The Strawflower pattern name is a puzzle to me

[pillarboxred]

The strawflower pattern has been used to decorate porcelain from many factories, most famously Copenhagen and Meissen. However, my understanding is that whereas the pattern is earliest found on eighteenth century porcelain the botanical strawflower was only introduced to Europe from Australia in the early nineteenth century. "Strawflower" is an English name so presumably the pattern was named differently in different languages. Over to you.

[argon38]

To be honest I couldn't be bothered reading through them, but these German and Danish articles may hold the key:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strohblumenmuster 

https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musselmalet 

[pillarboxred]

Thanks, Argon. I always hope someone else has read the boring stuff and extracted the gems I need. If no one else wants to read the links and tell me what they say, I'll have a look when my energy level rises to the task. Being lazy is a full time job and it doesn't get any easier as I grow old and fat. 😉

[pillarboxred]

The Wikipedia article (read in conjunction with Google Translate) is interesting but doesn't clear up my puzzlement. Ilmenau seems to have used the straw flower name in the 18th century but the strawflower was introduced to Europe in the early nineteenth century. Or was there a European flower which was also given the name, earlier.

[maxine*j]

Maybe the earlier strawflowers depicted were the ones found in the Mediterranean.  That one is Helichrysum italicum, rather than Xerochrysum bracteatum, the Australian one (called Helichrysum bracteatum until 1990).   They're quite similar, and grow in about the same conditions, and both are in the daisy family (Asteraceae).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helichrysum_italicum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerochrysum_bracteatum

Just a thought.

[pillarboxred]

That makes sense.

[maxine*j]

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@pillarboxred wrote:
That makes sense.

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I think so.  And it wouldn't be the first, and won't be the last, time that common names trip us up. 

Think about Robins:  The European Robin and the American Robin really look nothing alike, and they aren't even in the same family.  But some silly immigrant to the New World said:  "Oh, look!  That bird has some reddish breast feathers, just like our Robins at home do!  I'll call it a Robin!"

At least the two strawflowers are in the same family, and do share the similarity of being "everlasting"  i.e., drying naturally on the stem, retaining their color, etc.

[argon38]

My brain is sluggish tonight and I just can't seem to get it in gear for this one, but it seemed to me that the original Meissen "Strohmodell" pattern was based on East Asian designs - chrysanthemum, etc? And there's stuff about India as well...

[maxine*j]

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@argon38 wrote:

My brain is sluggish tonight and I just can't seem to get it in gear for this one, but it seemed to me that the original Meissen "Strohmodell" pattern was based on East Asian designs - chrysanthemum, etc?

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Oh, I have no idea. 

I didn't read your links.  I know nothing about the porcelain patterns.  

I just know how often common names are repeated, so I looked to see if their were more than one "strawflower" and found what I did.   It explained the discrepancy in the dates of "strawflower" decorations that puzzled OP.  

Beyond that, I know nothing.  If it's some vastly coimplicated matter, instead of a simple one, so be it.  If I'm totally out to lunch on the entire matter, so be it.

[argon38]

I came across this article as well, but I still don't really get it:

https://www.porzellanfieber.de/Porzellanfabrik-Kalk_UGB-Strohmodell-Indischblau.html 

Google Translate:

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto&tl=en&text=Porzellanfabrik%20Kalk%20in%... 

[sonomabarn67]

I hope this helps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui78aLsB_84 

[argon38]

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@sonomabarn67 wrote:

I hope this helps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui78aLsB_84 

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Always reminds me of that 70's movie "The Conversation" (just to take the thread further off-topic).

[pillarboxred]

Google Translate struggles with the abstruse theorising as do I in turn. I like the list of alternative names, especially  »bourgeois Onion Patterns «. The grandees did not dine on such humble ware.

[pillarboxred]

What prompted this enquiry is a modern Copenhagen thing I am planning to list. The current Copenhagen name for the pattern appears to be "Plain Fluted" which makes zero sense on an object with no fluting and a floral pattern. Also, I have noticed I have a few other small pieces of various 19th century variants of the pattern from minor factories so I'll be able to use more names as keywords when I get round to listing these things, if I ever do.

[argon38]

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@pillarboxred wrote:

Google Translate struggles with the abstruse theorising as do I in turn. I like the list of alternative names, especially  »bourgeois Onion Patterns «. The grandees did not dine on such humble ware.

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And to cap it all, of course, they aren't even onions:

"The so-called 'onions' are not onions at all, but, according to historians, are most likely mutations of the peaches and pomegranates modeled on the original Chinese pattern."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Onion