Vintage Wedgwood Royal Wedding Plate – Charles and Lady Diana Spencer Portraits, Union Flags, Four Floral Emblems, Made in England 1981

A Wedgwood plate made for the wedding of 29 July 1981, with the two profiles set side by side in oval frames on a scarlet ground, their initials worked into a gold cypher beneath, and four Union flags crossed behind. Around the rim runs a blue band naming the occasion.

Above the portraits sits the badge that identifies whose day it was: three ostrich feathers rising through a gold coronet, with Ich Dien on the ribbon below. That is the Prince of Wales's own device rather than a royal arms, and it is the quickest way to tell which member of the family a piece of commemorative china was made for. The four flowers scattered around it — rose, thistle, daffodil, shamrock — are the standard shorthand for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland together.

One detail dates the plate more precisely than the printed year does. She is named on it as Lady Diana Spencer, which she ceased to be the moment the service ended; anything made afterwards calls her the Princess of Wales. This was produced for the wedding itself.

The wording on the back is worth reading plainly. A special edition limited to the year of issue means the design was made during 1981 only and then withdrawn — a limit on time rather than on numbers, so there is no edition figure and no certificate. What it does mean is that nothing further was added to the run after that December.

Britain turned out a great deal of china for that wedding, so size, maker and condition are what separate one plate from the next. At 8¼ inches across this is one of the larger ones, and it is Wedgwood; the printing is crisp and full-coloured, and the back is clean — no hanger scratches, which is unusual for a plate of this kind that spent forty years being displayed.