Wedgwood Creamware Soup Plate With Ship Flying the Imperial Double-Headed Eagle, Circa 1775–1790

Details

Description

Wedgwood Creamware Soup Plate with Ship Flying the Imperial Double-Headed Eagle,
Circa 1775–1790


A Wedgwood Queen’s ware soup plate of … Read more Wedgwood Creamware Soup Plate with Ship Flying the Imperial Double-Headed Eagle,
Circa 1775–1790


A Wedgwood Queen’s ware soup plate of the lobed “Royal” shape, printed in black at Liverpool with a three-masted ship under full sail on a choppy sea. From her stern flies a big yellow flag, colored by hand, bearing the black double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Emperor, the one flash of color against the cream ground and the fine black engraving. The owner’s initials appear twice, “LCBCC” in a panel on the waves and “FMDCB” at the top of the rim, and five sprays of flowers and fruit run around the border.

This is a plate from a personalized service made for a merchant or shipowner trading between Britain and the Continent, the flag pointing to the Habsburg ports of Ostend or Trieste, though Robin Reilly has read it as Russian and made for the Baltic trade. Two soup plates from the same service are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and another is at Colonial Williamsburg, so it keeps distinguished company.

Black-and-cream ship prints work in almost any room. Prop it on a stand in a study or a library, hang it among sailor’s woolworks and marine pictures, or lean it in a kitchen plate rack, where the strong black engraving reads from across the room; the single yellow flag picks up warm tones in a scheme. It is the kind of piece that starts a conversation at the table.

Dimensions
Diameter: 9 1/2 inches (24.1 cm)
Height: 1 inch (2.5 cm)

Marks
Impressed WEDGWOOD, faint.

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge See less