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A very rare St James's (Charles Gouyn) mustard pot and cover circa 1750
Sold for £36,000 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistA very rare St James's (Charles Gouyn) mustard pot and cover
Of globular form with a spreading foot, the body moulded with eight facets, each arched at the top, painted in colours with a floral spray and four scattered sprigs, the low domed cover surmounted by a five-petalled flower picked out in pale blue and yellow and surrounded by leaves in two tones of green and four more painted sprigs, the rim picked out in brown, 7.3cm high (loss to one petal and leaves)
Footnotes
Provenance: Godden Reference Collection. Exhibited; Stoke-on-Trent Museum. For many years, the existence of St James' or 'Girl in a Swing' porcelain wares was a matter of speculation, F Severene Mackenna suggesting in his book on Chelsea Porcelain: The Triangle and Raised Anchor Wares, published in 1948, that 'it cannot be conceived that they would only make figures...'. Since then, a number of St James' useful wares have come to light, including the present lot which Geoffrey Godden bought from another dealer and identified for the first time. It is illustrated in Eighteenth-Century English Porcelain, A Selection from the Godden Reference Collection (1985), pl 40 and discussed at pps 48-51 and also by Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain (1987), fig 5.23, p 63. In addition to the similarities in terms of paste, glaze and decoration, this lot exhibits some interesting connections with the 'Girl in a Swing' figures and animal models, especially the five-petalled flower finial. Very similarly modelled flowers are found applied to a pair of canaries illustrated by Adams, op cit, fig 5.9, p 50 and to the Fox and Crane group at fig 5.17, p 56. The faceted form is also echoed by the faceted bases found on some figures and animal models. No other examples of this shape have been recorded. It may have been intended for use as a mustard pot but may also have been made for use on the dressing table