Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 1
A London delftware 'Bleu Persan' mug, circa 1680-1700
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £7,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A London delftware 'Bleu Persan' mug, circa 1680-1700
Of cylindrical form moulded with a horizontal band below the rim and applied with a loop handle, glazed in dark blue, the exterior painted in white with a seated Chinese figure in a stylised landscape, the rim with a formal border, 8cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Rous Lench Collection, Sotheby's, 1 July 1986, lot 32
Longridge Collection, Christie's, 10 June 2010, lot 1264
Literature
Grigsby, Leslie B, The Longridge Collection of English Slipware and Delftware, Vol.2, 2000, p.277, no.D252
White, Mary, Drinking at the Whites' House, Vol.2, 2021, p.88
Delftware with this distinctive dark lustrous blue glaze, imitating Persian pottery, is typically called 'Bleu Persan' or sometimes 'bleu de Nevers'. Shards have been recovered from several London delftware factory sites and in Brislington. The chinoiserie decoration on this mug is derived from Chinese porcelain and is identical to a pattern found in blue and white London delftware. A very similar mug is illustrated by John C Austin, British Delft at Williamsburg, 1994, p.105, no.90 and another in the Victoria and Albert Museum is illustrated by Michael Archer, Delftware, 1997, pp.247-8, no.C.13. See also the example from the Anne H and Frederick Vogel III Collection sold by Sotheby's New York on 19 January 2019, lot 726. Similar decoration is also found on several globular mugs or gorges, see for example Frank Britton, London Delftware, 1987, p.90, col. pl.L and p.135, no.98, where a possible Norfolk House attribution is suggested.