Plate
ca. 1756-58
The botanical painting on this plate is copied from an engraving in Philip Miller’s Figures of the Most Beautiful, Useful, and Uncommon Plants, published between 1755 and 1760. Illustrations from volume one of this important work were used as source material for botanicals on Chelsea porcelain. Miller included Dwarf Southernwood in his book not for its beauty but for its efficacy as a medicine. In its dictionary listing, he recorded: “Southernwood is bitter and aromatic, with a very strong smell. It is not much in use, but promises considerable effects, outwardly in discussing contusions and tumours, inwardly for destroying worms, and in disorders peculiar to the female sex. . . . The branches dye wool a deep yellow."
Soft paste porcelain
8 in. (20.3 cm), diameter
Gift of Martha and Henry Isaacson
76.219
Provenance: Collection of Mr and Mrs Henry and Martha Isaacson, unknown purchase date until 1976; gift from Mr and Mrs Henry and Martha Isaacson to Seattle Art Museum, Washington, 1976
