The English Meakin Brothers... James, George and Alfred Meakin... were famous for producing earthen ware from the mid 1870's and then their firm was taken over by the Wedgewood group in 1970. Not a huge amount of info is available online so unfortunately that's all I can tell you about their history.
But what I do know for sure is that there a full sets and bits and pieces floating out there waiting to be found. So far I've found two; one J & G Meakin and one Alfred Meakin.
This was $1 and I think she's quite pretty. Absolutely no chips or scratches!
This one is unusual....found for $3.99 and also without chips or scratches. An Alfred Meakin plate with a hole in the center!
A cake plate without a holder? Somebody at some stage drilled a hole in it for some reason? If it was the later, they did an extremely clean job. I've not found another Meakin plate online like this, although I have found a few with the same design mostly in pink, but only one in blue.
