Cream coloured earthenware oval dish painted with a view of Stourhead, Gloucestershire, made in the style of 'The Frog Service' by Wedgwood at Etruria, Staffordshire, decorated in Chelsea, London, 1774.

Oval dish, cream coloured earthenware, painted in enamels. The lobed rim has a brown line and a border of leaves and berries. The centre is painted with a scene of a lake with a temple in the distance, a bridge in the middle distance and a horse and rider in the foreground. The scene is edged by a painted gadrooned border and inscribed below this is the name of the location ' Stour head, Gloucestershire'.

Private Collection

This dish follows the design of 'The Frog Service', ordered from Wedgwood by Empress Catherine II of Russia in March 1773 for her new pleasure palace, the Kekerekeksinensky Palace. Built in a swampy location on the outskirts of St Petersburg, the gardens of the palace abounded with frogs, and the green frog, painted in a shield within the border of each piece, is an amusing reference to this. The commission was for a service for 50 people and each piece was to be decorated in sepia with views of Britain, specifically landscape gardens and Gothic buildings. The main source was a series of prints published annually by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, 'Buck’s Antiquities', although many other prints of gardens and ruins, which were a special interest of the Empress were also used. When no prints existed of interesting places, Wedgwood commissioned them, or bought existing original drawings for his painters to copy.

The service items were made at Wedgwood's factory Etruria in Staffordshire and then sent to London where it was painted at the company's Chelsea Decorating Studio. The combined dinner and dessert service was displayed on completion at Wedgwood’s new showrooms in Portland House, Greek Street, London, marking its opening in June 1774, and was finally despatched to Russia early in the autumn of 1774.

The service was extremely costly to produce, and it was hoped that members of the aristocracy might be inspired to order similar services decorated with views of their estates or famous beauty spots. To this end a further small dessert service with landscape scenes was made in the second half of 1774, specifically for use as a marketing tool in Wedgwood's London showrooms. 21 items of this service have been traced to date, and this dish is one of these items. All have views found also on the Frog Service, but are painted in colour as the monochrome sepia of the original was not thought to be attractive enough.

This dish was made at Josiah Wedgwood's factory, Etruria, in Staffordshire. It follows the design of 'The Frog Service', one of the most prestigious commissions ever received by Wedgwood from Empress Catherine II of Russia in March 1773.

The Empress ordered the service specifically for her new pleasure palace, the Kekerekeksinensky Palace. Built in a swampy location on the outskirts of St Petersburg, the gardens of the palace abounded with frogs, and the name of the service derives from the green frog, painted in a shield within the border of each piece as an amusing reference to this.

The service items were painted in London at Wedgwood's Chelsea Decorating Studio. Here specially trained decorators copied views of Britain from engravings or original watercolours in shades of brown onto every piece. The Empress had a passion for British landscape gardens and Gothic buildings and specified the kind of views she wanted. On its completion, the combined dinner and dessert service was displayed at Wedgwood’s new showrooms in Portland House, Greek Street, London in June 1774 and was then despatched to Russia early in the autumn of the same year.

The service was extremely costly to produce, and it was hoped that members of the British aristocracy might be inspired to order similar services decorated with views of their estates or famous beauty spots. To this end a further small dessert service with landscape scenes was made in the second half of 1774, specifically for use as a marketing tool in Wedgwood's London showrooms. 21 items of this service have been traced to date, and this dish is one of these items. All have views found also on the Frog Service, but differ in that they are painted in colour and do not have the frog painted in the border.

LOAN:CERANON.11-2012