I am happy to offer a rare and very hard to find 5 inch wide Botanic Garden canister topped with a ceramic lid rather than the more usual wooden lid. Ceramic lids were produced in about 1980 for a limited amount of time. They have not been produced for at least 20 years and now difficult to come by.

The lid on this canister carries the rare Citron or Citrus which was retired years ago in 1980. The motif on the base is the original oatmeal bowl Purple Iris motif retired early in 1976.

This canister is in nice shiny condition but with overall crazing and a few other signs of use. Please be sure to look below for a complete description and more photos...


The Citron motif was discontinued long ago and has not been produced in many years. It was an original bread and butter plate motif, introduced in 1972 and retired in 1980. It was inspired by image in a 1824 book,The Universal Herbal by Thomas Green.

---> View Of Lid <---

The Purple Iris was one of the four original oatmeal motifs, introduced in 1972 and retired early in 1978, that did not have a Latin name printed next to the common name. The other three unnamed oatmeal motifs were retired in the same year. The design was inspired by an image in the 1840 botany book La Flore des Dames by A. Jacquemart.

---> View Of Base <---

Size	About 5" across the top and 4-1/2" high
Transfer	All transfers have great color without any flaws seen. The Purple Iris is repeated four times around the bottom and has excellent typical color for this early version.
Ground	Very white
Glaze	Nice shiny glaze overall. There is overall crazing which is mostly very clean except for two short lines of the lid above the Citron near the edge which have very pale tan stains in the crazing lines. The lines were too pale to catch in a photo.
Chips/Cracks	None
Stains	There is a tiny bit of typical shelf wear on the bottom unglazed ring where it sits on a surface. Please see the photo below of the bottom. On the very bottom underside of the lid there is an unglazed ring around the lid. The ring has some tan staining, probably from coffee, I would guess.
Use Marks	As mentioned above
Other Comments	The lid gasket still holds a nice tight seal. A very rare, in good condition, and hard to find ceramic lidded canister featuring the rare Botanic Garden Citron plant!

The bottom is marked with a 2nd Susan Williams-Ellis Trophy ID mark, as is the case with most ceramic lidded canisters.

---> Bottom <---