What are ceramic identification marks?

Ceramic identification marks, such as signatures, are used by ceramic manufacturing companies to identify where ceramic products were created. In some cases, especially with antique ceramic identification marks, the individual artist who made the product is also part of the mark.

Ceramic identification marks are traditionally simple shapes, such as a circle or a star, or can be a few letters, a full name and numbers.

Kovels.com has a database where users can search marks and find information such as date of production, nickname of the product, what materials were used to create the product, and any related factories or artists.