Creighton University

Here is a lovely presentation in green of the fable in which the lion and bear wear each other out in struggling over the carcass of a deer. Exhausted, the two need to lie and watch as a fox carries away the prey that they have fought over. The verso has clear markings of "Spode" and the quoted titles above.

The artistry of the green illustration occupying the center of this small plate expresses the fable well.  The fox is walking away but he is still looking back at the grapes.  He has given up on them and, though he is bad-mouthing them, he would still want to have them.  The verso includes "Copeland and Garrett Late Spode."

As with each 19^th-century Spode piece I see, the design here is exquisite.  I would have to check with the sort of people who ran Downton Abbey to know just when an ashette like this would be used, but it would be lovely, even though I wonder about people taking food off of platters showing crows and rocks!

The mouse is appropriately difficult to find at first in this grand scene.  There are several people in the left foreground who seem to be uninvolved or uninterested in the "big doings" that have brought a group of people out of the town on the far right.  These people have come some distance, only to be disappointed. I offer a detail of the central image below the platter.  Click on any image to enlarge it.

Bentley Chappell and Nancy Barshter at Aesthetic Antiques have a wide offering of fable materials.  This was the least expensive.  I am unsure of how we are to understand the side opposite the clear presentation of OR.  The main side itself is puzzling.  Is the oak bending over in the wind?  If so, the bird further in the foreground seems unaffected, and the tree seems to be holding its own. 

As Bentley Chappell and Nancy Barshter at Aesthetic Antiques  wrote, "Ornate moulded handle, a plethora of oversized flowers, a famous fable, does it get any better than this?"