Set of Four Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica Porcelain Baskets

#18075N: Set of Four Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica Porcelain Baskets
Royal Copenhagen (Danish, founded 1775)
Danish, 20th century
Height 9cm, width 23.5cm, depth 21cm

This reticulated set of four porcelain fruit baskets comes from the Flora Danica service; the pattern produced at the Royal Copenhagen factory since 1790 and decorated after the engraved plates of the botanical atlas of the same name. Each basket is of circular form, raised on a low foot and fitted with a pair of branch handles at the sides, with gilt detailing throughout.
The pierced lattice sides are applied with naturalistically modelled flowers in pink, blue, yellow and lilac, their stems and leaves rendered in greens against the white porcelain ground. A gilt egg-and-dart border edges the flaring rim, above a band of gilt beading, with gilt dot-and-panel decoration running around the sides in pink-lined reserves. The handles are formed as twisting branches modelled in shades of brown and green.
The interiors are painted with botanical studies after the Flora Danica plates, each plant shown with its flowers, foliage and roots, the inner borders scattered with small buds and leaf sprigs within gilt panels. The specimens depicted are red clover, dog violet, mountain avens and sea pea. The service takes its decoration from the Flora Danica, the survey of the native plants of the Danish kingdom published in instalments between 1761 and 1883, with each piece traditionally inscribed with the botanical name of the specimen it carries.
The bases inscribed with the botanical names Trifolium alpestre Müll., Viola canina L., Dryas octopetala L. and Pisum maritimum L., and bearing the Royal Copenhagen crown mark, three blue wavy lines, the model number 3534, and painters' marks.
$67,500