|
in the curio cabinet:
rarities
Royal Worcester
Collectors' Centenary Edition
Audubon's Birds of America (1930s)
|
American Redstart - $350
|
Pigeon Hawk - $275 |
These service plates were issued by Royal
Worcester in the 1930s. They seem to be very rare; other than this almost complete set, we know of
only one partial set of eight. This set at one time was complete with
24 plates. Three plates were broken, two of which were repaired (the
Rice Bird and Black-throated Blue Warbler). The third plate, which
featured the White-throated Sparrow, appears to have been
discarded. Unlike many of our other
series, these plates often present a single detail from the original art rather
than attempting to capture the entire image.
|
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - $450
|
Backside of Broad-winged Hawk |
This set is described by Waldemar Fries in his book The Double Elephant
Folio: The Story of Audubon's Birds of America (Chicago: American Library
Association, 1973).
In the mid-1930s the Royal Worcester Porcelain Company was commissioned to produce a set of twenty-four service plates, each bearing a subject selected from Audubon's Birds of America "in observance of the centenary of this great work," the 87 numbers of which had been issued as completed between 1826 and 1838. The idea for this "collector's set" of commemorative plates originated with the English publishing house of A. C. & H. W. Dickins. Each subject portrayed on the individual plates was painted by hand "within a border of two tones of celadon green enriched with gold, the Worcester factory having revived for this purpose the long disused process of `honey gilding,' in which the powdered gold is mixed with beeswax and honey." Only a small number of sets were produced, for each plate required
11 firings and took 30 days to complete. When the stipulated number of sets had been made, the Worcester factory destroyed the original design models to ensure that no more would be produced.
Click on the thumbnails for larger photos of the
remaining plates.
We are looking for more information on these plates. If you know anything about these,
we would appreciate hearing from you.
back to curio cabinet main page
Last updated 10.09.09 |
