Green Frog Service by Wedgwood

Wedgwood Queens Ware

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Wedgwood China has its origins in 1759, when Josiah Wedgwood established a pottery near Stoke-on-Trent at the former Ivy House works in Burslem, England. By 1761, Wedgwood had perfected a superior quality, inexpensive clear-glazed creamware that proved very successful.

Wedgwood moved his pottery from the Ivy House to the larger Brick House works in Burslem in 1764. Wedgwood china continued to grow in stature until 1766, at which time Wedgwood was appointed "Potter To Her Majesty" by Queen Charlotte. Wedgwood immediately named his creamware "Queen's Ware". Wedgwood china was produced at the Brick House works until 1772. Wedgwood built a new factory in Etruria, which began operating in 1769, the same year he formed a partnership with Thomas Bently.

The Green Frog Service

The Green Frog Service is one of the masterpieces of "Wedgwood Porcelain". 
This lead-glazed earthenware service was produced in 1773-74 to a commission from Catherine the Great for a palace under construction just outside St Petersburg, on the road to her beloved summer estate of Tsarskoye Selo. Since the local Finnish name for the spot where the palace was being built was Kekerekeksinen, meaning "frog marsh", each item of the service bears a green frog in a frame shaped like a heraldic shield. The service, intended for fifty people, comprised 944 pieces (of which 770 still exist), decorated with 1,222 views of England, Scotland and Wales painted in tones of brown and black against a cream-colored background. 

The service was made in Staffordshire at Wedgwood's famous Etruria factory founded in 1769. From there it was sent south to London, to Chelsea where a team of about thirty craftsmen painted the pieces under Bentley's direction.

A large portion of the depictions is of country estates and parks, but there is also a whole series devoted to London, the surrounding area and the River Thames. The artists worked from engravings, oil paintings and watercolors, as well as in some instances drawings that were specially made at the relevant locations for this purpose.

The service had a large number of dinner and desert plates intended for several successive courses ("spares" were included in the total to replace any breakage that occurred in use). There were also soup tureens, large oval dishes with lids for game birds, round and oval dishes for meat and fish, sauce-boats, salad-bowls, ice-cream dishes (with a complex four part structure), special dishes for syllabubs and stewed fruit, bottle and glass holders, and any number of other items of different design and purpose reflecting the tastes, etiquette and culinary peculiarities of the eighteenth century. At the same time due to the refined simplicity of its forms and the virtuoso decoration. Every item is highly practical, well thought out and convenient to use.