http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u3/cartozian1638/IMG_0125.jpg

You say 75 years? I doubt if they are that old that old....maybe 50 years?
How about a picture of the marks on the bottom...
Linda C

not according to my grandmother who inherited them in the 1950's.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u3/cartozian1638/lNEVC.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u3/cartozian1638/6qPSJ.jpg

I don't think they're from 1741. Most antiques from that era weren't dated. So, they're Italian. Who left them to your grandmother?

They say "Italy" on the bottom....not "made in" nor any maker's mark.
Earthenware marked like that is usually advertised at an auction or in a shop as "hand painted Italy". That pretty well zeros in on after the 1920's.
They are Capodimonte wannabes. Not bearing the crown mark not any pottery mark, but after the style, but cruder, less refined and carefully molded.
I still say 1950's or later and say that your grandmother's aunt bought them new about that time.
Do a search for things like Capodimonte angels and capodimonte putti and cherubs. I'll bet you will find some look alkies.
Linda C

I peeked at the numbers on the bottom, and they are just fuzzy enough that I can't make out a date. I don't know about Italy, but in most other parts of Western Europe, a handwritten seven has a slash through it. I'm wondering if what you're interpreting as 1741, isn't 1941 instead.

Then again, patterns are sometimes identified through numbers, instead of names. My formal Bavarian China doesn't have a 'name'. It's not typically imported into the U.S., and is simply identified by a number.

Since it has the word Italy, and not Italia, I presume it was meant for export to an English speaking country. Actually, the pieces have enough variance in the tolerances of the tops, they look handworked and perhaps joined to a slip cast bottom. I'd call them more 'primitive' than crude. Perhaps produced in a smaller cottage industry shop. They proliferated in many pottery producing areas.

I know jack poo about Italian pottery, but also think they're newer than 75 years. And are very pleasant pieces.

The thing about 'dating' older pieces by relating them to an ancestor. Just because you can link them to a person who is the equivalent of a great grandparent in age, doesn't date that object to the same era. My great-grandfather was born before the Civil War, but I assume he was still purchasing new items well into the 1940s.

Your search might find modern comparables if you try Italian faience (Majolica)... originally a tin glazed pottery with a buff colored body. Lots of images on the internet. Faience pottery factory pieces were seldom marked - the old, quality stuff had to be judged on the workmanship of the piece itself, glaze palette, and the decoration style. And much of it is probably in museums.

Today's versions of the old faience with incised marks - I didn't look at all your posted images - more than likely reference lot or control or style numbers, and not a date.

Time was, these kinds of wares were sold in the giftware depts. of department stores, sometimes in jewelry stores, etc. I won't hazard a guess as to the age of yours, but a ballpark would be 40's or 50's.

any idea on their worth or rarity? I'm guessing not much.

I'm doubting either rare or scarce. And, if imported to appeal to a mass American audience, whatever value they would have to someone today would lie in the fact that you have a "reasonably" matched pair. (Cottage industry craftsmen throwing pots or local potteries hand decorating blanks can rarely turn out absolutely identical items.)

Enjoy them on a mantel or in a bookshelf.