Flora Danica set an unusual standard when Royal Copenhagen began the service in 1790: rather than repeating a single decorative motif across every piece, each item in the set carries a different botanical illustration, drawn from a Danish flora reference work of the same name, so a complete service amounts to a working catalogue of the country's native plant life rendered in porcelain rather than a matched pattern in the conventional sense. This plate carries two ripe figs, hand-painted with the same botanical precision the service is known for, right down to the kind of detail that would satisfy an actual botanist rather than just a decorator.
The plate dates to the early 1900's and carries a gilded edge, a restrained finishing touch against the botanical illustration rather than competing with it. Individual Flora Danica pieces are collected on their own as often as they're sought to complete an existing service, since each one is effectively a self-contained study of a single plant, this one happening to be figs.
Condition notes
Excellent antique condition. Wear to gilt; professional repair to reverse; surface crack to glaze.
