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Antique Derby Crown Hand-Painted Botanical Cabinet Plate — 9″ Circa 1885 Painted Gilt Lace Border (Later Royal Crown Derby)

$120.00 Only one available

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Belle Époque (1871–1914) Enamel / Painted, Gilt Very Good
HDRH-VR-0030
Some pieces you set on a stand and simply keep looking at. This is one of them. A hand-painted porcelain cabinet plate from the Derby Crown Porcelain Company — the celebrated English house that would become Royal Crown Derby in 1890 — painted around 1885 with soft sprays of mauve, pink, blue and sage-green blossoms on a ribbed ivory ground. The gilt border, painted in a lace-fine ribbon-and-flower pattern with beaded gold dotting, is the kind of detail that tells you a real hand was at work. Roughly 140 years old, and it still holds a room.
  • Maker: Derby Crown Porcelain Company, England (later Royal Crown Derby), confirmed by the iron-red crown backstamp and year cypher
  • Date: Circa 1885 — a genuine Victorian antique
  • Size: 9 inches across; a true cabinet/display plate
  • Decoration: Artist hand-painted botanical sprays on a fluted ivory-white ground
  • Border: Scalloped rim with painted gilt ribbon-and-flower lacework and beaded gold detailing
  • Reverse: Hand-painted iron-red pattern number 1710
Condition: Very Good for its age — no cracks or hairlines. One tiny chip to the outer edge of a single scallop, the kind a fingertip finds before the eye does. The painted face is still bright and fresh, with only gentle age-appropriate softening to the gilt — a Victorian survivor that displays beautifully.
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Antique Derby Crown Hand-Painted Botanical Cabinet Plate — 9" Circa 1885 Painted Gilt Lace Border (Later Royal Crown Derby)

Circa 1885 (Victorian)

Hand-Painted Aesthetic Movement Porcelain

The crown backstamp on this plate tells its story precisely: printed in iron red without the word "Royal," it is the mark of the Derby Crown Porcelain Company, and its year cypher reads 1885 — five years before the firm earned its Royal warrant and became Royal Crown Derby. That places this plate in the heart of the Aesthetic Movement, when English porcelain painters looked to nature rather than pattern books. The botanical sprays here — mauve, pink, blue, and sage on a ribbed ivory ground — are painted by hand, and the scalloped border is its own quiet feat: gilt ribbon-and-flower lacework brushed so finely it reads as pierced openwork until you look close. The reverse carries the gilder's hand-painted pattern number, 1710.

It came to us from an estate near Woodbridge, Virginia — a household whose collection has yielded consistently fine things: English and Irish china, good glass, curios gathered with a real eye. Someone there kept this plate for the same reason we suspect the next owner will: not to serve anything on it, but to set it where the light finds the gold and simply enjoy that a hand could do such work, a hundred and forty years on.

Materials English porcelain, hand-painted enamel botanicals, painted gilt lacework border with beaded gold detailing.
Care A display piece — dust with a soft, dry cloth. No dishwasher or microwave; keep the painted gilt away from abrasives. Happiest on a plate stand.
From the Research Archives
vintagerose.us Catalog No. HDRH-VR-0030 • July 2026

Specifications

Dimensions
10 × 10 × 4 in
Weight
2 lbs
SKU
HDRH-VR-0030
There's a particular pleasure in a plate that was never meant to hold anything but your attention. This one comes from the Derby Crown Porcelain Company — the great English house that would take the "Royal" warrant and become Royal Crown Derby in 1890. Painted around 1885, its crown backstamp carries the mark without the word "Royal," which places it neatly in that confident Aesthetic Movement moment when English porcelain was at its most inventive. The face is hand-painted, and you can feel the artist's hand in it — naturalistic sprays of mauve, pink, blue and sage-green blossoms on slender, delicate stems, with a daphne-and-mountain-laurel softness set against a ribbed ivory-white ground. Framing all of it is the border that makes the piece: a scalloped rim painted in gilt ribbon-and-flower lacework so fine it reads as pierced openwork at arm's length, dotted with beaded gold. It's fine, deliberate brushwork, and after roughly 140 years it wears just one tiny scallop-edge chip to show for its age. The reverse carries its hand-painted iron-red pattern number, 1710. It came to us from an estate near Woodbridge, Virginia — a household with a genuine eye, whose collection has yielded consistently fine English and Irish china, good glass, and worldly curios. This is the kind of thing they kept, and it's easy to see why. One of a kind, and made to be looked at.
  • Maker: Derby Crown Porcelain Company, England — the house that would become Royal Crown Derby (1890)
  • Date: Circa 1885, confirmed by the iron-red printed crown backstamp and crescent year cypher
  • Size: 9 inches across — a cabinet/display plate, or lovely on a stand
  • Decoration: Artist hand-painted botanical sprays in mauve, pink, blue and sage-green on a fluted ivory-white ground
  • Border: Scalloped rim with painted gilt ribbon-and-flower lacework and beaded gold detailing
  • Pattern: Hand-painted iron-red pattern number 1710 to the reverse
  • Provenance: From a discerning estate near Woodbridge, Virginia, known for fine china, glass, and curios
Condition: Very Good for its roughly 140 years. No cracks or hairlines. One tiny chip sits on the outer edge of a single scallop — small enough to hunt for — and we'd rather you hear it from us than find it yourself. The painted face remains bright and fresh, with gentle, age-appropriate softening to the gilt border and light age speckling to the reverse: the honest patina of a Victorian piece that's been genuinely well kept, and all the more convincing for it.

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