Regency period porcelain can be recognized by its richly unrestrained panache. Perhaps in...

Regency period porcelain can be recognized by its richly unrestrained panache.

Perhaps influenced by the Brighton Pavilion, Spode contrived a pattern which could satisfy consumers seeking to emulate the Prince's taste. Simple Bute shape cups and saucers in fine white porcelain sparkle with a decoration in cobalt blue, iron red and gold (lots of gold). 

The center of the saucer bears the principal element of the pattern, a combination of traditional flower basket and fence motifs, but with a notable flowing swagger to the related blossom and foliage details. A reduced version appears around the base of the cup. The border consists of rows of freely painted gilt swirls resembling fiddlehead ferns. (We will try to resist the urge to look ahead one hundred years to the paintings of Gustav Klimt.) Gold and red song birds entertain us from the reserves among blossoms, sprigs and touches of cobalt.

 Co-Existence. Students and collectors of ceramics tend to want all the pieces they a...

 Co-Existence. Students and collectors of ceramics tend to want all the pieces they admire to fall into some chronological order --  which they simply will not do.  These cups and saucers present us with a case in point.  In 1809 when Spode introduced this pattern, England was in the grip of  both Neoclassicism and the influence of the Prince's decadent chinoiserie folly, the Brighton Pavilion. The little red songbirds featured here, derived from imported oriental wares, perhaps represent a tipping of the balance in the exotic Asian direction. The Imari wares that inspired this pattern would spawn a host of others, rivaling #1495 in brilliance. In the end, these ceramics have come to be associated with the high Regency style as much as their strongly Neoclassical contemporaries. 

Apologies for the mostly irrelevant reference to Klimt above--but compare these swirls to those in his painting The Embrace. A motif can exert the same impact even when used in an entirely different context in an entirely different period.