Bloor Derby Shell Dish, White, Floral Sprigs Moses Webster, Regency, 1820-1825

This is a spectacular and very rare set of ten dessert plates made by Derby in about 1825, which was the Regency era. The plates are richly gilded, each with an individual gilt pattern, and have superb fruit paintings, also each unique, by the famous porcelain decorator Thomas Steel. One can occasionally find one of these plates in the market, but to find a whole set of 10 in such fabulous condition is extremely rare. The Derby factory, later reshaped into Royal Crown Derby, is currently the oldest British porcelain factory still in production. Derby was one of the most prominent potteries right from the start of English porcelain production in the mid 1700s to today. Their items are of exceptionally high quality and many of the designs have become iconic, particularly the Imari designs; many of these are still being made today. Derby made many exciting designs in the Regency era, and these plates are beautiful examples. The marking at the bottom indicates that the plates were produced some time between 1806 and 1825, when the company was called "Bloor Derby"; however the style is from between 1820 and 1825. Thomas Steel (sometimes written as Steele) is considered the very best 19th Century porcelain painter of fruits. He was born in Staffordshire in 1772 and was first apprenticed by Wedgwood. He moved to Derby in 1815, where he became the foremost flower and fruit painter. In 1825 he moved on to the Rockingham factory in Yorkshire, and a few years later to Minton in Staffordshire, where he worked the rest of his life. Steel had a very recognisable style of fruit painting, perhaps best described by the biographer John Haslem: "Steele painted both flowers and insects well, but as a painter of fruit on china he had no superior, if, indeed, he had any equal in his day... His grouping is harmonious, the light and shade well managed, each piece of fruit is well rounded, and the outline softened and blended into the one next to it, each partaking of the reflected colour from the other." These plates each have a different richly gilded border, and octagonal paintings...

This is a beautiful plate called a saucer dish, made around 1825 by Ridgway. It is decorated in cobalt blue and gilt with a central "Japan" pattern of deep pink azalea...

This is a very charming "breakfast" teacup and saucer with a plate, made by Derby / Bloor Derby between 1806 and 1825. It is likely that the set was potted between 1806 and 1825, then decorated and brought to the market around 1825. A breakfast cup is a large teacup...

This is a beautiful square dessert dish made by Hicks & Meigh in about 1820. The dish has a deep cobalt blue ground, lavish gilding and panels with beautiful hand painted flowers. ...

This is a very charming pair of porcelain figures of a stag and a doe, probably cast by Derby in about 1760 and decorated by Bloor Derby in 1820. The figures are a simple white porce...

This is a beautiful dessert serving dish made by Rockingham in Yorkshire between about 1820 and 1825. The dish is made of creamware and decorated with a bold cobalt blue and gilt pat...

A fine Bloor Derby Porcelain porter mug c.1820-1825, finely decorated in the manner of Thomas Steel with a rectangular panel of flowers in a basket on a stone ledge, with a lime gree...

A fine pair of Bloor Derby ‘Mansion House’ Dwarfs c.1825. Each moustached figure modelled wearing a comically large hat bearing an advertisement, one wearing a tasselled sash about h...

A very fine Bloor Derby porcelain figure of a seated Turk, sitting cross-legged in traditional costume, a hookah at his side, on a cushion base ...

A very fine pair of 19th century Bloor Derby figures of John Milton & William Shakespeare c.1830 This pair have their separate original plinths which appear to have previously been ...

This is a good oval shaped serving dish or bowl, made by the Derby factory, hand painted and gilded in a free flowing floral pattern, during the reign of George 111 in the early 19th century, circa 1815.   This is a well potted oval shaped dish or bowl with a vertically fluted and moulded side edge and rim, sitting on a low foot. The piece is beautifully hand decorated in a free flowing manner, in one of Derby's Imari style floral Patterns, with enamels of cobalt blue, burnt orange, pink and yellow, all in varying shades. It has then been hand gilded, with gold detail to some of the flowers, blue leaf, the inner border and the outer rim. The dish has the early Derby...

This sumptuous pair of campana form are highly decorative. The pale blue ground and heavy gilt fruiting vine handles set off the reserves of fruit and flowers to great advantage. The...