Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Anton Gabszewicz Collection
Lot 180
An exceptionally rare Bow Commedia Dell'Arte scent bottle and stopper, circa 1758
19 November 2025, 10:30 GMT
London, Knightsbridge£4,000 - £6,000
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Fergus Gambon
Director
Jim Peake
Head of Department
An exceptionally rare Bow Commedia Dell'Arte scent bottle and stopper, circa 1758
Modelled as Harlequin standing in a jaunty pose wearing his distinctive chequered costume, a bunch of grapes in the right hand raised to the brim of his hat, his slapstick held in his left, standing before a rococo-scrolled vase picked out in puce, the low mound base edged in green, the concave underside with a mixed floral spray, the stopper formed as a spray of pink roses, probably St James's (Charles Gouyn) with a gold collar, fitting into the gilt metal mount, 7.9cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
With Roderick Jellicoe
Anton Gabszewicz Collection
Exhibited
'Neglected Genius Thomas Frye: An Irish Artist in London', State Apartment Galleries, Dublin Castle, 1 December 2023 to 19 March 2024, William Laffan's catalogue, p.75, no.19
Scent bottles and other 'toys' such as seals featured heavily in the output of Chelsea and Charles Gouyn in the 1750s. With backgrounds as a jeweller and a silversmith, both proprietors were well-versed in the market for small objects and fine gold and silver gilt mounts. Conversely, very few porcelain scent bottles are known to have been made at Bow. One other example modelled as Harlequin is in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto (inv. no.G83.1.1029). A Bow white figure of harlequin modelled in a similar pose from the Peter Bradshaw Collection was sold by Bonhams on 6 June 2007, lot 260.