All posts by Lia

Pomona Trial Dishes

July 7, 2014 Lia

I came across several Pomona dishes that never made it to production. One is a small 11 inch oval plate with the Biggeraux Cherry and the Ingestrie Pippin :

It has a small greyish oval backstamp.
Regular plates have one motif, such as here the Red Currant:

A larger 15 inch platter has the Roman Apricot. Here it is the shape, or rather the rim of the dish that is unusual:

The backstamp clearly states it is a sample:

Another 15 inch platter has the regular shape, but it features four smaller motifs instead of one large one:

It has the Wilmots Early Red, the Hoary Morning Apple, the Imperatrice Plum and the White Dutch Currants.

This platter has no backstamp at all, on the rim are the letters NF. Slightly mysterious, this wonderful platter.

Miscellaneous

Portmeirion Lanhydrock by Pat Albeck

July 6, 2014 Lia

Portmeirion produced the Lanhydrock range in the eighties.

On her own website the designer, Pat Albeck, writes:

“The Trust asked me to go to my favourite kitchen for inspiration for a new range. James McClaren was the architect of Lanhydrock (near Bodmin in Cornwall) and I think he must have really enjoyed designing the kitchen. It has an amazing and elaborate cast iron kitchen range. The pierced pattern on the oven door and the very simple dark red rope design which edged the white tiles, was my source of inspiration. I added a few chickens and copper pans on some of the pieces. This is my very favourite National Trust range.”

There are many different items in the range, but I have never seen a teapot. Are there any about?

The pattern looks really well on the dishes and plates:

Miscellaneous

Plant Pots

July 3, 2014 Lia

Botanic Garden always has had a great variety of planters and plant pots. Here are three small pots made for Kew Gardens:

These have the Forget Me Not, the Rhododendron and the Speedwell.

Here are my favourite 4 by 5 inch pots, with the original oatmeal motifs:

Thet are the Ivy Leafed Cyclamen, the Orchid, the Purple Iris, the Canterbury Bells, the Barbados Cotton Flower and the Orange Cactus.

Portmeirion also had boxed planters or cache pots, here seen with the Common Tomentil:

The backside of the box advised which plants they were meant for:

Here is a bell-shaped planter with the Trailing Bindweed:

Although many planters have the Botanic Garden motifs there are also Pomona planters, here seen with the Ingestrie Pippin, the Imperatrice Plum and the Red Currant:

and Birds of Britain planters, such as here with the Nuthatch:

The Spring Gentian can also be found on planters:

Botanic Garden

Flowers of the Month

July 3, 2014 Lia

Botanic Garden has a range of Cups and Saucers with Bread and Butter Plates featuring a different flower for every month:

They are: January – Snowdrop, February – Sweet Violet, March – Wild Daffodil, April – Primula, May – Bluebell, June – Dog Rose, July – Pinks, August – Pansy, September – Aster, October – Dahlia, November – Bell Heather, December – Hellebore.

The saucer has the same flower as the cup and the plate:

September

October

November

They are a festive set for a joyful occasion:

Miscellaneous

Rose and Passion Flower

July 3, 2014 Lia

In 1978 the Rose and Passion Flower range was launched. All items had the same motif, an eighteenth century watercolour:

There was a teaset as well:

Miscellaneous, Trials

Millennium Plates

July 3, 2014 Lia

Portmeirion produced the Millennium Collection in 1999 and 2000. Most items featured the new Portmeirion Rose, such as the dinner plate:

and a range of smaller plates, bowls and dishes:

Here is a 9 inch plate:

One Millennium plate comes from the Botanic Garden range and has the Garden Lilac:

There was a 13 inch platter, made exclusively for Debenhams, featuring the Lily Flowered Azalea, with the green Botanic Garden border. Mine is a trial, with a gold border:

Here is the backstamp:

Birds of Britain

Birds of Britain Platters

June 22, 2014 Lia

Osprey Platter:

The platters and large dishes in the Birds of Britain range are spectacular. This is the Little Egret, here on a 13 inch platter:

The Pheasant, 13 inch, here seen together with a trial pheasant plate:

The Barnacle Goose, 13 inch round platter, pictured in Sea Kale:

The Wood Duck on the beach:

The oval Wood Duck platter comes in two sizes, 15 and 13 inch:

The 15 inch Mute Swan:

The Fieldfare on the seashore:

The Osprey:

There are many beautiful oven dishes, platters and tureens in the Birds of Britain range, the Mute Swan, the Pheasant, the Common Sandpiper and the tureen with the smaller birds:

The Common Sandpiper is depicted on an oval dish:

The same bird can be seen on this lasagna dish, only now it is called the Snipe:

One bird, the same picture, two different names:

The outdoor pictures were taken on the beach near our home.

