In 2013 Portmeirion introduced a new dinner plate in the Botanic Garden range, the Sunflower:
The Sunflower also appears on mugs and jugs:
Here the Sunflower is on three different plate sizes:
Apart from the large salad bowl, still missing here, there is a 5.5 inch salad bowl:
and an 8 inch pasta bowl:
It is a delightful flower in the Botanic Garden
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:
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The Barnowl was thought to bring bad luck in some countries and was therefore withdrawn. The Black Cock was also withdrawn,”as its name was thought to discourage sales”.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.
These are the new Exotic Botanic Garden dinner plates:
Hawaiian Hibiscus, Moth Orchid, White Waterlily,Red Ginger, Bird of Paradise, Dragonfly and Winged Passion Flower. They really are an exotic lot of plates, very colourful, with lovely flowers.
The Botanic Garden range appeared in 1972. First there was a coffee set and a few months later Portmeirion proudly presented the dinner service. Here are the original six dinner plates: Mexican Lily, Blue Passion Flower, Venus Fly Trap, Manchineel Tree, African Daisy and Yellow Crown Imperial.
All early plates come with the beautiful first Botanic Garden backstamp:
They were a magnificent set of dinnerplates:
The African Daisy, here seen with some African Daisies in the background, was the first flower that Susan Williams-Ellis put on a dinner plate for the Botanic Garden dinner service.
The Mexican Lily, with the dark butterflies.
The Manchineel Tree , with the dark greens and browns.
The Blue Passion Flower, a Botanic Garden classic.
The majestic Yellow Crown Imperial.
The Venus Fly Trap with the crawly insects.
There were all sorts of variations in motifs and lettering. This is the Yellow Crown Imperial, with and without the green border. The top one has the newer lettering.
The African Daisy had an early version with brown butterflies. Later versions show the yellow and green butterflies, a dragonfly was also added.
The Mexican Lily also had changes in butterflies. There are even three different butterfly variations, from the early dark butterflies, then the spectacular pink butterflies and finally the greenish one, matching with the bulb. As with all the plates, the lettering changed a few times.
There were sets of six dinner plates and apart from that there was one 13 inch platter. It had the Blue Passion Flower motif with three large flowers instead of two on the dinner plates:
A later version of this 13 inch platter had an extra butterfly:
From here my pictures of the dinner plates are not all in chronological order. Hera are: Royal Highness, Flowered Chrysanthemum, African Lily, Honeysuckle, Shrubby Peony and Christmas Rose.
The Christmas Rose has always been one of my favourites:
There are two versions of the Honeysuckle, the older one with sturdy brown colours, and a newer pink version. There seems to be a mix up in the Latin name as well.
In the following picture the Honeysuckle, Virgin’s Bower, Rhododendron, Sweet Pea, Asiatic Magnolia, Lily Flowered Azalea
The Sweet Pea, with some Sweet Peas:
The Asiatic Magnolia also has two versions, one with a blue butterfly:
Portmeirion keep producing new motifs, such as the Foxglove, Sunflower, Poppy (new in 2014), Hydrangea (new in in 2012, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Botanic Garden), Pink Parrot Tulip and Arborea
The Hydrangea plates are among my favourites:
Exotic Botanic Garden is another recent range, featuring the Hawaiian Hibiscus, Moth Orchid, White Waterlily,Red Ginger, Bird of Paradise, Dragonfly and Winged Passion Flower. They really are an exotic lot of plates, very colourful, with lovely flowers.
A dinnerplate made for the Korean market looks very much like the Hawaiian Hibiscus, it features the Rose of Sharon:
This is an older motif, the White Gum Cistus, rarely seen on dinnerplates.
The White Gum Cistus was originally seen on soup plates and bread and butter plates. There is a double version that occurs on early salad plates:
At Portmeirion they are very good at what-iffing, here are some trials with salad plate motifs on dinner plates, the Fuchsia, Ivy Leafed Cyclamen, Belladonna Lily, Blue Iris and Dog Rose.
When Susan Williams-Ellis died in 2007 the company honoured her life with the return of one of the earlier motifs, the Meadow Saffron, on a dinner plate.
Here is a rare dinnerplate withe the Botanic Garden border and a Ladies Flower Garden motif.
In 1980 the Mexican Lily appeared on a specially made plate:
There is a version with green lettering and one with pink letters:
The Collectors Club was presented with a hand-painted version of the Christmas Rose in 1993. There is no longer a collectors club now, and no new Collectors Letters have appeared for a long time, which is a pity.
The Year 2000 and the new millennium were celebrated by a new plate with the Millennium Rose:
Portmeirion designed a series of four Birds of America. My plates have the Botanic Garden leafed border:
They are the Mallard, the Pintail, the Bobwhite Quail and the Ruffed Grouse.
I am not quite sure whether the Botanic Birds are part of the Botanic Garden range, or whether they should be classified as Birds of Britain. Anyway, I put the dinner plates here. 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.
And there’s always this one:
In 1972 Portmeirion launched tableware decorated with “ferocious fish”, called The Kingdom of the Sea.
The salad plates with the huge crabs and crayfish look rather scary to me.
There are six different dinner plates with exotic fish:
This picture was taken at a local exhibition:
The Sea Porcupine:
Although there is some uncertainty as to the correct names of the fish, (sometimes the name on the back is not the name of the fish on the front of the plate) I will mention a few here. This is the Golden Angel Fish:
The Moorish Idol:
The Humped Back Coffer Fish:
The Cray Fish:
The Common Lobster:
The Spider Crab:
This is a new motif for 2014,
in commemoration of the Great War,
a dinnerplate with Poppies
Here is a promotional picture by Portmeirion. Unfortunately, unlike the small teapot, the salad bowls are not available in the Poppy motif.
but here it is, in my very own kitchen: the Poppy salad bowl:
and here is the 8 inch salad plate:
and last but not least: 4 inch straight mugs:
The Botanic Garden range has a new motif, the Arborea.
Here is the 10 inch dinner plate:
Recently I found this 8 inch no border salad plate:
