Lot 4
A fine English delftware punchbowl with the Capture of Portobello circa 1740
14 April 2010, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£8,000 - £12,000
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Find your local specialistA fine English delftware punchbowl with the Capture of Portobello
circa 1740
Bristol or Liverpool, painted in blue to the interior with a naval engagement, two forts on either side and a church at the rear, surrounded by four martial trophies including flags, weapons, helmets and musical instruments divided by chain-shot and fused balls, the exterior with four oriental birds perched on rockwork with flowering trees, within fence borders, below an iron-red rim, 29cm diam by 13cm high (small chips to rims)
Bristol or Liverpool, painted in blue to the interior with a naval engagement, two forts on either side and a church at the rear, surrounded by four martial trophies including flags, weapons, helmets and musical instruments divided by chain-shot and fused balls, the exterior with four oriental birds perched on rockwork with flowering trees, within fence borders, below an iron-red rim, 29cm diam by 13cm high (small chips to rims)
Footnotes
Admiral Edward Vernon captured Portobello in the Panama isthmus with five ships in 1739, during the War of the Austrian Succession, and instantly became a national hero. The capture is recorded on several plates both of Bristol and Liverpool origin but this may be the only example of a punchbowl depicting this scene, based on an unidentified contemporary engraving. Vernon went on to capture Chagres the following year and eventually returned to Bristol in 1743. For a Liverpool-attributed punchbowl painted with similar martial trophies to the exterior, circa 1765, see Michael Archer, Delftware (1997), pp.308-309, F.43.