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Lot 387

The Monkey Sculptor: an important Nantgarw plaque, circa 1818-20

Fine Glass and British Ceramics
17 May 2017, 10:30 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,875 inc. premium

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The Monkey Sculptor: an important Nantgarw plaque, circa 1818-20

Of circular form, comically painted after Watteau with a seated monkey sculpting a classical bust with a hammer and chisel, dressed in a blue hat, green shirt and frayed apron, a basket and various rasps and other tools lying around him, 13.7cm diam, impressed NANT-GARW

Footnotes

Provenance:
Sir Leslie Joseph Collection

Illustrated by E Morton Nance, The Pottery and Porcelain of Swansea and Nantgarw (1942), pl.CXXVIIA and W D John, Nantgarw Porcelain Album (1975), pl.10, in both cases alongside the companion plaque of a monkey artist. The source is a painting by Antoin Watteau of circa 1710, now in the Musèe des Beaux-Arts, Orléans, presumably by way of an intermediate print. The firing of porcelain plaques without warpage was a difficult process and probably one that was not achievable at Nantgarw. An alternative was to cut down the flat centre of a plate and to polish the rough edge on a wheel, as seen here. The presence of enamel on the polished edge confirms that the plaque was decorated after it was cut down, probably in one of the London workshops.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

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