A rare set of Royal Worcester dessert plates from Collingrove Homestead forms part of a new exhibition at the David Roche Foundation in Adelaide, writes curator Timothy Roberts.
Nature Revealed: Rosa Fiveash & Ellis Rowan brings together the exquisite wildflower paintings of two noted Australian botanical artists. Working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when opportunities were limited for women to establish themselves as professional artists, Marian Ellis Rowan challenged social conventions by travelling extensively in pursuit of her subjects, earning her the title ‘Flower Hunter’ and affording her international acclaim. By comparison Rosa Fiveash spent most of her career in Adelaide, painting botanical specimens with meticulous detail, and introducing a new generation to the joys of painting through her teaching.
Some 150 works of art will be on display in the exhibition, the majority of which are watercolour paintings of native wildflowers that grow in South Australia, as well as lithographic prints, painted porcelain and a pair of two-fold room screens. The selection of porcelain includes seven Royal Worcester plates, lent by the National Trust of South Australia, which were part of dessert set at Collingrove Homestead, Angaston.
Around 1912 William Henry Flavelle, a managing partner of Sydney jewellers Flavelle Brothers Ltd, approached Ellis Rowan regarding an opportunity to reproduce her vibrant watercolours on porcelain. After obtaining her support for the project, he supplied the Royal Worcester factory with reproductions of Ellis Rowan’s illustrations to allow design trials to begin. Flavelle stressed the need for accuracy of both form and colour on these works, and once satisfied that the factory’s painting department could fulfil this standard, he commissioned the artist to execute a quantity of Australian wildflower illustrations from which the designs could be copied. While it is not known how many Australian wildflower designs were executed as a part of the commission, at least 40 designs have been identified, with many more likely.
Ellis Rowan’s Royal Worcester designs were sold at the Flavelle Brothers store in George Street, Sydney. Some pieces were purchased by pastoralists and businesspeople visiting Sydney, which saw these designs dispersed across the country. Francis John White and Margaret Fletcher White of Saumarez Homestead, Armidale (a National Trust of Australia (NSW) property), purchased a group of Australian wildflowers teawares for their daughter Frieda when she married John Cullen in 1925.
The Collingrove Homestead dessert set may have been purchased by Charles Angas in 1914 while attending the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, or were possibly a gift to Ronald Fife Angas and Monica Alice Murray upon their marriage in 1915.
It consists of 12 dessert plates and four footed dishes (tazzae), each measuring 23 centimetres in diameter. Decorated in 1912–13, they each bear a distinctive ‘Quaker grey’ border with detailed acid-etched design. The well of each plate was hand painted by the Royal Worcester decorators with a spray of flowers designed by Ellis Rowan. The vibrant and painterly plate designs depict love creeper; blue flax lily and stypandra; dillwynia; eremaea and lobelia; eucalyptus; northern white beech; lacebark; Queensland ebony; silky daisy-bush; pongame oiltree, prostanthera; and pultenaea. Two of the four tazzae depict Christmas bush, while the remaining two feature a flannel flower design. Seven plates from the Collingrove dessert set will be displayed alongside teawares held by the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Australia, and a selection of porcelain painted by Rosa Fiveash.
Nature revealed: Rosa Fiveash & Ellis Rowan will see the David Roche Gallery bloom with an abundance of work by these two eminent Australian botanical artists. For many, this will be the first opportunity to marvel at the luminous watercolours created by these two inspiring women, depicting some of Australia’s most beloved and most vulnerable native flora.
The Nature Revealed: Rosa Fiveash & Ellis Rowan exhibition runs until 23 May at the
David Roche Gallery, 241 Melbourne Street, North Adelaide.
For more details and to purchase tickets visit rochefoundation.com.au/exhibitions/
