Period: Georgian
Maker: Chamberlain
This beautiful early Chamberlain dessert dish is finely painted with a bouquet of summer flowers in a heart-shaped central reserve. The dish is also shaped like a heart or kidney. By the 19th Century this shape was no longer included in dessert services. The early Chamberlain mark, a handwritten ‘Chamberlains Worcester,’ also leads us to date it to around 1796-1800. The orange ground is decorated with a geometrical gilt pattern within a border of gilt palmettes and laurel leaf fronds.
CONDITION For some bizarre reason, the dish has been given an ultra-thin coating of transparent plastic, perhaps polyurethane. We have never encountered this before on ceramics. In places, the transparent coating has been peeled away, and with patient skill, we believe it possible for all of it to be removed. Thankfully, it is only noticeable on close inspection. There is also some historic scratching, mainly to the gilt band around the central flower reserve, and some minor spots of gilt rubbing on the border, consistent with age and use.
Length: 25.6 cm; Width: 17.1 cm
Net weight: 368 g
Origin: Worcester, England
Medium: Hard-paste porcelain
See Chamberlain, 1788-1852 in Makers & Artists for background on the factory
