Product Description The Christmas Rose is the common name for a Helleborus Niger, a much loved garden plant which produces a pure white flower that blooms for the Christmas season. Spode first produced the Christmas Rose pattern in 1890 on a special plum pudding dish. The Christmas Rose Sauce Boat 2 cup and Stand 8- 1/4 inch combines snowy white Christmas Rose blossoms entwined with holly sprigs in a Victorian color palette for an elegant holiday table. Amazon.com Spode is a trusted and coveted name in ceramics, and rightly so; they've been producing lovely tableware in England since the late 1700s. Spode's bone china is of the highest quality and is valued for its strength and pure white color. The Christmas Rose pattern, first introduced in 1890, features a floral border and an elegant Victorian colour palette of clean white, berry red, burnished gold, and a range of natural greens. The Christmas Rose sauce boat and its oval, saucer-like stand are made from snowy white bone china, with thin rim borders of red-orange trimmed with 22-carat gold; the boat's swan's-neck handle is also decorated with a gold flourish. Boat and stand are each wreathed with illustrative borders of white Christmas roses entwined with holly and mistletoe. (The simple white Christmas rose is a winter bloom in England.) Beneath the wreath-like border is a smaller garland of holly and mistletoe. This sauce boat would look lovely on a holiday table set with matching Christmas Rose place settings. To help preserve the decorative borders and gold-painted accents, Spode recommends that its bone china products be hand washed in hot water with a mild detergent. Avoid abrasive cleansers or scrubbers that might scratch or mar decorated surfaces. Spode bone china is not recommended for use in the microwave, oven, or freezer. The Spode Christmas Rose sauce boat measures 8-1/2 by 3 by 5 inches and has a 2-cup capacity; the oval stand measures 8-1/4 by 6-1/4 inches. --Garland Withers