61 - DINNER PLATE: Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, Barlaston, 1955

Summary

Queen's Ware, printed in black and gilt. Marks: ‘WEDGWOOD/2 R 55’ impressed; circular printed Wedgwood mark; ‘G 5558/2’ painted in red and ‘3’ printed in grey. Diameter 27.2 cm. C.2–1969.

In 1952 wartime restrictions on the making of decorated tableware for the home market were lifted, opening the way for the introduction of ‘Contemporary’ tableware with curving shapes and colourful patterns. This plate is not typically ‘Contemporary’ but it resembles many fifties tablewares in having bold linear motifs contrasting with a pale ground. The pattern was designed in 1952 by Richard Guyatt, Professor of Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art, for a service commissioned from Wedgwood for the high table of King's College, Cambridge. The central Tudor Rose made up of lovers’ knots, encloses the ciphers of Henry VI, who founded the College in 1441, Henry VII and Henry VIII. The motif on the rim, an h formed by a dragon with its head in a cleft stake, was taken from windows in the College Chapel. Initially the service was made in Queen's Ware, but since 1971, when a larger service was ordered, it has been made in metallized bone china by Wedgwood's Hotelware Division.

Tableware for use in hotels and institutions has become an increasingly significant aspect of the ceramic industry during the second half of the twentieth century. Some of these ‘hotelwares’ are forms of bone china, while others, such as Steelite, have tough vitreous bodies strengthened by the addition of aluminium oxide.