This is a beautiful plate made by H&R Daniel around the year 1835. The plate is made in the "pierced shell" shape with a beautifully moulded rim with little shells and three set of dramatic piercings in the Rococo Revival style. It is decorated in a warm apple green ground with pale yellow cartouches for the piercings, and stunning hand painted flowers and fruits in the centre. This plate would have belonged to a large dessert service, each item with unique hand painted flowers and fruits.
This plate is marked, which is very rare.
We have several plates available in a similar style, please see separate listings.
The H & R Daniel porcelain factory was founded by Henry Daniel, son of a family of master colour makers. He headed up the decoration department in the famous Spode factory where he oversaw all the beautiful early Spode decorations. In 1822 he opened his own factory with his son Richard, creating a truly iconic body of work with the most subtle colours and beautifully painted flowers and landscapes.
The Daniel factory was the last true cottage industry among the English porcelain factories, resisting the increase of industrialisation and mass production. This resulted in extraordinary and unrivalled quality, but it probably also led to the factory having to close its doors in 1846 because it could no longer compete with others who did modernise. Daniel porcelain can be hard to identify as the factory was only around for about two decades, but this short duration and the low output also means that Daniel items have become true collectors' items.
The "shell" shape was made between 1828 and 1836, with this variant with pierced borders made around 1835.
The plate is marked with a large printed mark "Horticultural and Floral Society Prize", which probably means this plate was a prize winner at an exhibition. It is extremely rare to find marked H&R Daniel items - although this is not really a factory mark. The plate bears the collector's labels with the incorrect date of 1833.
Documentation: an image of a plate in the same pattern can be found on page 178 of "Daniel Patterns on Porcelain Tablewares" by Susan & Gordon Pickett.
Provenance: this item once formed part of the Brian Beardmore collection of H&R Daniel porcelain.
CONDITION REPORT The plate is in good antique condition, but it has some fine hairlines that are visible from the back (not the front), as shown in the images.
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1800s, and this meant that china from that period can have some firing specks from flying particles. British makers were also known for their experimentation, and sometimes this resulted in technically imperfect results. Due to the shrinkage in the kiln, items can have small firing lines or develop crazing over time, which should not be seen as damage but as an imperfection of the maker's recipes, probably unknown at the time of making. Items have often been used for many years and can have normal signs of wear, and gilt can have signs of slight disintegration even if never handled. I will reflect any damage, repairs, obvious stress marks, crazing or heavy wear in the item description but some minor scratches, nicks, stains and gilt disintegration can be normal for vintage items and need to be taken into account.
There is widespread confusion on the internet about the difference between chips and nicks, or hairlines and cracks. I will reflect any damage as truthfully as I can, i.e. a nick is a tiny bit of damage smaller than 1mm and a chip is something you can easily see with the eye; a glazing line is a break in the glazing only; hairline is extremely tight and/or superficial and not picked up by the finger; and a crack is obvious both to the eye and the finger. Etcetera - I try to be as accurate as I can and please feel free to ask questions or request more detailed pictures!
DIMENSIONS (diameters) 23cm (9").
