I grew up around this pattern. My mother has stacks of it in her china cabinet, and it gets used regularly for family get-togethers, holidays, and big events. This pattern makes me think of my mother because she worked so tirelessly on perfecting it long before I was working for Mottahedeh.
Maria Sibylla Merian's widely known 1685 volume of botanical illustrations inspired the center motif on an original (circa 1725) Chinese export plate in Mildred Mottahedeh's personal collection (seen below).
The Merian Service is based on these floral motifs. Raised enamels in twenty-three rich colors accented in gold filigree make this a timeless classic. Notice how the original has caterpillars crawling throughout the flowers? We felt that having fat squishy looking bugs (other than butterflies) under people's food might be far less appealing than leaves. So with some careful planning, the caterpillars were transformed into foliage, and without seeing the original, you probably wouldn't have even noticed. (Now that's all you see, right?)
The original plates were hand painted, and thus had texture to the design where the different colors of paint were layered upon each other. It also included raised enamels. For this reason, in our adaptation, raised enamels were added to the finished pieces to give them a paint like texture and in order to catch the light and make it more interesting. This is a pattern you have to see in person to truly appreciate.
Another interesting fact: the original of this plate used heavily leaded paint in order to achieve the richness in color. Decal oxides have been reformatted over time to eliminate or drastically reduce lead in order to still achieve the richest colors on our porcelain. Lead is highly regulated within the USA.
Nearly all Mottahedeh products are also dishwasher safe, unlike their antique inspirations. Most people are too worried about putting these beautiful plates in their dishwasher, but we feel that beautiful porcelain should be used regularly. Being able to pop them in the dishwasher after a feast makes it that much easier to incorporate them into your every day life.
