A Pair of Plates from the Stowe Service
Details
- Date
- 1813
- Author / Artist
- Flight, Barr and Barr Worcester
- Dimensions
- 24 cm diameter
- Material
- Porcelain
- Catalogue number
- HBT.2.1-2
- Current location
- Museum
- Related
- Related history
Two plates from the Worcester Stowe Service (Barr, Flight and Barr), gilt with foliate scrolls over an apricot ground. The 186 piece ‘Stowe Service’ was sold in the 1848 Stowe Sale for £28.18.0 to T. Delarue of Bunhill Row. During the years that followed the family sought to recover pieces from the Service. In 1922 the contents of Stowe again came up for sale. This time, what remained of the Service was bought by the noted porcelain dealer J. Rochelle-Thomas of St James’s, who described it in an advertisement in a 1923 issue of ‘Connoisseur’ as ‘The Most Magnificent Dinner Service Ever Made’.
The heraldic achievement with which each piece was painted is of exaggerated grandeur and complexity, reflecting the family’s relatively recent rise to the nobility. Its original owner, Richard 2nd Marquess of Buckingham, was made a Duke in 1822. He had only just succeeded his father when the service was ordered, and the richness of the service reflects his aspirations.
