Jim Peake
Head of Department
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Lot 168
A very rare Worcester vase, circa 1757-58
29 September 2020, 10:30 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £1,083.75 inc. premium
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Fergus Gambon
Director
A very rare Worcester vase, circa 1757-58
Of generous baluster form with a waisted neck and simple turned line around the rim and the foot, pencilled in black with the 'Mobbing Birds' pattern, four birds perched on the slender branches of a tree and dilapidated stump, three birds in flight to the reverse and another smaller to the rim, 15.6cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Private Collection, Dorset
Many variations of the 'Mobbing Birds' pattern occur on Worcester vases and jugs in both polychrome and underglaze blue but pencilled examples are extremely rare. A very similar vase from the Miles Collection was exhibited by Simon Spero, 2015 exhibition, no.58, who states that only two such pieces with pencilled 'Mobbing Birds' decoration are recorded. The shape and design of this vase ultimately originated at Meissen although Worcester almost certainly copied it from Chelsea. The pattern has often been attributed to the hand of I Rogers but it is clear that many different painters were responsible. The design is based on prints after drawings by C Fenn, some engraved by Robert Hancock, which were published in The Ladies' Amusement and elsewhere. A baluster vase with similar decoration in polychrome from the Zorensky Collection was sold by Bonhams on 23 February 2005, lot 28 and is illustrated by Spero and Sandon, Worcester Porcelain (1996), p.113, no.76. Another two from the Sir Jeremy Lever Collection were sold by Bonhams on 7 March 2007 and 23 January 2008, lots 41 and 28 respectively. Compare also to the example from the Crane Collection sold by Bonhams on 31 March 2010, lot 167.