This deep bone china cake plate embodies in its decoration the virtues of rustic domestic life--a celebration, in fact of the sort of middle-class home for which it was intended. The molded basket weave relief is suggestive of  rural domestic goods. The rococo shape reserves set into that relief frame enameled puce transfer vignettes that present scenes of homely pleasures.

With a bit of imagination one might see the border vignettes as a sequence depicting the establishment of the ideal home: from courtship in a pastoral setting, to the arrival of the couple at their country villa, to the mother diverting her children with her harp. The center scene presents a more detailed portrayal of the loving mother and children in a romantic garden setting. In all the scenes the importance of the feminine presence in homelife is clear.

The cake plate rather neatly points to important trends of the 1820's in both ceramic production and in taste.

Prior to 1810, the porcelain body was identified with the most expensive wares.  Between 1810 and 1820, a general formula for bone china emerged creating an affordable porcelain alternative.  This in turn precipitated a new class of  less expensive (and less pretentious) wares now called "cottage wares." This new class of wares was supported by the demands of the expanding middle class.

A generation earlier domestic vignettes such as these would have been characterized by the stark formalism of urban neoclassical taste. Previously artists like Adam Buck gave us mothers caressing their children, but with garb and furnishings inspired by ancient classical models. Our romantic ideal of the home takes us to the countryside--or at least to the garden--where residents relax in contemporary dress. The garden seat of the center scene reveals a new rustic aesthetic.

Additional cake plate and creamer available.