Furnival's "Mikado" must have appealed to the aesthetic dreamer who not only cultivated a taste for things Japanese, but longed to visit there for a personal adventure. Printed in a medium brown transfer on an ivory ground,  few patterns present so inviting a scene as this lantern studded veranda connected by a fretwork railing to a grove of bamboo. Perhaps it is because the scene is conceived with a more European sense of perspective that it appears so comfortable.

If the center is slightly westernized, the border compensates with one of the most complex combinations of Japanese motifs we know. Fan and scroll vignettes alternate with devices derived from Japanese crests. In between are angular fields of Japanese ground patterns, floral and geometric, four of which feature additional graphic crests.

While we have never seen a survey, it is a pretty good guess that "Mikado" was the most popular pattern name for aesthetic tablewares. Furnival's version, however, presents a scene that could have been a backdrop for a staged productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan standard. Can we imagine the "little maids" descending this exotic hillside pathway?