Jim Peake
Head of Department
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Lot 224
A fine Nantgarw cabinet plate, circa 1818-20
29 September 2020, 10:30 BST
London, Knightsbridge£5,000 - £6,000
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Fergus Gambon
Director
A fine Nantgarw cabinet plate, circa 1818-20
London-decorated in the Sims workshop, the centre finely painted with 'Pliny's Doves', the four birds perched on the rim of a shallow bowl filled with water, one looking down to view its reflection, a floral band within the cavetto, the moulded C-scroll border painted with pink roses on a ground of fine gilt dots, 25cm diam, impressed NANT-GARW CW
Footnotes
This is one of a small number of high quality Nantgarw cabinet plates all painted with the same subject. The inspiration is likely to have been Berlin porcelain where the 'Pliny's Doves' design was much used, taken from the 2nd century mosaic in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. Cabinet pieces decorated in French and German style were in high demand in the 1820s, often decorated by Sims and retailed through Mortlocks in Oxford Street. Although normally credited with only figural painting at Sims, it is likely that the 'Pliny's Doves' plates are also the work of the artist called Plant. For another similar example see W D John, Nantgarw Porcelain Album (1975), illustration 30.