Birds of Britain

Portmeirionlore: Birds of Britain Plates

June 22, 2014 Lia

Like the Botanic Garden range, the Birds of Britain started out with sets of six different plates. The 11 inch dinnerplates were the Grey Phalarope, the Little Egret, the Magpie, the Harlequin Duck, the Barnowl and the Black Cock:

The Barnowl was thought to bring bad luck in some countries and was therefore withdrawn. The Black Cock was also withdrawn,”as its name was thought to discourage sales”. They were replaced by the Wood Duck and the Common Sandpiper:

The older dinnerplates have the green band, but I have two with another border, the Harlequin Duck and the Magpie:

Portmeirion also created a series of four Birds of America:

They are the Mallard, the Pintail, the Bobwhite Quail and the Ruffed Grouse. Here they have the Botanic Garden leafed border. There are more items in this short-lived range, such as a set of 4 inch mugs:

There are six different 8 inch salad plates:

They are the Waxwing, the White Wagtail, the Turtle Dove, the Roller, the Rose Coloured Starling and the Hoopoo.

I have four of these plates in the borderless variety:

Here is the Rose Coloured Starling with another border:

The 8 inch soup plates and the 6 inch bread and butter plates have the same birds:

They are the Nuthatch, the Bullfinch, the Nightingale, the Chaffinch, the Cirl Bunting and the Kingfisher.

My plates all have the old green band, later Portmeirion introduced the oak leafed border:

Except for the changes in the dinner plates, Portmeirion kept the same birds on the plates all the time. A new range of birds was introduced recently, the Botanic Garden Birds:

They are the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Baltimore Oriole, Chickadee, Lesser Goldfinch, Western Bluebird, and Scarlet Tanager. Lovely birds, on dinnerplates with the Botanic Garden Border.

Birds of Britain

Birds of Britain Teasets

June 22, 2014 Lia

The Birds of Britain range was launched in 1977. The illustrations are from The Natural History of Britain by Edward Donovan, 1794.This is the small teapot with six cups:

On the tea pot is the Bullfinch, the cups have the Redpoll, the Goldfinch, the Blue Tit, the Redstart, the Robin and the Willow Warbler. Here is the same set seen from the other side:

On the tea pot the Nightingale, on the cups the Linnet, the Greenfinch, the Bearded Tit, the Sedge Warbler, the Great Tit and the Marsh Tit. The larger cups have the same birds:

The bird on the tea pot is the Hoopoo. The Roller is on the other side ot the teapot:

A sugar and cream set completes the teasets. You can see the Tree Creeper, the Willow Warbler and the Goldcrest on the sugarbowls. The jug has the Bearded Tit and the Blue Tit.

There is a set of very small mocha cups:

Birds of Britain also has a beautiful jug and bowl set, with the Harlequin Duck:

Botanic Garden

Portmeirionlore: First Botanic Garden drumshape bowls

June 10, 2014 Lia

In 1973 the first set of dinnerware in the Portmeirion range had several drumshaped dishes or tureens, as well as the Meridian shaped soupbowls. They have the old motifs with dark coloured butterflies.

The low dish in the front of the picture only occurs in the oldest sets, and I have only seen it with the Citrus.

The bowls come with the same motifs as can be seen on the teacups, the lids have the Strawberry Tree and the Yellow Foxglove:

The soup bowls also have the same motifs as the teacups:

The Scarlet Pimpernel, Forget-me-not, Rhododendron, Common Tomentil, Heartsease and Speedwell. The bowls are quite large, therefore large butterflies were added to fill up the empty space on the cups. The bowls came with white saucers with the leafed border.

Three different sizes of jugs were part of the set, the smaller two with the Spring Gentian, the larger also with the teacup motifs:

Spectacular butterflies…………