This is a stunning dessert service made by Miles Mason between 1813 and 1820. It is made of Patent Ironstone China, decorated in the very rare "Famille Verte Chinoiserie" pattern with a garden scene. It consists of a soup tureen with cover on stand, an oval dish, two lobed dishes, one large plate and 10 dessert plates.
Miles Mason started making porcelain in the 1790s, when porcelain imports from China ceased and there was a need for British-made porcelain. In the early 19th Century he purchased the patent for "ironstone" china from the Turner brothers and in 1813 he launched his "Mason't Patent Ironstone China". This was a china body that strictly speaking was earthenware, but as strong as porcelain and looking more like the porcelain that had been imported from China, than bone china. Ironstone china was cheaper to produce and its blueish hue was excellent for the Chinoiserie decorations that were still popular. The new middle class, sprung up with the Industrial Revolution, could not afford the expensive hand painted bone china table sets yet and they were also quite attached to the Chinese style of decorating. Mason saw the opportunity and started supplying huge amounts of dinner and dessert services to the new industrialists. Soon, all other potters started imitating him by bringing out their own "stone china' bodies, each with a slightly different name.
This dessert service has the typical and wonderful leaf-shaped serving dishes and simple round plates. It is decorated in a style typical for the earlier Mason's ironstone china: a hand painted imitation of a typical Chinoiserie garden scene of a tea drinking couple and their servants. The pattern is similar to patterns that can be found on Chinese import...
Category
English Regency Antique 1810s Dinner Plates
