Victorian Wedgwood Emerald Green Majolica Sunflower Plate, 1880

This Victorian Wedgwood plate is from the Sunflower pattern, deeply moulded with a large central flower head surrounded by a broad basketweave border. Its unusually bright emerald glaze moves from vivid green across the raised decoration to deeper tones within the recesses, with areas of darker glaze pooling around the rim adding further depth. Dated 1880, the strength and variation of the glaze give this example a distinctly individual character. Collector’s Note By 1880, Wedgwood’s Sunflower pattern had been in production for twenty years. The sunflower was widely used across ceramics, furniture and metalwork and became closely associated with the Aesthetic Movement. The combination of naturalistic modelling and a structured basketweave border places the design firmly within this late-Victorian interest in decorative form.