Portmeirion Botanic Garden

A true British classic, Portmeirion Botanic Garden was designed by the celebrated designer Susan Williams-Ellis. Portmeirion Botanic Garden china's delightful mixture of herbal motifs set a new trend for casual dining in the 1970s and today Portmeirion Botanic Garden looks as fresh and exciting as it was when it was launched in 1972.

In the early 1970s, Susan and Euan visited an antiquarian bookseller in London. Susan had been looking for 18th century engravings of sea creatures to use to decorate her pottery, but, as she was searching, the bookseller showed her a book published in 1817 called The Universal Herbal by Thomas Green.

This book was full of bright and detailed botanical illustrations and the vivid African Daisy instantly caught Susan’s eye. As she flicked through the book, she began to imagine a beautiful range of casual tableware that featured different flowers on each piece.

She bought the book for 50 guineas and spent the journey back to Portmeirion Potteries envisaging this new design.

Susan began searching for more botanical motifs that could be used in her nascent Portmeirion Botanic Garden tableware range. Again, she stumbled across another antique book, The Moral of Flowers, dated 1835. The author had put together poems and prose for 48 different plants from oak trees to daisies and had obtained the help of a highly regarded draughtsman and former employee of the prestigious Horticultural Society, William Clarke, to illustrate those plants. Clarke’s illustrations were perfect for what Susan had in mind.

Susan decided to add butterflies and other insects to the Portmeirion Botanic Garden motifs to improve their fit on the tableware shapes and to add a little more variety. Then, to bring the range together, Susan developed the triple-leaf border.

Susan named the range Botanic Garden after an eighteenth century poem The Botanic Garden written by Erasmus Darwin – another Staffordshire legend, acclaimed poet, inventor, dedicated botanist and grandfather of Charles Darwin. The name was perfect. Not only did it show that, when laid on a table, the ware would give the impression of a garden setting, it also allowed Susan to introduce more motifs.

Portmeirion Botanic Garden china was launched in 1972 and, since then, has become loved worldwide and recognised by many as synonymous with great British design – a classic that, with new shapes and motifs, has remained as fresh and exciting today as it was in 1972.