It is decorated with the royal arms within cobalt borders finely gilded with berried laurel sprigs, oak garlands alternately enclosing the crowned cipher of George III and sprigs of national flowers tied with ribbons.
A splendid piece of early 19th century porcelain, items from this service are also very rare on the open market as the majority of pieces (33 in total) reside in Buckingham Palace. Broken specimens have occasionally escaped from the Royal Collection but this dish was in excellent condition.
Chiswick director William Rouse, who found the dish in a house in Putney, said it looked as if it had left the Worcester factory yesterday.
At the sale in West London on January 5, six phone bidders took it way beyond the £800-1200 estimate to £4600 plus 20 per cent buyer's premium.
