Plate from the Green Frog
Service, 1773–74
Wedgwood & Bentley
Staffordshire, England
Earthenware (creamware)
Chipstone Foundation 2001.80

Catherine the Great, Empress of
Russia, assembled one of the most renowned collections of European art, including incredibly sophisticated ceramics. In the early 1770s she commissioned a fantastically expensive 944-piece dinner service that featured a different hand-painted English landscape on each plate and vessel. The scenes were painted by thirty-three specialists at Wedgwood & Bentley’s English factory who worked for an entire year to complete Catherine’s order. Each piece in the service also boasts a green frog that refers to the Empress’s country house, which she called “The Frog Palace.” This plate is one of the few examples on public display outside of Russia.