Gifts of Grandeur: A Shropshire Ornamental Dish, 1830

Ornamental Dish
Shropshire, England
1830
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This ornamental porcelain dish is filled with models of fruit & flowers, also of porcelain. The whole of the piece is painted in enamels and gilded. The dish features a stylish wavy rim and panels of open trellis-work which are surrounded by gilt rococo scrolls in relief. Depicted here, we see: chrysanthemums, an anemone, a tulip, clematis, apples, pears, peaches, strawberries, gooseberries and a plum.


Such dishes were made for purely decorative purposes—either set out on the table or sideboard in pairs during the dessert course, or even mounted on a wall or displayed on a stand. These were the height the revival of the Rococo style, which was often combined with this type of naturalistic adornenment.

Thr origins of this dish have been traced to Coalport in Shropshire. The factory shipped in heavy raw materials from the nearby port and to sent the finished goods to London. This particular area of Shropshire has long been associated with ceramics.