Royal Albert | Wild Flower of the Month — Wood Anemone | February | Duo | Bone China | 1987

February — the month the wood anemone appears before anything else has decided to try — Royal Albert understood that earliness is its own kind of courage.

Royal Albert's Wild Flower of the Month series, introduced in 1987, assigned a British wildflower to each month of the year, moving away from the cultivated garden roses of the earlier Flower of the Month range toward the quieter flora of woodland and hedgerow. February was given the wood anemone — Anemone nemorosa — one of the earliest of the British spring wildflowers, appearing in drifts across woodland floors before the tree canopy closes. The decoration pairs the open white-petalled anemone with pink closed buds and fine green foliage on a warm cream ground, the whole composition lighter and more tentative in its palette than the bolder summer months in the series. The duo format comprises cup and saucer without a side plate.

The cup is a footed, gently flared form with a scalloped rim and a shaped scroll handle gilt at the upper terminal. The exterior carries a meadow composition of open wood anemones with cream-white petals and yellow centres, accompanied by pink tulip-form buds, fine feathery foliage and green grass stems extending around the body. The interior carries "February" in brown script below the rim, flanked by two small pink bud sprigs. The rim line is gilt and the foot carries a gilt line. The saucer carries a continuous arrangement of anemones and buds across its surface, with scattered individual pink buds extending to the scalloped, gilt-edged rim.

There are no chips, cracks or crazing on either piece. The gilding on the cup rim, handle terminal and foot line is intact with no wear or loss. The saucer rim gilding is equally intact throughout, with no wear or loss visible on the scalloped edge.

• Maker: Royal Albert, Longton, Staffordshire
• Pattern: Wild Flower of the Month — Wood Anemone, February
• Backstamp: Royal Albert Bone China England — Wild Flower of the Month Series — Wood Anemone — February — © 1987 Royal Albert Ltd
• Pieces: 2 — cup and saucer
• Material: Bone china
• Period: 1987
• Decoration: Wood anemones and pink buds with green foliage on cream ground; gold script "February" to cup interior; printed transfer throughout
• Gilding: Gilt rim lines, foot line and handle terminal throughout; all intact on both pieces
• Condition: Excellent
• Buyer profile: Royal Albert collector; buyer completing the Wild Flower of the Month series; gift buyer with a February birthday or anniversary

The wood anemone flowers before the world is ready for it, and is gone before most people notice it came — which is perhaps why Royal Albert chose to fix it in bone china.