This pleasant, modest size transfer printed platter reflects larger forces than are immediately evident.  This piece represents one response by Wedgwood to the  Japanism craze which was sweeping England in the 1870's. Dubbed "Chelsea Sprigs," the pattern offered the possibility of a tabletop with no two pieces alike--a disregard of uniformity endorsed by writers describing Japanese ceramic wares.

This platter's composition consists of three elements, a prominent fern, a butterfly and a couple of smaller fern fronds--apparently placed at random and differing from other pieces in the set. The design is transfer printed and highlighted in multiple enamels; yellow, turquoise, rust, green, purple, gray, brown and touches of black.  At the very edge of the platter, a rope pattern band  highlighted in orange finishes the composition. 

The scattered motifs of this Wedgwood pattern reflect another aspect of Japanese influence on European design. The roots extend to the randomly composed pages of sketches by the Japanese master Hokusai in his series of Manga volumes. These inspired a groundbreaking table service by the Frenchman Felix Bracquemond, which in turn inspired Minton's "Naturalist" service and began a wave of British patterns using this sort of composition. The British, however, could point to an alternative source in the similar patterns found in their own eighteenth porcelain. With a nationalist pride that perhaps outweighs the current Japan mania, Wedgwood pointed to the British source with the name "Chelsea Sprigs."