Can anyone throw some light upon this please?

[josey]

Looks like a transfer print & tin glazed pottery to me, not hand-drawn, so I agree with alpine too.

Interesting about umbrella design - I have always meant to research that as my Trowsdales were umbrella makers  . My mother's cousin still has the chest of drawers in which they were kept in the shop.  Also 1 ancestor was a witness in court in 1843 as he had been offered a broken [turned out to be stolen] umbrella for sale which he mended. 

[Flattybasher9]

Surprised that no one has mentioned the border pattern.

Malky

[Maggie.]

If it helps here is a picture of the broken edge.  Could it be English Deftware?

[groom]

According to Wiki English Delftware was produced between 1550 and the late 18th century. I think if you could date the umbrella style it might help.

[Maggie.]

The unbrella seems steeply pitched.  The "U" shaped Paragon steel rib, which apparently revolutionised umbrellas, was invented in 1852.  Prior to that they were whalebone.  Does the shape of this one indicate it is steel ribbed therefore greater flexibility?

The brolly looks very large therefore I think the figure holding it is a child.

[alpinecottage]

The pictures of English Delftware on Google are all on flat plates, not with embossed rims like the find.  Also almost all have Delftware plates have a painted blue border, in fact they are all decorated with blue, not black, and they don't feature figures like that on your plate fragment, so I really don't think your plate is delftware. 

[Maggie.]

Just by way of not a lot I have tried to reconstruct what the umbrella carrier may have looked like.

[Maggie.]

I'm no pottery expert, but to quote Wikipedia on English Delftware ..........

.......its peculiarly English quality has been commented upon: . . . there is a relaxed tone and a sprightliness which is preserved throughout the history of English delftware; the overriding mood is provincial and naïve rather than urbane and sophisticated."

This seems to fit the image on the plate quite well, so I wondered if it was a possibility.

[josey]

Very clever Maggie!!

I think the plate was made from a stock of cheaper embossed 'bases' by a manufacturer who then applied the transfers & glaze [just like in the pottery dens of today you can decorate & glaze pre-made bases].  I agree with alpine - again  - that it's not English delftware. I always thought that delftware pictures were handpainted.... I am prepared as ever to be wrong though