Wedgwood & Co.'s "Beatrice" pattern is usually found-- as in this example -- executed in brown transfer on a rich, ivory ironstone-like body. In the center vignette, a patterned banner is draped about a flowering bough.

The pattern is finished with a tight border of six floral and geometric arrangements placed over a solid brown ground covering the flange of the plate.  

We had always puzzled about the puzzling device wrapping itself about the tree in the center of "Beatrice." Then our friend Stephen McMaster pointed out the fascination the traditional Japanese sash or obi-- both the garment itself and its pattern--would have possessed for the European aesthete.