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| Dessert/fruit dish, bone china, 'Flower Embossed' shape, pattern 3127 c1821 |
This little dish, 7" diameter, is a dessert/fruit dish and features in several places on this blog for different reasons... not least as it is one of my favourites. There is something about its shape and size which is perfectly proportioned. Beautifully painted and gilded it is also finely potted with a lightness as well as a silky smoothness to it - a reminder how nice it is to handle pots 'in the flesh'.
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| Detail showing 2 of the moulded floral sprays which give the shape its name |
Pattern 3127 is on a shape called '
Flower Embossed' which was first introduced in about 1813. The shape design has different moulded flower sprays - usually 3 but less on smaller pieces and more on larger pieces. The 'embossed' flowers are part of the moulds i.e. not added afterwards as in
sprigged ware. You can see this detail in the image of a mould for a hexagonal 'envelope' dessert serving dish in the shape.
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| Press mould (detail) for a 'Flower Embossed' dessert dish |
The groups of flowers were part of the original
modelling followed by
mouldmaking for this shape. Modelling and mouldmaking are highly skilled jobs on a pottery factory, often underestimated or not even thought about.
Two dishes which match this mould can be seen in the image of the shape decorated with a different design, pattern number 2004, of c1814
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| * Pattern 2004 c1814 with 'envelope' dishes top left and right |
So... back to my little dish in pattern 3127. It would once have been part of a
dessert service with many, many other pieces - perhaps dozens and dozens of items (see image of pattern 2004 at the end of this blogpost).
The composition of a dessert service depended on how many people a service was ordered for and there could be hundreds of pieces. These would include dishes, plates, cream tureens, sugar tureens, low comports, tall comports, baskets, other serving dishes such as
pineapple stands, and sometimes spectacular centrepieces. In the early 1800s the dessert course was quite formal and a showpiece for the well-to-do.
Every piece of a service in pattern 3127 would have been handpainted in the same layout of the groups and sprays of flowers but using different combinations of colours and varieties of flowers. Other designs in this ilk would feature
birds, birds in landscapes, single botanical subjects, landscapes, etc.
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| Gilding detail of 'dontil' edge |
All the pieces were gilded with a 'dontil' edge with extra gilding on the bigger serving pieces particularly those, like the tureens which had lids and handles, where the gilder could add a lot more detail.
In designs on '
Flower Embossed'
shape the moulded flowers could be left undecorated, as in my dish in pattern 3127, in relief in a border as in pattern 2004 also shown here, painted in colours or gilded. Large numbers of different patterns were produced on
this shape. Of all the embossed shapes introduced in the early 1800s it remained the most popular staying in production until around the late 1960s. In the 20th century the shape was particularly popular with the North American market.
*More of pattern 2004 c1814 where a range of '
Flower Embossed' dessert pieces can be seen and also some coffee cups & saucers in pattern number 1978 c1814.
It is from the Peggy and David Rockefeller collection sold by Christie's 2018.
Use this link
here> to browse this remarkable collection which was sold to benefit the Rockefeller charities and foundations.
