Black transfer printed fields of finely engraved square and circular motifs provide the ground for an equally geometric display of abstract flowers and foliage arranged around a central oval medallion. The flattened blossoms recall the abstract chrysanthemum motifs of earlier Asian ceramics. Each floral and foliage element is designed and placed with an eye for symmetry, both of the individual motif and of the overall composition.

Without violating the flatness of the pattern, our designer has distinguished the floral elements from the background by employing a heavier engraved line and with the addition of red, blue and yellow enameling to highlight the blossoms.

It would be difficult to overestimate the impact of The Grammar of Ornament, Owen Jones' 1856 compendium of historic and international decoration or of the thirty-seven "general principles" of design he included as a preface. Two of these dictums in particular provide a context for Wedgwood's "Mistletoe" pattern.

"Proposition 4: All ornament should be based upon a geometrical construction."

And even more relevant--"Proposition 13: Flowers or other natural objects should not be used as ornaments, but conventional representations founded upon them sufficiently suggestive to convey the intended image to the mind, without destroying the unity of the object they are employed to decorate."