Diameter: 25cm (10in)
Porcelain. A Spode armorial dinner plate from the service supplied to the Ghazi ad-Din Rafa`at ad-Dowla, the King of Oude (ruled 1814-1827) decorated in puce with gold scrollwork borders and the heraldic crest composed of the twin fishes (matsya) derived from the Moghul Emperors of Delhi and awarded to the Court of Awadh, and the dagger (kutar), the symbol of armed authority. The reverse marked ‘Spode’ in upper case.
Other pieces from the service formed part of The Copeland China Collection, Trelissick House, Cornwall. Indian Mutiny veteran Captain (later Major-General) Hales Wilkie, 97th Foot, is recorded as displaying several peices in his house at Malvern, while the ceramics historian Leonard Whiter recounts in his book ‘Spode’ (1970), p.73, ‘that following the Siege of Lucknow the King of Oude's treasure was seized and even his tableware was taken by the 9th Lancers. One of the Icepails from this set, still owned by the 9th Lancers’.
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The service is presumed to have been part of the spoils looted by British troops from the Kaiserbagh palace complex at the fall of that place in March 1858. During the prolonged defence of the British Residency within the city, it was used as a stronghold of Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadh, who played a leading role in orchestrating the Great Mutiny. Awadh was historically an important province of the Mughal empire, and the opulence in the courts of the Nawabs (kings of Awadh) and their prosperity attracted the attention of the British East India Company. In 1815, about the time the presence service was made in faraway Stoke-on-Trent, Marquis Hastings of the East India Company persuaded the then ruling Nawab to become an independent king which he did in 1819. In 1856, the kingdom was annexed by Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of the East India Company on the grounds of internal misrule.