Royal Worcester Vase with Australian Banksia by Ellis Rowan

A Royal Worcester Australian flowers vase, the ovoid vase with slender neck, gilt band to top and base. Painted with a banksia front and back on a cream ground, signed A. Shuck. Designed by Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922), blue printed Worcester blue factory mark to base and purple 'Flavelle Brothers Ltd 413' painted mark, height 22 cm. Other Notes: Ellis Rowan had a major exhibition of Australian flora at Angus and Robertson, Sydney in August 1910. Her aim was to record all known Australian wildflowers. Several designs of waratah, gum blossom and other Australian flora were acquired by the Flavelle Brothers. William Flavelle either purchased them from the 1910 exhibition or, more likely, commissioned specific designs directly from Rowan. These were forwarded to Royal Worcester porcelain Co Ltd to produce a series of Australian wild flowers. Several dozen original watercolours by Rowan still survive in the Worcester archives.