Royal Worcester Shell Dish Pink White Roses Fine Porcelain England Boxed 5 in

A Royal Worcester scallop shell dish in its original blue and clear presentation box, the lid printed in gold with the Royal Worcester mark and name. The dish is moulded as a shell with deep radiating flutes and a lobed rim, decorated at the centre with a spray of one pink and one white rose, a bud and small blue forget me nots. The base carries the crowned circle Royal Worcester mark with ROYAL WORCESTER FINE PORCELAIN, MADE IN ENGLAND and OVEN TO TABLE WARE.  The scallop dish is one of the oldest shapes in English porcelain, taken directly from the shell itself in the eighteenth century when factories were moulding from natural objects, and Royal Worcester has kept a version of it in production almost continuously since. The deep flutes are structural as much as decorative: the corrugation stiffens a very thin porcelain body so the dish can be made light without warping in the kiln. The oven to table wording on the mark places it in the modern vitrified body Royal Worcester developed for the Evesham era rather than in the older bone china line.  Condition is excellent. The dish is clean and bright with no chips, cracks or crazing found and no wear to the decoration or the rim. The presentation box is present with light shelf wear to the lid.  Measured against a rule the dish is about five inches across.