Majolica Spotlight: Wedgwood Fruit Plate Series

One of the first majolica plates I ever bought was from Wedgwood's large fruit dessert plate series. It pictures a sliced melon with a turquoise basket weave ground. I picked it up at a tiny church sponsored antiques sale for $30 and was one of the prettiest plates I’d ever seen. Soon afterwards I started to see other plates with different fruits on them-- many different fruits. It piqued my curiosity. I began to wonder, how many different plates could there be? (By the way, it seems rather odd that the melon plate in the top photo is somewhat different in design from the melon plate directly below, but that is another topic).

Well, it's now 35+ years later and to date I’ve counted twelve different large plates. That seems like a logical number for a series, but who knows?

The series itself dates to the 1870's and was conceived at the time Wedgwood promoted the Argenta line. Consequently the plates are most frequently found with an ivory ground and less frequently with a turquoise or cobalt ground as can be seen in the three different pealed orange plates below.

With some looking they can also be found in brown, mottled, and two glaze combinations like cobalt/green and gold/red.

Each plate features one large fruit surrounded by smaller fruits, nuts and foliage. There seems to be some variation in the placement in these surrounding fruits as I noted above. This is most likely the result on new master molds being made to replace older ones.

In addition to the melon: a pomegranate: an apple; chestnut; coconut; fig; lemon; peach; pear; pineapple; a whole orange; and a peeled orange. Why there are two oranges I can't say (maybe one is supposed to be a clementine or a tangerine—who knows) but there seems to be a consensus among collectors I’ve spoken to that the peeled orange is the most difficult to find in the series.

 

Wedgwood majolica apple plate

Wedgwood majolica chestnut plate

Wedgwood majolica peach plate

Wedgwood majolica fig plate

Wedgwood majolica lemon plate

Wedgwood majolica melon plate

Wedgwood majolica orange plate

Wedgwood majolica pear plate

Wedgwood majolica pineapple plate

Wedgwood majolica pomegranate plate

Wedgwood majolica coconut plate

In addition to the large 9-inch plates there were numerous matching serving pieces: platters in three sizes; two grape servers; two relish plates; a footed bowl; tall and low tazzas; a 6.75-inch side dish; an umbrella stand; a condiment set; mugs; a large punch bowl; and a sardine box. With so many different shapes there must be other pieces of the series that I haven't seen.
There were also other Wedgwood designs that utilized the same basket weave ground such as the Wedgwood cornbread platter but as far as I can tell they're not actually part of the series but more like go-alongs.

Wedgwood majolica small fruit plate

Wedgwood majolica medium fruit platter

Wedgwood majolica large fruit platter

Wedgwood majolica small lemon plate

Wedgwood majolica small orange plate

Wedgwood majolica round grape tray

Wedgwood majolica oval grape tray

Wedgwood fruit strawberry server

Wedgwood Argenta fruit umbrella/cane stand

Wedgwood majolica fruit sardine box

Wedgwood fruit punch bowl. There are also matching mugs.

Wedgwood majolica fruit bowl

Wedgwood majolica fruit salt and pepper

The 9-inch plates have always brought good prices. The ivory ground plates are often stained but still bring about $100-$200 each; the turquoise plates usually bring $200-$350 each; and the cobalt ground plates will bring $400+. The other color combinations are not really very popular with the all-over mottled plates usually bringing the lowest price of them all by selling for under $100.
Prices for the companion pieces depend on color, rarity and condition.

One note to all this: the Etruscan apple and strawberry plate is a copy of the Wedgwood peach plate, minus the peach! The elements are somewhat reorganized but there's no question of the relation between the two.

It was only one of many Etruscan designs with components "borrowed" from Wedgwood.