Featuring one of the most distinctive patterns in the market, Anna Weatherley plates rightly deserves their title as the perfect spring & summer season tableware . Displaying colorful flowers similar to those found in botany books, with bugs or butterflies as their surroundings, each piece is a refreshing reminder of how scenes from the warmer months can grace your tables all year long. The brand’s many accolades include having the high honor of being one of the White House china manufacturers and the favorite of long time Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour. It was also gifted to Princess Diana on several occasions and remains a top pick for Scully & Scully customers to collect as heirloom pieces. Read on to find out the origins and the inspiration behind the much adored brand, as well our customer favorites in this week’s Profile on Brand!
History
Anna Weatherley is a Hungarian born designer, who before owning her porcelain company was an arms dealer and a famous couturier. She decided to combine her passion for botanical art with porcelain making upon her return to Hungary from the US in the 1990s – drawing her inspiration from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth-century botanical artists, which she studied during trips to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, she began curating a team of craftsmen who went on to become her team of artists for her new porcelain manufacturing company, Anna Weatherley.
Her first release took place in 1993 and honored the renowned French botanical artist Pierre-Joseph Redoute who drew similar illustrations. She called the collection Redoute Gardens, which is now in production as Redoute :
With the success of Redoute, she continued to make tributes to various botanical artists through her work. She became absolutely obsessed with the works of the scientific illustrator, Maria Sibylla Merian, who painted many of the flora and insects she found in South America, shown below:
While the idea of eating from dinnerware with realistic illustrations of bugs was unappealing at first, Anna Weatherley found widespread success with Spring in Budapest, a collection that was dominated with butterflies. She later went on to experiment with featuring other life forms on her plates, the most popular of which were grasshoppers. Represented as delicately as her flowers and in warm color tones, the illustrations were beautiful while remaining true to the natural scenes they depicted, one of the many reasons why her work gained and continues to gain recognition.
In the following year, she went on to do many collections inspired by her hometown in Hungary, one of which was Morning Glory, inspired by the Hungarian native flower by the same name – it remains one of her best designs to date.
Inspiration
When asked about her inspiration for her work, Weatherley has attributed it to the works of famous botanical artists, many of whom she honored with similar illustrations.
Budapest and its distinct flora has also played a role in the subject themes of her drawings, as well as her own artistic experimentation and expression.
Porcelain-making
Besides the beautiful illustrations, Anna Weatherley china is loved for its fine porcelain, created using quality clay mixtures and over long span of time. The painting ritual is just as arduous – after the clay hardens to become the lustrous white porcelain base, artists carefully hand paint the drawings, with most pieces taking about 2 days to paint (some special order pieces can take up to 30 days). Anna Weatherley employs 60 master painters from Hungary, all of whom have special ways of mixing their paints to create distinct color combinations. A single painter with mastery in the special technique of border brushing is entrusted with finishing the piece. by creating a finely detailed border on the plate.
Browse the finished products and Scully & Scully favorites:
Media & Recognition
Anna Weatherley gained the high honor of designing a collection for the White House and she customized it by creating a 75 piece set featuring flora and insects she found in White House grounds, such as magnolia blossoms and several types of butterflies.
She also created a charming tea set for the Blair House, known for housing official guests of the White House.
Besides being a favorite for many celebrities, Anna Weatherley china has graced the pages of famous magazines and remain one of Scully & Scully top features for spring/summer catalogs.
Whether you’d been a long time fan of Anna Weatherley or have just gotten to know the brand, we hope you enjoyed browsing our customers’ favorites, as well as the hallmark sets the iconic brand has created.
And as always, leave your comments (or pictures with your Anna Weatherley set) below!