Portmeirion Pottery Birds Of Britain Side Plate, Chaffinch, SM4-B412
Portmeirion
A Portmeirion Birds Of Britain 7.25 Inch Side Plate, Chaffinch, Designed By Susan Williams-Ellis.
This lovely side plate from the long discontinued Birds of Britain range features the Chaffinch as the main design and a grey band border.
This is an early version of the design as the motif has a number 3 after the birds name. The early examples of Birds items were in groups of six designs and carried their relevant number.
Approx Dimensions :-
7.25 in (18 cm) diam
Birds Of Britain
Susan Williams-Ellis originally conceived the idea for a Birds Of Britain range in 1974. The beautiful and highly decorative illustrations were taken from the book 'Natural History Of British Birds' by E. Donovan. The range launched in 1977, initially exclusively to John Lewis in the UK and Bitossi in Italy. This design became most popular in the USA and Europe but for some reason not so much in the UK, which Susan could never understand. The Barn Owl was removed to please the Italian market, where they were considered an ill omen, and the Black Cock was removed as it's name was thought to discourage sales. These two designs have since become highly collectable as they are much rarer than others, as they were discontinued in 1985. The whole range was discontinued around 1997, although some special orders were still available up to 2002.