SIX POLYCHROME PORCELAIN PLATES, COPENHAGEN MANUFACTORY, 1985 - 1991 from the Flora Danica service, ground and with beaded rim and botanical decoration; minor wear and tear Factory mark, inscribed with the illustrated subject H. cm 4, diam. cm 22,5 SIX COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN PLATES, 1985-1991; SLIGHTLY WORN (6) The Flora Danica constitutes a very special case in the history, and market, of 18th-century porcelain: made in the then Royal Manufacture in Copenhagen in 1790 as a gift from the King of Denmark to Empress Catherine of Russia (but then remaining in Danish collections; Aa. Vv., Das Flora Danica-Service, 1790-1802., exhibition catalogue, Berlin 1999) is sumptuously painted with botanical motifs taken from the botanical encyclopaedia of the same name begun in 1761 and completed in the following century. With its almost two thousand pieces, also characterised by a great variety of sizes, it constitutes one of the largest sets of this kind ever made. The service was replicated and used as a sovereign gift on other occasions (e.g. for the wedding of Princess Alexandra of Denmark to the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, in 1863). From the last quarter of the 19th century, the service was again produced and sold to the public, retaining a sophisticated quality of execution and elegance of composition.