Majolica Spotlight: Wedgwood Fruit Plate Series

One of the first majolica plates we ever bought was from Wedgwood's large fruit dessert plate series. It pictures a sliced melon with a turquoise basket weave ground. We picked it up at a tiny church sponsored antiques sale for $30 and was one of the prettiest plates we'd ever seen. Soon afterwards we started to see other plates with different fruits on them-- many different fruits. It piqued our curiosity. We 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 topic for another post entirely!)

Well, it's now 25+ years later and we're still not sure! It seems that as soon as they're all accounted for a different one shows up! To date we've counted twelve different large plates.

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

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.

Here's what we've found so far 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 we 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 we've spoken to that the peeled orange is the most sought after 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; a relish plate; a footed bowl; tazzas in two sizes; 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 we haven't seen as well.
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 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.