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A Chelsea plate, circa 1752-53 image 1
A Chelsea plate, circa 1752-53 image 2
Lot 100

A Chelsea plate, circa 1752-53

1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£2,000 - £3,000

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A Chelsea plate, circa 1752-53

Of rococo silver shape, painted in Kakiemon style with the 'Red Tiger' design, a red and gold dragon emerging from swirled clouds and coiled around flowering bamboo, gnarled prunus below and a tiger gazing upwards at the ferocious dragon, 22.4cm wide

Footnotes

Provenance
Simon Spero exhibition, 2011, no.6

Literature
White, Mary, Eating at the Whites' House, Vol.3, 2022, p.249

The influence of rococo silver is evident in the exuberant form of this plate, the shape being adapted from a silver sauceboat stand by Nicholas Sprimont with date letter for 1746/47. The striking Japanese pattern packs a weighty punch against the creamy-white surface, a triumph of Sprimont's porcelain over the decorative restrictions set by silver. The design is largely confined to the raised anchor period but continued to be sold in the red anchor years, as 'nurl'd plates of the 'twisted dragon pattern' were in the Chelsea sale catalogue of 14 March 1755, lot 37 and 15 March 1755, lot 72. A very rare pair of similar plates was sold by Bonhams on 15 November 2017, lot 175. See also an oval plate in this pattern illustrated by Ayers, Impey and Mallet, Porcelain for Palaces, 1990, p.283, no.332.

Additional information