Plate, 9 inches diameter. Black transfer with polychrome clobbering. Impressed maker's marks for Josiah Wedgwood. The impressed three-letter code indicates a production date of c. 1872. This pattern is one of twelve Japanese figures used by Wedgwood on plates and tiles with a variety of borders that was produced c. 1871-1872. This pattern features a Japanese woman in a chrysanthemum-covered kimono sitting on the floor while playing a flute. The floor is a tile patterned in squares, and a back railing with yellow panels is seen. Hanging above are pink blossoms and a red banner with black lettering. The border is divided into four panels with two alternating motifs. One consists of the tortoiseshell pattern (kikko) and the other of horizontal branches with flowers and leaves.

Josiah Wedgwood was born in Burslem, Staffordshire, on July 12, 1730, into a family with a long tradition as potters. At the age of nine, after the death of his father, he worked in his family's pottery. In 1759 he set up his own pottery works in Burslem. There he produced a highly durable cream-colored earthenware that so pleased Queen Charlotte that in 1762 she appointed him royal supplier of dinnerware. From the public sale of Queen's Ware, as it came to be known, Wedgwood was able, in 1768, to build near Stoke-on-Trent a village, which he named Etruria, and a second factory equipped with tools and ovens of his own design. At first only ornamental pottery was made in Etruria, but by 1773 Wedgwood had concentrated all his production facilities there. During his long career Wedgwood developed revolutionary ceramic materials, notably basalt and jasperware. After Wedgwood's death in Etruria on January 3, 1795, his descendants carried on the business, which still produces many of his designs.