First Period Worcester Blue and White Pine Cone Pattern Dinner Plates, Set of 12, Circa 1770

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First Period Worcester Blue and White Pine Cone Pattern Dinner Plates, Set of 12,
Circa 1770

Twelve matching eighteenth-century Worcester … Read more First Period Worcester Blue and White Pine Cone Pattern Dinner Plates, Set of 12,
Circa 1770

Twelve matching eighteenth-century Worcester dinner plates, printed in a deep, clear cobalt blue with the factory’s celebrated Pine Cone pattern. Each plate has a softly scalloped rim and a generous central group of fruit and flowers, with a full blossom and bud beside ripe pine cones, a pomegranate and berried sprigs, and trailing branches of small flowers spreading across the well. Five floral sprays sit around the border between plain white reserves, framed by a fine blue line at the edge.

The Pine Cone pattern was the most popular of all the floral designs Worcester produced, and it is easy to see why: it has the richness of hand painting with the crisp, even quality of a fine engraving. Finding a dozen together is rare. The plates come with distinguished provenance, having passed through the Jean and Joseph Connolly Collection in Montréal and a private collection in Maine.

These are working plates as much as collectors’ pieces. Set them on a bare walnut or scrubbed pine table for a country-house supper, layer them over rattan or linen chargers, or hang a run of six above a sideboard, where the scalloped edges and open white borders read beautifully against a painted wall. They sit as happily in a crisp modern kitchen as in a paneled dining room, and they mix well with Delft, creamware, and other blue and white.

Dimensions
Diameter: 9 5/8 inches (24.4 cm)
Height: 1 1/4 inches (3.2 cm)

Marks
Hatched (shaded) crescent in underglaze blue to the underside, the mark used at Worcester on its transfer-printed wares.

Provenance
Jean and Joseph Connolly Collection, Montréal
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge
Private Collection, Maine

References
Lawrence Branyan, Neal French and John Sandon, Worcester Blue and White Porcelain 1751–1790, p. 382, The Pine Cone Group, pattern II.C.11, where an identical scallop-edged plate is illustrated. See less