Fergus Gambon
Director
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Lot 396
An important Lowestoft birth tablet, circa 1794
14 November 2018, 10:30 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £9,375 inc. premium
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Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
An important Lowestoft birth tablet, circa 1794
Of large size and circular form, a raised rim around the edge picked out blue and a hole pierced for suspension, inscribed in red 'ANN REDGRAVE/ Born Jary ye 2d/ 1794', within an elegant classical cartouche in puce monochrome, the reverse painted with a flower spray, 11.2cm diam
Footnotes
Provenance
Hotblack Collection, Sotheby's sale, 6 December 1965 (£70)
Brian Wood Collection
Illustrated by Geoffrey Godden, The Illustrated Guide to Lowestoft Porcelain (1969), pl.200. Birth tablets are unique to the Lowestoft factory, made to commemorate the birth of children of the factory workers. Geoffrey Godden, Lowestoft Porcelains (1985), p.197 records thirty-three examples with dates between 1765 and 1799. Twenty-six are in underglaze blue, only seven are enamelled and they vary considerably in size, this lot being one of the largest.
Closely related decoration is seen on a tea canister and another birth tablet for Susanna Redgrave (a cousin), also dated 1794. See Geoffrey Godden (1985), colour pl.12 and pl.227. Godden speculates that the painter was a member of the Redgrave family, perhaps James or John Redgrave Jnr. The canister was sold by Bonhams on 18 May 2011, lot 387.
Ann Redgrave was the daughter of John Redgrave Jnr and his wife Ann (nee Stevenson). John Jnr and his family left Lowestoft in 1799 to work at the Chamberlain factory in Worcester where he was employed as a painter and his wife as a burnisher. Another smaller Lowestoft birth tablet in blue and white is inscribed 'ANN REDGRAVE/ born Nov 4/ 1795' and commemorates the birth of another cousin, sister of Susanna. Other tablets for members of the Redgrave family are illustrated by Sheenah Smith, Lowestoft Porcelain in Norwich Castle Museum, Vol.1, nos. 12, 13 and 15