Serving dish "Spanish Marriages, Madrid"

This is an octagonal-shaped serving dish in white and sepia with both a floral and a lambrequins boarders framing the scene in the centre, which depicts the Veiling Ceremony in the Basilica of Atocha the day after the royal weddings of Queen Isabella II and her cousin Francisco de Asís, duke of Cádiz, and that of her sister, Princess Luisa Fernanda, and Antonio María de Orléans, duke of Montpensier. The two weddings took place in the Ambassadors’ Room of the Royal Palace in Madrid, on 10 October 1846, the same day that Isabella II came of age at sixteen. / This dish illustrates the commemorative pieces produced in William Adams & Sons manufacture, which also specialized in the production of pieces with scenes representing events of the American history. This kind of historical or commemorative scenes were most likely produced for the Cuban and South American markets, where Adams ceramics were very popular.