, rather than a complete foot ring.  The raised decoration is also reminiscent of (if much less sophisticated than) the early Poole portrait plaques and tiles made during world war 1, that used a Tremblay technique to give a quite photographic likeness.