The plate has wonderful provenance and motto. A ring of hand-painted flowers fills the border encircling the crest and motto at the center of the plate. The plate was made to serve cakes and other sweets. This large George IV armorial cake plate was made in the Flight Barr and Barr Worcester factory circa 1820. Height: 6″Ĭondition: Very slight wear to the bottom edge and handle, a very small flake on the handle see image #4 -a few very small firing and slip turning defects as originally made (see images). With rare exceptions, each piece of mochaware is unique. The managers of mochaware factories often only specified the style of the work but gave each turner some freedom regarding the choice of design and colors. The top and bottom of the mug are each decorated with three bands of blue slip. The handle of the mug has lovely foliate terminals. According to Rickard “A further enhancement of the marbling process involved the use of a tool that functioned much like a comb by dragging the toothed tool through the wet marbling in a … constant direction”. The renowned expert on Mocaware, Jonathan Rickard, lists this type of decoration in “Mocha and Related Dipped Wares 1770-1939” in a section entitled “Combinations and Other Oddities”, pages 106-121. Very small flakes near the corners have been invisibly restored, and some green on the leaves has been touched in.Īn exceptional mochaware mug with rare combed-down slip decoration. *Sir Hans Sloane bequeathed the album to the British Museum SL,5284.31.ĭimensions: 8″ wide and 8″ from top to bottom.Ĭondition: The current condition is excellent. The shape of the dish is octagonal with a traditional brown rim. Like this plate, Bow porcelain of this early period generally has a warm, creamy body that is glassy, and the glaze tends towards an ivory color. The owner of this album was Sir Hans Sloane, of the Chelsea Physic Garden, which the designers at Chelsea Porcelain were known to use as models for their “Hans Sloane” botanical plates. We can find a similar flower in an album of 141 watercolors of plants made by Henry Fletcher, Catalogus Plantarum*. At Bow, the large bold botanical designs for flat pieces, like this dish, were often borrowed from Chelsea. In the mid-18th century, when Bow painted this plate, the Chelsea porcelain factory was making the “Hans Sloane” botanicals. They add beauty and movement to the image. Two colorful butterflies, a lavender-pink caterpillar, and other insects are painted along the border.
The image is vibrant the three flower heads and the leaves extend beyond the center, curling up onto the border. The fully-painted center shows an exquisite flowering hibiscus. The exuberant flower painting is still fresh and exciting today. This rare Bow porcelain botanical plate was hand-painted in England circa 1760. It replaced saltglaze stoneware as the dinnerware of all but the high aristocracy, which most likely would have had a service of Chinese export porcelain dishes. As its popularity increased, many of the other English potters began to make creamware as well.
Wedgwood marketed these wares as Queensware after Queen Charlotte gave Wedgwood the honor of ordering a set. He was the first of the English potters to produce a cream-colored earthenware with a light-colored body. And at the far right, we see another boy seated with a parrot on his arm.Ĭreamware was created in the 1760s by Josiah Wedgwood. In conversation, we see two fashionably dressed women, a small child holding a pinwheel as he looks up, pointing to a group of chimes, and an older boy standing nearby. Decorated in enamels, both platesįeature a chinoiserie scene. We are pleased to offer this lovely pair of 18th century English creamware dishes made circa 1780.