Vintage Aynsley Charles & Diana Wedding Plate 1981 – Royal Arms, Family Tree, Gold Garland Border, Fine Bone China, England

An Aynsley bone-china plate made for the wedding of the century — Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer, married at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July 1981. Like the best of Aynsley's royal commemoratives, it does more than print a portrait: at its centre it sets out both family trees, the Windsor line and the Spencer line, meeting at the couple.

Read the centre and the whole marriage is laid out. On Charles's side the tree climbs through Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to King George VI and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon — the future Queen Mother — and on Diana's side through the Earls Spencer and the Barons Fermoy down to Lady Diana Frances Spencer, born 1961. Above it all sits the full royal arms, flanked by the Welsh dragon and the Prince of Wales's three-feather badge with its motto Ich Dien; around the rim runs the dedication To Commemorate the Marriage of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales to the Lady Diana Spencer, and beneath, Married 29th July 1981, St Paul's Cathedral. The whole is framed by a wide gold rococo garland and a gilt edge.

The back carries the blue Aynsley crown mark, Made in England / Fine English Bone China. The 1981 wedding produced more commemorative ware than almost any event before it, which keeps a plate like this affordable — but the genealogy version, with its two converging family trees, is among the more interesting and better-looking of them.

A plate for the Diana and royal-wedding collector, for the anglophile wall, for a genealogy or 1981 keepsake, or as a nostalgic anniversary gift.