19th Spode Stoneware Peacock Pattern #4079 Plate

Stoneware plate with printed design and inpainting. c. 1820.
 
Dimensions: Approximately 8” diameter.
 
Decoration: 
The plate has an overall pattern of peacocks and flowering plants and is on buttercream yellow ground background pattern known as Parsley.
 
The painting is in vibrant colors with significant amounts of gilt.
 
The reverse has both an impressed “Spode” mark and an impressed “7”, a painted pattern number: “4079” followed by an “M”, and a painted workman’s mark.
 
This Chinoiserie design was based on an 18th century Chinese export porcelain dinner service made for the King of Portugal. When King Joao VI and the Portuguese royal family fled to Brazil following Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal in 1807, they took that dinner service with them. 
 
Unfortunately, many pieces were broken during the voyage from Portugal to Brazil. Rather than order replacement pieces from China, which would have taken as much as two or three years, King Joao VI specially commissioned the firm of Spode in Stoke-on-Trent, England to copy and replace the broken items. 
 
Spode agreed on the condition that they would later be allowed to reproduce the Pattern for their own customers. In 1813 the Peacock Pattern was first sold by Spode at their shop in London. It soon became one of Spode’s most fashionable and sought-after Patterns during the Regency Period in England.
 
References: 
“Spode”, Leonard Whiter
 
“Spode & Copeland, 200 Years of Fine China and Porcelain”, Steven Smith.
 
Condition: In excellent condition consistent with age and usage.