French Empress Joséphine Bonaparte Porcelain Floral Serving Dish, Pm & M Bavaria

Details

Description

Beautiful round figural and floral motif serving dish of Joséphine Bonaparte by famed porcelain maker PM & M Bavaria, Germany. … Read more Beautiful round figural and floral motif serving dish of Joséphine Bonaparte by famed porcelain maker PM & M Bavaria, Germany. Round in form, the dish features scalloped edges, with raised dot details and raised whimsical patterns surrounding the outer corners. Gold is hand-painted surrounding the outer lip and shows some wear from age, including some rubbing away from the gold.

At the center of this figurative royal dish, at the bottom, is an ethereal portrait of Empress Joséphine Bonaparte of France. The first Empress of France, Joséphine dons her Crown Jewels. Including a diamond crown accented with red rubies and red velvet. A white lace scalloped edge veil attaches to her crown and falls past her bust. A green corseted dress with short balloon sleeves can be seen behind her veil. A matching ruby and diamond necklace drapes around her neck. Her hair is dark and trails down in curls toward her shoulders and peeks out from behind her crown. The subject is on a pale mint green background. At the bottom of the portrait, Joséphine is signed in gold.

Surrounding the Empress, at the high inner walls of the dish, are lush pink bouquets of roses with green leaves and stems. Additionally, gold flourishes are painted whimsically between the floral bouquets. Roses are a fitting decoration for this piece, as the Empress, before her marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte, went by the name of Rose or Marie-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie. Joséphine was also a great lover of roses and maintained a garden of the flower from all corners of the globe at her garden in Chateau de Maison.

Joséphine was the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte after he declared himself emperor of the France. He later divorced her for not bearing any male heirs.

The bottom is double marked with PM&M in green as well as a gold number 107 which dates the plate back to 1895 -1910.

How we would style it:
Josephine was born into a wealthy French family who owned a sugar cane factory. So we think it would be fitting to use this dish for serving something sweet. Perhaps cookies, muffins, or candies. Everything is about scale, and one can’t go wrong with an extra large candy dish!

Alternatively, this would be a great fruit bowl, or even as a piece to display in a china cabinet.

Dimensions:
10" diameter
3" tall See less