CIRCA 1725

The origin of this spectacular order, showing the arms of the principle provinces and towns of modern day Holland and Belgium plus England and France, remains a mystery, but is seems likely that it commemorated the Triple Alliance that united England, France and the Netherlands after the War of Spanish Succession. Dishes in the series were ordered in four different patterns in the 1720s, this being the largest and most elaborate. See a comparable example from the collection of Benjamin Edwards III sold Christie's, New York, 22 January 2002, lot 37, and illustrated by J Kroes, op cit, p 61.