Each Moorcroft design starts life as a trial. After the trialling process, when a design is approved for production, it will be categorised as either an Open Edition, Numbered Edition or Limited Edition. Limited Editions will be signed by the designer under glaze and will carry a limited edition number (eg 1/50, 2/50, etc on a limited edition of 50). In this example, only 50 pieces will be made of this design (in addition to the trials made previously). Any seconds will form part of the edition, so there are no guarantees that 50 best quality pieces will be produced. The same situation applies to Numbered Editions where a number is assigned to a second’s piece.

It is worth noting that Moorcroft Pottery does have a process to quality check all pieces before sending them out to their Authorised Retailers. This provides the added assurance to customers of the retailers shop that they are purchasing a "Best Quality" piece.

Numbered Editions will also be signed under glaze by the designer, and each will carry an edition number, but rather than having a predetermined set number of pieces in the edition, the edition is only limited by the time that the design remains available to order.  So, if a Numbered Edition remains available for several years, we could make upwards of 100 pieces, each carrying their own edition number, but if a design is discontinued after a shorter period of time, there may only be a smaller number produced.

Open Editions do not carry the designers' signature, only their monograms, and do not have any numbers on their base.Don't be fooled, just because its an open edition, it doesn't mean that more pieces are produced; we can often make fewer such pieces than limited editions available at the time. Moorcroft signatures and marks help to identify who designed your piece of Moorcroft and can also be used to date pieces of Moorcroft.

Every piece of Moorcroft has marks on the base which will tell a story. They identify the fact that it was made in England, who designed the particular piece, the year the piece was made, the year of the design and who painted and tubelined the particular piece. Initials which are painted onto the base of Moorcroft marks the painter’s name and the initial that appears to be stamped into the clay body is the initial of the tubeliner in question. Painters and Tubeliners initials have been marked since the 1990’s and allow avid Moorcroft enthusiasts to track those pieces that have been made by their favoured tubeliner or artist.