Lot 15 | Large porcelain serivce "Flora Danica"

LARGE PORCELAIN SERIVCE "FLORA DANICA".

Royal Copenhagen.
Maker/Designer: Model J.C. Bayer.
Technique: Porcelain, enriched in colours and gold.
Description: In total 78 pieces consisting of: 8 dinner plates, 8 soup plates, 8 coffee cups with 8
saucers, 8 dessert plates, 10 mocha cups with 10 saucers, 10 pastry plates, 1 sugar bowl,
1 cream jug, 1 oval bonbonnière, 1 large round serving dish, 1 large oval meat dish, 1
rectangular vegetable bowl, 1 sauce boat with attached saucer, 1 large oval tureen.
Mark: Manufacture mark, various year marks and model numbers, most pieces inscribed with Latin plant names.

Flora Danica (lat. Danish flora) is the name of a botanical atlas that was started in 1753
by Christian Oeder, director of the Botanical Garden in Copenhagen. It took 122 years
until the entire flora of the Danish state was recorded in the manner of a herbarium - and
the extensive encyclopedia was completed. In 1790, the Danish Crown Prince and later King
Frederick VI ordered an extensive dinner service from the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in
Copenhagen, which was to bear not only the name but also the motifs of 'Flora Danica'. It
was intended as a gift for the Russian Tsarina Catherine II, who died in 1796, before the
service was completed in 1802. Thus deprived of its original purpose, the service was kept
by the Danish Court, where parts of it are still used for state banquets at Christiansborg
Castle.