Period: Regency
Maker: Job Ridgway & Sons
This sumptuous dessert plate by Job Ridgway & Sons would have dazzled by day or candlelight and made quite an impression at any Regency dinner table.
Stylised gold petals and stamens on a dark blue ground diminish in scale towards the centre, creating an illusion of depth and perspective. The abstract geometry contrasts with the loose arrangement of brightly coloured summer flowers, in three side panels and a central painting, each framed in gilt patterns on a buff ground. The pattern number, 845, is painted on the backs.
The dessert plate, its companion as well as a matching oval centrepiece are shown in a photograph from Sotheby’s auctioneers that is Plate 35 of Geoffrey Godden’s The Illustrated Guide to Ridgway Porcelains. We are also listing the centrepiece.
The pattern is the same as a slightly later John & William Ridgway tea and coffee trio that we also have on sale. The trio bears another pattern number, 2/1034, as Ridgway used different numbering systems for dessert and tea wares.
CONDITION Very good. Minor scratching, and rubbing to a few of the gilt petals, in the well of the plate, and a few glaze impurities.
Diameter: 22 cm (8.6 inches)
Weight: 457 g
Origin: Stoke-on-Trent, England
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
See Ridgway pottery at Cauldon Place in Makers & Artists for background on the factory.
