Majolica and Cabbageware Value: Victorian Marks, Bordallo Pinheiro, and Reproductions

Majolica is earthenware molded in raised shapes (leaves, fruit, birds, shells) and covered in thick, bright, glossy glazes. Cabbageware is the piece of it everybody knows: plates and bowls shaped and glazed like a cabbage leaf. Both are back on the shelves. Decorating has moved off the all-white, all-beige look, and colorful pottery is selling again, especially green.

The trick with this category is that the same leaf plate can be a $12 piece made last year or a $150 piece made in 1880. The bottom and the glaze tell you which.

Majolica and Cabbageware Value Chart

Booth and estate-sale prices for pieces with no chips, cracks or repairs unless the row says otherwise. These are typical pieces, not the best ever sold.

Typical ranges as of October 2026. Prices vary by area and condition. Snap yours with PocketPrice to see what it'll bring near you.

You'll see big-name Victorian pieces (Minton game pie dishes, George Jones cheese domes, large figural pieces) sell for thousands. Those are auction results for rare forms in top condition. They are not what a typical piece of majolica brings, so don't price a leaf plate off them.

Victorian Majolica: The Makers to Know

Victorian majolica was made from the 1850s to about 1900, in England first and then in the United States. Minton introduced it at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, and dozens of potteries followed. Most of what you'll find is unmarked. The names that matter:

• Minton: the first and, to collectors, the top name. Impressed “MINTON” or “MINTONS” with a small date symbol.
• Wedgwood: impressed “WEDGWOOD” with a three-letter date code. Leaf plates and small dishes turn up more than you'd think.
• George Jones: an impressed “GJ” monogram, often with a painted pattern number. Known for mottled glaze on the back and pieces with lots of animals and plants.
• Griffen, Smith & Hill (“Etruscan”): Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, 1880s. An impressed monogram, sometimes with “Etruscan Majolica.” Their shell-and-seaweed and leaf plates are the American pieces you see most.

Unmarked Victorian majolica from smaller English and American potteries is common and sells well. It just sells for less than a marked piece in the same shape.

Cabbageware: Bordallo Pinheiro and the Modern Pieces

Bordallo Pinheiro has made pottery in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, since 1884, and its cabbage line is the cabbageware most people picture. It is still made and sold new, which is why secondhand prices stay reasonable: a buyer can always get a new dinner plate. Sets, serving pieces and the less common shapes are what sell above the plate price.

Other Portuguese and Italian potteries made cabbage plates and bowls from the 1960s on, and home stores have sold their own versions for decades. Most are marked only “Made in Portugal” or “Made in Italy,” and they sell as nice, useful dishes, not as collectibles.

How to Identify Majolica and Spot a Reproduction

Flip it over

1. An impressed mark is pressed into the clay before firing and sits under the glaze. It can be faint. Tilt the piece under a light and look in the center and near the foot ring.
2. A painted pattern or shape number is usually a few hand-painted digits. It's a good sign of an English piece but doesn't name the maker by itself.
3. A printed “Made in Portugal” or “Made in Italy” stamp means the 20th century or later. Country names on imports weren't required until 1891, and a printed stamp on majolica is almost always much newer than that. A paper sticker or a molded “China” is newer still.

Old or new?

Reproductions of Victorian majolica have been made since the 1970s, many with fake marks. Don't trust a mark alone. Check these five things in your hands:

• Glaze: old glaze pools in the low spots and runs a little over the edges, with fine crazing. New glaze is even and glassy. Watch for crazing that has been stained dark on purpose to look old.
• Back: many Victorian pieces have a mottled brown, green and purple glaze on the underside. Most reproductions have one plain color or bare white clay.
• Molding: old molds give crisp, deep detail in the veins and edges. Copies are made from molds taken off old pieces, so the detail comes out soft and blurry.
• Wear: a 140-year-old plate has a worn, slightly dirty foot ring. A sharp, clean foot on an “antique” is a red flag.
• Weight and feel: compare it to a piece you know. Reproductions often feel wrong, either thick and heavy or light and chalky.

The Forms That Sell

• Leaf plates: the most common form, old and new. Easy to display in groups on a wall or a hutch.
• Pitchers: the most popular Victorian form. Fish, bird, corn and leaf pitchers sell fastest. Look inside: many have a pink or turquoise lining.
• Cheese domes and keepers: a top form. Check that the lid and base belong together; a married set is worth much less.
• Serving bowls, tureens and platters: the big cabbage tureen with its ladle is what holiday hosts want.
• Sardine boxes, butter pats and small dishes: small, cheaper, and good impulse buys at the register.

What Raises or Kills the Value

Raises it

• A real mark from Minton, Wedgwood, George Jones or Etruscan.
• Color: turquoise, cobalt and pink grounds sell above the common brown and green.
• Animals and figures: birds, fish, monkeys and frogs beat plain leaves.
• Sets: six or eight matching cabbage plates sell faster and for more per plate than singles.
• Lids and inserts present: a cheese dome, tureen or sardine box with all its parts.

Kills it

• Glaze flakes: majolica glaze chips off the high spots and edges easily. Run a fingernail around the rim and over the raised parts; a snag is a flake.
• Hairlines: hold a plate up to a bright light, or tap it gently. A dull thud instead of a ring can mean a crack.
• Repairs: restorers fill and repaint chips so well you can't see them. Under a blacklight, repaired spots often glow or look different from the glaze around them. A restored piece should be priced and tagged as restored.
• Heavy crazing with staining: some crazing is normal; brown lines all over a plate turn buyers away.

Selling It Locally vs. Online

Most majolica sells best in person. It's heavy, it chips if you look at it wrong, and the bright color is what makes people pick it up. A cabbage plate or a $40 pitcher doesn't justify $15–$25 of shipping and double boxing, and a flake in transit means a refund. Booths, estate sales and Facebook Marketplace pickup are the right home for modern cabbageware and unmarked pieces.

Take marked Victorian pieces, rare forms and anything you think is worth over about $200 online or to an auction house that handles pottery. There are collectors in other states who will pay to ship them, and an in-person shopper may not know what a George Jones mark means.

Pricing Tips for Booth Vendors This Season

• Sell it for the holiday table now. Green cabbage plates look right on a Thanksgiving and Christmas table. Stack a set of six with a tureen on a tablecloth and price the set as a set.
• Hold some for spring. Cabbageware has a second season around Easter and Mother's Day. If a set doesn't move by mid-December, put it away rather than mark it down hard.
• Group the color. A shelf of mixed majolica in turquoise, pink and green stops people in an aisle full of brown. Colorful pottery is selling because it looks different from everything else in the room.
• Put it behind glass if it's Victorian. Old majolica chips when shoppers set it down hard. Lock up the marked pieces and use plate stands.
• Tag it honestly. “Victorian, unmarked,” “Bordallo Pinheiro, Portugal,” or “majolica style, modern.” Buyers who know will trust the rest of your booth more.

Related Guides

See our pottery and ceramics price guide for the rest of the shelf, and is my china worth anything? for the dinnerware sets that come out of the same cabinets. For holiday tables, read Christmas dinnerware values (Spode and Lenox). And for the bigger picture, how to price antiques.