Spode's Felspar Porcelain is recognised as the forerunner of all modern English Bone China. In 1805 William Copeland became a partner. but Josiah Spode I established his pottery firm around 1770 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The firm remained in the Copeland family until 1966. The Spode brand name was used alongside the Copeland name throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. This elaborately hand decorated dinner plate, or cake or cabinet plate is one from the turn of the 20th century, c.1895-1815 and is a work of art. Look at the 3" broad band of elegant thick impasto raised gold enamel on this one. From my personal collection, it has been used twice as dessert platter for petit-fours, bonbons at my table, but primarily on display in my hutch filled with gold and white porcelain and fine crystal. Time to let things go. The raised gold enamel Belle Epoch era porcelains are my favorites. I am in Paris often, normally, for months at a time buying, and I love to stop in Bon Marche to check on the raised gold porcelains, which there will fetch 1000 euro and higher per plate - and they're new, and lack both the delicacy and opulence of the antique plates. Much of French porcelain decorative style went to England and other countries to escape the French Revolution, and the influences still resonate. This looks more French than English, and yet - fine Spode Copeland!
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. No rubs, no flaws to note. No hairlines, no chips, no losses to all that hand applied raised gold enamel work, either. As close to pristine as possible.
