Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
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Lot 180
A rare Chelsea teabowl and saucer, circa 1753-54
27 November 2024, 10:30 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £1,920 inc. premium
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Fergus Gambon
Director
A rare Chelsea teabowl and saucer, circa 1753-54
Probably painted by Jefferyes Hamett O'Neale, of octagonal form, the teabowl painted with 'The Wolf and the Crane', a single pink flower to the reverse and an insect to the interior, the saucer painted with a circular panel depicting 'The Fox and the Crow', a colourful moth, beetle and flowers to the cavetto, with brown line rims, saucer 11.2cm wide, red anchor mark to teabowl (2)
Footnotes
Provenance
Christie's, Belton House, 2 May 1984
Elizabeth Adams Collection
Illustrated by Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain (2001), p.100, fig.84 and by Stephen Hanscombe, Jefferyes Hamett O'Neale (2010), p.39, no.13. The present lot is from a service of eight teabowls and saucers sold by Christie's in 1984. Three others are illustrated by Hanscombe (2010), pp.39 and 41, nos.14-16. The source prints are from one of the editions of Fables of Aesop by Samuel Croxall, D D, first published in 1722, Fable nos.VII and IX. The fable of 'The Fox and the Crow' concerns a fox that coaxes a crow to sing so that he can steal the cheese she has in her beak. A fluted saucer painted with the same version of this fable from the Nigel Morgan Collection is illustrated by Margaret Legge, Flowers and Fables (1984), p.56, no.88, by Hanscombe (2010), p.47, no.24, and by Anton Gabszewicz and Errol Manners, A Selection from the Nigel Morgan Collection of English Porcelain (2009), no.22. This was sold by Bonhams on 12 November 2014, lot 79.
The fable of 'The Wolf and the Crane' concerns a crane who places her head into the jaws of a wolf to extract a bone from his throat in return for a handsome reward, which the wolf subsequently reneges upon. A cream jug painted with the fable of 'The Wolf and the Crane' is illustrated by John C Austin, Chelsea at Williamsburg (1977), p.75, no.58. A plate with a different version of this fable is illustrated by Margaret Legge, Flowers and Fables (1984), p.52, no.91.