On the stark blank background of smooth porcelain plates are presented vignettes of song birds perched on wooden posts amid blossoming flowers. A particularly juicy blue transfer print gives the suggestions of a brushstroke drawing.

Brown-Westhead, and Moore utilized these bird designs in a variety of ways. These porcelain examples almost certainly were intended for dessert. At this time Seekers also offers a set of soup plates featuring the "Canova" birds in a crisp black transfer, evidence of their appearance at the dinner course as well.

Prior to the late nineteenth century depictions of birds in ceramic decoration seldom conveyed such individual avian personality. As the aesthetes began to look at the art of Japan, however, they learned a new way to depict natural subjects. The depiction of fauna in Japanese art, they realized was based on a close observation of the natural subject--not just drawing the idea of a bird that one carried around in one's head. The result may have been a more long lasting effect on British decoration than the more obvious Japanese influence on composition and ornamentation--both on tablewares and plates intended for display.

Among the most interesting exponents of this sort of naturalistic decoration were Goutard Leonce* and Pierre Mallet, French ceramic decorators who came to England in the early 1870's fleeing civil unrest in France and worked for a number of British potteries and ceramic retailers. Their closely observed depictions of birds and fish range from the charmingly quirky, to the aggressively predatory, to the grotesquely bizarre. The "Canova" designs have been credited to them,  though documentation seems scant. They are known to have worked for Brown-Westhead, and Moore in the mid-1870's.

*M. Leonce's name varies in different accounts.