Set of Eleven Wedgwood Dinner Plates with matching Meat Platter

SET OF ELEVEN BLUE-PRINTED BOTANICAL PEARLWARE DINNER PLATES
WITH MATCHING MEAT PLATTER
Impressed mark: WEDGWOOD/PEARL/ 5 (printed underglaze in blue)
Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, c. 1810-1815

Each plate with a delicate gold border and a blue on white stylized floral pattern representing tree peonies.

Diameter: 10," each. Platter: 18½" x 13¾"

Condition: Excellent.

Wedgwood's botanical patterns can be dated to 1810-1815 when Josiah's oldest son, John, became involved with the firm. John Wedgwood was a founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society and it is believed that his interest resulted an a number of botanical patterns produced by the firm at this time. A set of eleven dinner plates with matching platter in this botanical pattern is vanishingly rare and ravishingly beautiful. In homage, Wedgwood makes a modified pattern available today that is based on this original design, which the firm calls "Hibiscus."

"Pearlware," thought to have been developed about 1779 by Wedgwood, was a Wedgwood brand name for a "China Glaze" that English potters developed earlier to create a purer white background for blue-printed dinner ware. The white earthenware body contained a greater percentage of flint and white clay to which a small amount of cobalt was added to enhance the whitening effect..