SET OF TWELVE PORCELAIN DESSERT PLATES

Marked: Spode/Felspar/Porcelain/3926

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, c. 1825

Each plate with gilt rim and peach/salmon-color border with gilt decoration, a white center with gilt "snowflake" central motif.  The plate bottoms bear the light purple circular mark: Spode/Felspar/Porcelain.  3926, in red, is the pattern number.

Diameter: 9"

Condition: Excellent; slight and dispersed wear to gold

Spode Felspar porcelain is bone china.  The discovery of Felspar in a mine in the town of Middletown Hill in Shropshire in 1818 led to a major leap forward for the quality of Spode and for English porcelains in general.  Spode was among the first to understand the chemical properties and advantages of the material and began a line of Felspar by 1821.  Introduced in both the body and glaze, it resulted in a harder, whiter and "glassy" porcelain with greater consistency.  The purple or puce insignia on these plate was first applied in 1825.  These exquisite porcelain dessert plates were the ultimate expression of the English potter's art when they were made.[1]

E-AAA-213157

[1] Leonard Whiter, Spode: A History of the Family, Factory and Wares from 1733-1833 (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970),  66-68, 225.