Diameter: 25.7cm (10.2in)
Polychromed armorial porcelain plate with gilt gadrooned rim and moulded floral decoration to the border; the center painted with arms of the HEIC as granted in 1698. The reverse bearing the backstamp ‘Spode / Felspar / Porcelain / The London’.
Following a devastating fire at the East India Company factory in Canton in 1822, it is held that HEIC officials ordered a replacement armorial dinner service from the Staffordshire potter Josiah Spode II - reversing the century long flow of highly prized Chinese porcelain exports from Canton.
The innovative Josiah Spode II had just introduced Felspar Porcelain, which as a a new addition to his range china bodies, outclassed all other contemporary English porcelains not just aesthetically but also in reliability of manufacture. Accordingly ‘Felspar’ with its white, very glassy appearance became the latest craze in porcelain. It was ideal for making fashionable dinner and dessert wares and no doubt the glassiness of the body glittered in candlelight, making an evening dinner table even more festive. The additional backstamp of ‘The London’ is thought to allude to the East Indiaman commanded by Captain John Barnet Sotherby who is though to have delivered the original dinner service to Canton and ordered his own for use aboard ship.
Arms: Argent a cross Gules in the dexter chief quarter an escutcheon of the arms of France and England quarterly the shield ornamented and regally crowned Or. Supporters: Two lions rampant guardant Or each supporting a banner erect Argent charegd with a cross Gules. Motto: Auspicio Regis et Senatus Angliae (By the authority of the King and Parliament of England). Crest: A lion rampant guardant Or supporting between the forepaws a regal crown or.