7
TEA-TIME
COLLECTABLES
When you imagine an English
tea party youâll no doubt
conjure images of tiny sandwiches and
scones served on pretty floral porcelain
alongside steaming cups of tea. And it is
this typically English china â featuring
a delicate rose design â that is Royal
Crown Derbyâs highest value collection.
Designed on a royal shape with a fluted
edge âRoyal Antoinetteâ has appeared
in Pride and Prejudice Oliver and on
Downton Abbey and is a bestseller
in South Korea Japan and USA. First
introduced in 1959 it is inspired by a
much earlier pattern called âMelroseâ
which featured floral swags with a blue
border. The collection is hand-finished
with 22 carat gold â
teapots cost from £477.6
JARDIN DE ROSES
Belgian-born artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté had a love affair with roses. Widely
regarded as the greatest botanical illustrator of all time he was the ofcial court
artist of Queen Marie Antoinette and later Empress Joséphine rst wife of Napoléon
Bonaparte. Like Redouté Joséphine adored roses and with the help of the French navy
collected 250 varieties from around the world. She created an unrivalled rose garden at
her home Chateau de Malmaison near Paris and commissioned Redouté to illustrate each
one. He painted 117 of them each as an individual portrait and published them in his
book Les Roses after Joséphineâs death in 1814. Shown here is Rosa centifolia â dated
1824 â widely known as the âProvence roseâ or âcabbage roseâ for its tightly packed petals.8
SCENT OF THE GODS
No ode to the rose would be complete without
appreciating its role in perfume making. During the
10th century the Arabians mastered the art of distilling rose
petals and their techniques and materials were brought back by the
Crusaders. The popularity of perfume spread throughout Europe and
by the 17th century Louis XIV had his own personal perfumer and
a scent for every day of the week. French towns such as Grasse and
Montpellier competed to supply the royal court and fields of roses
and jasmine bloomed as they experimented with varieties in search of
new elixirs. In the 1900s with the modern perfume industry booming
and mass-market production in place French jewellery designer and
glassmaker René Lalique teamed up with businessman François Coty
to create scent bottles that were as sought after as their contents.
âPanier de Rosesâ (right) is an early design dated 1912 a version of
which sold at Bonhams in 2004 for over £2000.128 H&A SUMMER 2017