Registered Design Numbers

The following metalware information was formerly available on the Oxton Decorative Arts web site:

The dating of British designs during the Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods is often assisted by the use of Registered Design Numbers. This was a system which came into being in 1842 and started to decline in the early 1930s. It enabled manufacturers, retailers or designers to register their designs, so that they could not be copied. It was therefore like a cross between a patent and a copyright. Many designs were registered by the manufacturers or retailers rather than the designers, so it is not often possible to identify designers on the basis of Registered Design numbers alone.

Two systems operated―the first used a lozenge shape with letters and numbers at each corner to signify the date or registration―the abbreviation Rd appeared at the center. The letter at the top corner identifies the year. This system ran until 1883, when it was replaced by a series of sequential numbers preceded by Rd, which can be banded into years for dating purposes. For example, Rd 291330 dates a design to 1897. For most years there are overlaps in the sequences of numbers. Details of the registered designs were included in the official journal of Patents, of which there were one or more volumes per year.

The lozenge series of year letters from 1868 to 1883 is as follows:

1868	X	1872	I	1876	V	1880	J
1869	H	1873	F	1877	P	1881	E
1870	C	1874	U	1878	D	1882	L
1871	A	1875	S	1879	Y	1883	K

The numeric series is as follows:

Year	From	To	Year	From	To
1884	1	18992	1902	371435	402112
1885	18993	39467	1903	392760	422997
1886	38212	64030	1904	408651	446801
1887	61207	89833	1905	428004	470855
1888	87266	116092	1906	465328	492874
1889	111664	140172	1907	467274	517524
1890	139095	163279	1908	502933	534104
1891	160613	184852	1909	523477	554717
1892	180237	204032	1910	534174	575662
1893	201007	224018	1911	561570	594079
1894	221919	246246	1912	575100	611522
1895	233880	267568	1913	608541	630059
1896	257070	290056	1914	627492	644783
1897	285275	310920	1915	642613	653479
1898	302109	330922	1916	648264	658961
1899	313829	350675	1917	655001	662792
1900	340826	367634	1918	660812	666065
1901	360834	384489	1919	664587	673595

This page was last updated on September 26, 2004.