TWENTY-THREE PIECES OF MID-20TH CENTURY ROYAL COPENHAGEN FLORA DANICA PORCELAIN SERVICE, PLATES OF VARIOUS DIMENSIONS,Various dates of manufacture. All plates are marked. Nineteen plates with diameters ranging from 8 11/16" - 8 7/8" and with various dates of manufacture. Flowers depicted include: Coronilla emerus L, Vaccinium uliginosum, Lamium galeobdolon, Asters subintegerrimus, Potentilla fruiticosa, Euphrasia rostkoviana, Lysimachia vulgaris, Ranunculus reprens, Rose rubiginosa, Polygonum hydropiper, Lapsana communis, Cornus sanguinea, Geranium silvaticum L., Crambe marihima L., Linaria vulgaris, Taraxacum palustre, Campanula rotondifloria, Damphne mezereum and Ranunculus glacialis. (Refer to condition notes below). Lot also includes four bread plates, with 6 13/16" diameter. Flowers depicted include: Majanthenum bifolium, Trientalis europaea, Veronica fruticans, and Loiseleuria procombene. (Refer to condition notes below as two of the plates have old substantial condition issues). (23 total).
The service's name and decorations stem from the botanical work Flora Danica whose fifty one volumes and total of over 3000 copperplate prints were issued in the period 1761-1883. The wide-ranging work reproduced in minute detail Danish flora. The great task of transcribing the botanical illustrations to the first service, which was commissioned by Danish King, Christian VII, became the life's work of one man – Johann Christoph Bayer, and required twelve years to complete. The original service is presently in the collection of H.M. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Estimate $4,000-4,500
Of the plates with diameters ranging from 8 11/16" to 8 7/8", Potentilla fruitcoasa has an old hairline which extends from front to back, Campanuls rotondifolia has a small area of imperfection to the glaze to underside. Geranium silvaticum and Crambe marihima are both later plates, with a diameter of 8 13/16". The bread plates: one of the plates has an old substantial break and temporary repair. One has a hairline which extends from front to back and associated losses are the serrated rim. A third plate has loss to one of the serrated projections at rim, with later gold paint. Fourteen of the twenty three are very good.
