Anna Weatherley’s cachepot, filled with a pink flowering hydrangea plant, is a lovely accessory at Blair House, The President’s Guest House, which is located conveniently across the street from the White House. Photo source: The Washington Post.
Pretty porcelain designs can personify your personality, wouldn’t you agree? The designs you choose for your plates and porcelain pieces speak volumes about you to others and will bring joy to you in your home. The exquisitely detailed porcelain designs, created by the world-renowned designer, Anna Weatherley, captured my heart the moment I first discovered them. If you are not aware of her exclusive line of distinguished, hand-painted porcelain, be forewarned… you too will fall in love with each piece!
What an absolute delight it was to be introduced to Anna Weatherley by way of The White House Historical Association. (I collaborated with the WHHA as their moderator for a Christmas White House floral design talk in December 2020.) When we spoke, I felt like a giddy teenager talking to a rockstar! I was overjoyed when she kindly agreed to an interview with me.
Anna’s designs are hand-painted by a group of highly trained master painters in her studio in Budapest, Hungary. The fine shading, small brush strokes, and intricate details are the results of a very time-consuming process for each object. Not only are Anna's creations elegant, but there is also a delightful touch of whimsy too. Darling elements such as a brilliantly detailed butterfly, or a tiny ladybug happily flitting about, grace many pieces, sometimes in the most unsuspecting places like inside a cup or underneath a plate.
Inspired by Thomas Hooker’s botanical artwork, Anna’s plate also features two charming butterflies, a dragonfly and a bug peeking out from underneath a leaf.
Do you pay attention to trends in colors, or how do you choose your color palettes?
I do not follow any trend or fashion. I love flowers, they are the most wonderful creations on earth. I am inspired by the 17th and 18th Century botanical painters: Ehret, Redoute, Alexander Marshal, Nicolas Robert.
The people who buy my porcelain do not belong to any specific age group, they choose my porcelain because they love my porcelain which is hand-painted with flowers and butterflies.
What an honor to have been chosen to design a pair of cachepots for Princess Diana! What was your inspiration when given this invitation?
Anna Wintour of Vogue Magazine commissioned me to create gifts for Princess Diana when she was visiting Washington, D.C. I created a pair of hand-painted cachepots, based on the paintings of the British botanical artist, John Hooker. The decorations were fruit paintings and I still produce these designs for my dinner plate collection. Catherine Graham (owner of The Washington Post) also commissioned me to design a collection of hand-painted porcelain gifts for her guests attending the events for Princess Diana. I even designed a green chiffon evening dress for Elizabeth Dole who attended the dinner with Princess Diana.
Here is an example of the fruit plate inspired by Thomas Hooker’s British botanical paintings.
For the White House, you were chosen multiple times to create porcelain pieces. What inspired you?
For the White House, I produced a large dinner table setting. The design was based on the very old magnolia tree at the White House garden. Every year I create a new hand-painted porcelain Easter Egg for the White House Historical Association Shop.
A merry medley featuring some of Anna’s stunning creativity, savvy and bug whimsy!
On a number of your designs, you have images of butterflies that are very detailed. What inspired you to incorporate them into the designs/patterns?
The very first design I created many years ago is still the most popular one: just butterflies. I like to think that the designs I have created are timeless: delicate green leaves, flowers, little insects, butterflies. I do not design formal table settings. I always suggest that the dinner table should be like a flower garden, choose your favorite flower from my large collection and mix and match the plates.
In addition, there are porcelain leaves that are perfect for serving dessert or a first course, little scalloped square plates for bread or pastry, cups for salad or soup, mugs or pitchers for flowers, and small trays for serving salad or lunch.
In Anna Weatherly’s Washington, D.C. studio, there is an abundance of choices, a veritable candy store of elegant porcelains.
How do you attribute being discovered and growing your business so successfully? Was there a particular teacher, a critic, a collector who inspired you?
I was not "discovered" as a porcelain designer. About 30 years ago, I walked into Asprey, the British Jewelers on 5th Avenue, without an appointment. I was carrying six Redoute dinner plates in a paper bag. Asprey purchased the plates and ordered more. The rest is history… and I still produce the same Redoute plates today!
Anna Weatherly has a marvelous presence on Instagram (@anna_weatherley_designs). The Michelin-starred restaurant, The Inn at Little Washington, features her porcelain. Only the most distinguished shops carry her line, and my sponsor, Scully & Scully, on Park Avenue in NYC, offers a brilliant collection. And, OH… if you spy the pair of pink-flowered cachepots? They have my name on them!
A rare photograph of the charmingly elusive Anna Weatherley in her Washington, D.C. studio.
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