Plate
Wedgwood
Category
Ceramics
Date
1810 - 1830
Materials
Transfer printed earthenware
Measurements
280 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Etruria
Order this imageCollection
Hill Top, Cumbria
NT 641370.1
Summary
One of a pair of plates, transfer-printed earthenware with the 'Peony' pattern in red with a narrow border at the rim; impressed on reverse 'WEDGWOOD'. Made ca 1810-30.
Full description
This plate is one of a pair from Hill Top. Beatrix Potter purchased this farmhouse in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey in 1905, using the profits from her books. After her marriage to William Heelis in 1913, Beatrix relocated permanently to Sawrey. The couple made nearby Castle Cottage their home, but Beatrix spent as much time as she could at Hill Top. As well as a space for work and creativity – and the location for many of her famous tales – it became an intensely personal sanctuary for Beatrix. Beatrix knew exactly how she would decorate Hill Top and arranged its interiors carefully and deliberately. She wrote: ‘I would have old furniture…it is not as expensive as modern furniture, and incomparably handsomer…’ Once she had renovated the farmhouse, she filled it with examples of local furniture and treasured heirlooms, like her grandmother’s warming pan and a set of plates decorated with designs by her father. A number of ceramics at Hill Top can be identified as having once been at Beatrix’s childhood home in Bolton Gardens, South Kensington. This plate is described in a 1914 inventory among the ornamental items in the Drawing Room: ‘Pair Wedgwood china plates decorated flowers and leaves in red.’ It is transfer printed with a pattern called ‘Peony’. The pair of plates are described in a 1946 inventory of Hill Top, made after Beatrix’s death and after the property had been prepared for the visiting public: ‘One Wedgewood [sic] plate, Chinese red decoration’. They were displayed in the Treasure Room, which included other items inherited from her mother and grandmother. This special room also contained her doll’s house, complete with furniture bought for her by her husband, Norman Warne, pieces of which feature in The Tale of Two Bad Mice. The pattern is centred on four repeated sprays of peonies, surrounded by leaves and stems, with a simple, narrow border at the rim. Peony is most commonly found in blue, occasionally with gilt detailing. Examples also exist in brown and red. The pattern began to be used by Wedgwood around 1805-7, initially in blue, and is quite an early print for the factory. The design for Peony was partly engraved by William Hales, who produced several other botanical designs for transfer prints for Wedgwood, namely Water Lily, Bamboo and Hibiscus. Peony was a popular pattern and remained in production at Wedgwood into the twentieth century. It was used on tea and dinner services in both earthenware and porcelain. A service in the pattern is said to have been created for the Prince of Wales in 1807. Other examples: Plate and bowl printed in blue with the Peony pattern, with gilt detailing, gilt Arabic inscriptions in two relief cartouches reading ‘al-sultan ibn al-sultan’ (‘the sultan son of the sultan') and ‘Fath Ali Shah Qajar’, ca 1810 (V&A C.30-1984, C29-1984). This is part of a dinner service produced for Fath Ali Shah, the second Shah of Iran (r. 1797-1834) and is the earliest known example of a British ceramic made specifically for the Persian market. An oblong dish with rounded corners and gilt detailing, ca 1810-15, is also in the collection of the V&A (2444.1901). See Reilly (1995, Pl.111) for a tureen and cover printed in the pattern in underglaze blue, ca. 1815.
Provenance
Bequeathed by Mrs William Heelis (Beatrix Potter), 1944 Presumed to be inherited from her parents, Rupert and Helen Potter (listed in 1914 inventory of Bolton Gardens, South Kensington)
Marks and inscriptions
WEDGWOOD (stamped on reverse)
Makers and roles
Wedgwood, manufacturer
References
Reilly 1995: Robin Reilly, Wedgwood: The New Illustrated Dictionary (Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club, 1995), p. 214; Pl. 111 Coysh and Henrywood 1982: A.W. Coysh and R.K. Henrywood The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880. Volume I Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1982, p. 280 Messers Elsworth and Knighton ‘Inventory of Household Furniture ... and other Effects in and upon the Premises No. 2 Bolton Gardens, South Kensington, the property of the Trustees under the will of R. Potter, Esq, deceased’ June, 1914