This is a very striking and rare square dessert serving dish made by Samuel Alcock around the year 1829. The dish has a hand painted flower landscape in an unusual style. The dish has provenance; it came from the Reference collection of Geoffrey A. Godden, the famous porcelain historian.
This dish would have been part of a large dessert service.
Samuel Alcock was a major potter in Staffordshire between the 1820s and 1840s. He is probably one of the most under-appreciated potters of that era, creating a huge and very high quality output but as he didn't mark his wares, many got attributed to other factories and his name largely forgotten. Only recently are people starting to recognise the extraordinary quality of these wares, and this piece is a great example of the creativity and beautiful of their Rococo Revival designs.
This dish has a wonderful moulded rim with piercings and shell details. The rims are gilded with a pattern of fine vines. The centre decoration consists of an intriguing flower painting that is slightly naive and very unusual; it doesn't only show beautiful bright flowers against a hazy background of hills, it also shows the roots under the ground.
The dish is unmarked except the pattern number 547 and a label from the Geoffrey A. Godden reference collection, which erroneously dates it to ca 1820; this should be ca 1829.
CONDITION REPORT The dish is in excellent condition without any damage or repairs, but it is crazed as visible in some of the pictures. There is very little wear.
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 21.5cm (8.5") X 20.5cm (8").
