In the middle of the 19th century, Japan started trading again with the west. At this time, all Japanese decoration started to become fashionable. One of our Leading china companies, Crown Derby, introduced a design called Imari, this proved to be very popular and almost every Staffordshire pottery manufacturer produced thier version of the Imari design, this continued to be produced for the next 60 years.
 
This is a wonderful large dinner service designed in the Imari style by Royal Doulton, the pattern is produced by applying a transfer to the surface and then hand painting the dark blue and burnt sienna colours,  finishing with 24 carat gold line work. Although this dinner service was produced at the very beginning of the 20th century, it is very much in the high Victorian style.
 
The service consists of:
12 large dinner plates
12 soup bowls
12 salad plates
10 tea plates
1 large tureen dish and cover
1 medium tureen dish and cover
1 small tureen dish and cover
1 extra large serving plate 
1 large serving plate
1 medium serving plate
2 small serving plates
 
The overall condition of the service is extremely good, the only damage being to the medium size tureen which has a chip to the inside, and two of the plates have a small amount of light staining.
 
Dimensions: dinner plate 27cm, largest serving plate 45cm, largest tureen 33cm x 22cm