Late 18th Century Derby Porcelain Yellow-Ground Botanical Dish, "Orange Tree", Pattern 216

Details

Description

Derby Porcelain Yellow-Ground Botanical Dish, "Orange Tree", Pattern 216
Circa 1795–1800

This Derby soft-paste porcelain dessert dish is of lozenge … Read more Derby Porcelain Yellow-Ground Botanical Dish, "Orange Tree", Pattern 216
Circa 1795–1800

This Derby soft-paste porcelain dessert dish is of lozenge shape with a gently lobed and scalloped rim, and comes from one of the factory's celebrated yellow-bordered botanical services. The wide border is washed in a clear canary yellow, a ground color notoriously difficult to fire evenly and one reserved for the factory's more ambitious services.

The well is painted with a large, naturalistic study of a fruiting branch of the orange tree, with two ripe oranges, a paler fruit half-hidden below, a small green bud, sprays of white blossom, and leaves shaded from pale yellow-green to deep brown. The specimen is framed by a fine gilt running border at the edge of the well, and the scalloped rim is edged in gilt. The underside is molded with shallow lobes rising to the corners and stands on an oval foot rim, within which the plant is named in blue script above the factory mark and pattern number, in the manner of the blue-marked Derby botanical services of the period.

Shown on a plate stand or hung with a discreet wire hanger, the dish holds its own on a dining-room wall or a breakfront shelf, and it sits comfortably beside other botanical porcelain, blue and white, or framed botanical prints.

Dimensions
Width: 12 inches (30.5 cm)
Depth: 9½ inches (24.1 cm)
Height: 2¼ inches (5.7 cm)

Marks
Painted in blue on the base: "Orange Tree." in script, above the crown, crossed batons and D mark with dots, and the pattern number 216.

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Good; the enamels remain vivid, with minimal wear to the gilding.

References
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession no. C.74-2013 (given by A. P. Ledger): a Derby lozenge-shaped dish of the same form, pattern and size (30.3 x 24.2 cm), painted with "Chinese Aster" after John Edwards and marked in blue with pattern number 216.

A. P. Ledger, "Derby 'Botanical' Dessert Services, 1791–1811," Derby Porcelain International Society Journal, vol. II (1991), pp. 79–102.

Historical Context
The Derby pattern books record number 216 as "Colord Plants," the yellow-bordered version of the botanical dessert services that the Nottingham Road works produced from 1791, when William Duesbury II bought the first fifty-one numbers of William Curtis's Botanical Magazine for his painters to copy. Around 1795–96 the factory added John Edwards's A Collection of Flowers as a second source, and services bearing plant names and factory marks in blue continued until about 1810. Their painters are largely undocumented: John Brewer (1764–1816) is the name most often attached to Derby botanical painting, although Ledger found no documented example of his hand, and William "Quaker" Pegg, at Derby from the autumn of 1796 until about 1800, is associated with some of the finest. The pairing of exact botanical illustration with a luxurious colored ground reflects the period's fascination with natural science and its taste for Neoclassical refinement.

(Ref: NY9027A-MRR) See less