148-Piece Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica Part Dessert Service By Royal Copenhagen

18075DD: Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica Part Dessert Service for Twelve (148 Pieces)
By Royal Copenhagen (Danish, founded 1775)
Danish, 20th Century
Leaf-Form Pedestal Compote: Height 12cm, width 23cm, depth 21cm
Twin-Handled Bowl: Height 5.5cm, width 17cm, depth 13cm

This exquisite 148-piece Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica dessert service for twelve is beautifully decorated with hand-painted botanical studies and elegant gilt borders.
This magnificent and extensive Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica dessert service for twelve comprises 148 pieces and is part of one of the world's most celebrated and historically significant porcelain patterns. The service includes dessert plates and butter pats; triangular custard cups and covers with matching saucers; twin-handled bowls and underplates; tea cups and matching saucers; coffee cups and matching saucers; chocolate cups and matching underplates; leaf-form pedestal compotes; and covered sugar bowls. Each piece features a unique hand-painted botanical specimen, executed with the scientific accuracy and refined artistry that have characterised the Flora Danica pattern since its inception.

The Flora Danica service originated in 1790, when the Royal Danish Porcelain Manufactory was commissioned to create an ambitious porcelain service, with each piece decorated with a specimen from the Danish botanical encyclopaedia Flora Danica. The tradition of hand-painting every individual botanical study continues today, ensuring that each piece serves as both a unique botanical record and a work of decorative art.

The dessert plates and butter pats display finely reticulated, or pierced, gilt borders of exceptional refinement. The openwork rims are richly gilded and further embellished with beaded and scroll decoration. Each centre is painted with a different botanical specimen, depicted with roots, stems, leaves and flowers in the manner of a scientific illustration against a luminous white porcelain ground. The twin-handled bowls are fitted with naturalistic branch-form handles, modelled in green and ochre tones, and are presented on matching underplates. The service also includes several cup forms, including elegant tea cups with angular gilt handles and coffee cups with naturalistic branch-form handles, each accompanied by its corresponding saucer, as well as chocolate cups and matching underplates. The covered sugar bowls and triangular custard cups and covers continue the botanical theme, while several lids are surmounted by finely modelled polychrome floral finials. The pair of leaf-form pedestal compotes provides elegant serving pieces that complement the service.

Each piece bears the Royal Copenhagen factory mark on the underside, comprising a green-crowned circular stamp reading Royal Copenhagen, Denmark, above the factory's distinctive underglaze blue three-wave mark, used since 1775 to represent Denmark's three principal waterways. The pattern number and painter's initials are painted in green, while the botanical specimen's Latin name is inscribed by hand in black script, for example, Potentilla retusa Mill. on one of the dessert plates.

Comprising:
12 x Dessert Plates
12 x Triangular Custard Cups and Covers
12 x Triangular Custard Cup Saucers
12 x Twin-Handled Bowls
12 x Underplates for Bowls
12 x Tea Cups
12 x Tea Cup Saucers
12 x Coffee Cups
12 x Coffee Cup Saucers
12 x Chocolate Cups
12 x Chocolate Cup Underplates
12 x Butter Pats
2 x Leaf-Form Pedestal Compotes
2 x Covered Sugar Bowls