Wedgwood Florentine Turquoise by Vintage Guy Rob.

This article explores the origins of the Wedgwood Florentine pattern. It covers the cultural meaning behind its mythical creatures. It also examines the artist behind its most iconic colorway, the pieces produced, how the line was marketed, and which items collectors prize most today.

Origins of the Florentine Pattern (1874–1935)

To truly appreciate Florentine Turquoise, start at the very beginning. The Florentine pattern first surfaced in Wedgwood’s archives in 1874. It existed as finely drawn sketches inspired by Italian Renaissance art. Although those drawings showed remarkable artistry, Wedgwood did not apply the design to production china until 1931. That gap spanned more than five decades. As a result, the pattern arrived with an artistic maturity few rivals could match. Building on that debut, Wedgwood moved quickly. Just four years later, in 1935, the company launched its most celebrated colorway: Florentine Turquoise.

Furthermore, this was no minor addition. Wedgwood entrusted the colorway to Art Director Victor Skellern. His refined eye gave the pattern its defining identity. In fact, Skellern transformed Florentine from an archival revival into a true icon. Ultimately, the journey from an 1874 sketch to a 1935 turquoise masterpiece reflects Wedgwood’s enduring commitment to craftsmanship.

Artistic Inspiration: Renaissance Urbino and Majolica

Wedgwood drew the Florentine border from the majolica tradition of Urbino. Urbino is a medieval mountain town in central Italy. It is celebrated for its Renaissance art and architecture. That influence flows through every element of the design. The swirling scrollwork and fantastical beasts echo Italian ceramics of the 15th and 16th centuries. Rather than reproducing those forms outright, Wedgwood distilled them into an English sensibility. The result felt both ancient and refined.

The Cultural Meaning of the Dragon and Mythical Motifs

To understand why Florentine endures, look closely at its imagery. At the heart of the design sit dragons, griffins, fantastical flora, and ornate scrollwork. These motifs carried deliberate cultural weight in Renaissance society. Beyond their visual drama, they served a clear purpose. Italian heraldry used dragons and griffins to project the power of ruling families. They represented protection, strength, and noble guardianship.

Consequently, Wedgwood’s adoption of these motifs was far from decorative. Instead, it positioned Florentine within a tradition of aristocratic authority. Moreover, the timing proved ideal. British fine china competed aggressively in global luxury markets during the 1930s. Aligning Florentine with Renaissance symbolism gave it instant distinction. As a result, an artistic homage became one of the most enduring design languages in English bone china. Ultimately, every dragon on a Florentine plate carries centuries of meaning — and that depth is what collectors prize.

The Artist Behind Wedgwood Florentine Turquoise

To fully grasp what makes Florentine Turquoise so enduring, one must understand the man who gave it its defining character. Victor Skellern, Wedgwood’s Art Director, created the turquoise colorway in 1935, and his contribution extended well beyond a simple color choice. Rather than merely applying a new hue to an existing design, Skellern went back to the original 19th-century Florentine sketches and modernized them from the ground up, refining the dragons and scrollwork with a precision that the archival drawings had never fully achieved.

Furthermore, he made the decisive creative choice to pair that refined imagery with a bold turquoise enamel border — and in doing so, established the pattern’s defining signature in a single stroke. As a result, what had existed for decades as a promising. Victorian archive concept emerged in 1935 as one of the 20th century’s most recognized bone china patterns. Indeed, few decisions in Wedgwood’s long design history have proven as commercially and artistically consequential as Skellern’s reinvention of Florentine.

Production and Craftsmanship

Beyond the artistry of its conception, the Florentine Turquoise pattern owes its prestige equally to the hands that produce it. Wedgwood artisans in Stoke-on-Trent, England — the very birthplace of the Wedgwood company — have handcrafted every piece of Florentine fine bone china throughout the pattern’s entire history. Moreover, that tradition of handcrafted production has never been interrupted: since the line’s 1931 introduction, Florentine has remained in continuous production, placing it firmly among Wedgwood’s longest-running designs.

Consequently, it stands apart from the many patterns that enjoyed brief commercial runs before quietly disappearing from the catalog, distinguished not only by the quality of its making but by the remarkable consistency with which that quality has been sustained across nearly a century of manufacture.

What the Wedgwood Florentine Line Included

Over the decades, the Florentine Turquoise line grew into a comprehensive tableware collection. It covered virtually every formal dining need. Dinner plates measure 10.75 inches. Salad plates come in at 8 inches. Bread and butter plates round out the core place setting. Additionally, the line includes teacups, coffee cups, and demitasse cups — all paired with matching saucers. Beyond those staples, collectors find cream soup cups with saucers, gravy boats with underplates, and serving bowls.

Vegetable dishes, platters, and covered dishes also feature strongly. For dedicated entertaining, Wedgwood produced coffee pots, teapots, sugar bowls, and creamers. Furthermore, the collection extends to vases. Hand-painted versions, in particular, attract serious collector attention today. As a result, whether building a complete dinner service or hunting rare individual pieces, collectors find the Florentine Turquoise line remarkably well-stocked. Indeed, few patterns in Wedgwood’s catalog have offered such breadth across so many decades of production.

For quick reference, the table below summarizes the key facts about the Florentine Turquoise pattern:

Florentine Turquoise carries the pattern number W2714. The wider Florentine family also appeared in Gold, Black, Pink, Sage Green, and Marine, each assigned its own pattern number — though Turquoise remains the colorway collectors seek most aggressively.

How Wedgwood Florentine was Marketed

Wedgwood positioned Florentine as a luxury tableware line targeting upper-middle-class households, formal dining settings, and wedding registries. Its neoclassical aesthetic and handcrafted quality secured it a place as a premium offering in fine department stores, specialty china shops, and export markets across Europe and North America. Wedgwood’s established reputation for excellence amplified that positioning considerably, and Florentine became a staple of the formal table during an era when home entertaining carried genuine social significance.

Historical Context: A Pattern Born from Revival

Florentine’s 1931 debut and its 1935 turquoise colorway arrived during a broader cultural revival of classical design. As global modernization accelerated and traditional craftsmanship risked being eclipsed by industrial production, Florentine stood as a deliberate celebration of heritage artistry. That timing gave the pattern a cultural resonance far beyond its decorative qualities — it represented continuity, refinement, and an intentional connection to a past that the modern world threatened to leave behind.

Most Valuable Florentine Turquoise Pieces Today

Auction data confirms strong and sustained collector demand, particularly for complete sets and rare forms. Among individual pieces, large serving platters, coffee pots, tall teapots, and covered vegetable dishes consistently attract the highest bids. Footed cream soup cups with saucers, complete place settings, and early production pieces bearing older Wedgwood backstamps also command significant premiums.

Hand-painted vases hold collector value as well — modern limited editions included — especially examples in flawless condition with crisp turquoise borders and intact enamel. While rare colorways such as Gold, Black, and Green generate strong interest in their own right, Turquoise remains the most iconic and most actively traded on the secondary market.

Why Florentine Turquoise Remains Iconic

More than 150 years of design heritage, mythical Renaissance motifs, a signature turquoise palette, and unbroken production since 1931 combine to make Florentine Turquoise one of Wedgwood’s most enduring patterns. Handcrafted in England and supported by a worldwide collector market, it continues to blend artistry, history, and craftsmanship in a way that few china patterns have ever matched — and fewer still have sustained across a century and a half.