Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 104
A fine and rare Chelsea milk jug or 'cream ewer', circa 1745-49
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£6,000 - £8,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A fine and rare Chelsea milk jug or 'cream ewer', circa 1745-49
Of fluted baluster form, the scroll handle with elaborate acanthus moulded terminals, the upper issuing three sprays of flowers, the pedestal foot applied with a band of leaves and strawberries, the moulded and applied details picked out in bright colours, scattered florets and insects to the body, interior rim and upper handle terminal, a large butterfly to the pouring lip, the handle with a band of flowers, 14.3cm high, incised triangle mark
Footnotes
Provenance
Rous Lench Collection, Sotheby's, 1 July 1986, lot 201
With Simon Spero
Faith and Dewayne Perry Collection
Simon Spero exhibition, 2009, no.1
Literature
White, Mary, Eating at the Whites' House, Vol.3, 2022, p.347, fig.b
A very similar cream jug in the Victoria and Albert Museum is illustrated by Sally Kevill-Davies, 'Some new connections between Nicholas Sprimont's silver and early Chelsea porcelain', ECC Trans, Vol.31, 2020, p.123, fig.35. Strawberries were a favourite motif of the Chelsea manufactory in the triangle period, and the author notes on p.122 how applied strawberry decoration such as this is paralleled by the finial on the cover of a silver sugar vase of circa 1744-45 by Nicholas Sprimont in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (inv. no.1988.1075a-b), illustrated on p.121, fig.32. The scrolled motif above the handle is also reminiscent of designs for auricular silver at the top of the handles, perhaps inspired by designs by Johannes Lutma, see p.123, fig.36.
Another similar jug in the British Museum is illustrated by Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain, 2001, p.39, fig.4.1 and another, sold by Bonhams on 8 March 2006, lot 25, is illustrated by Rosalie Wise Sharp, China to Light Up a House, Vol.1, 2015, p.70, no.213. They may have been made to accompany strawberry dishes with similar decoration, providing the cream or milk for wild strawberries, see for example that illustrated by Elizabeth Adams, 2001, p.27, figs.3.3 and 3.4, which was sold by Bonhams as part of the Elizabeth Adams Collection on 19 June 2024, lot 298. These dishes were also produced without applied strawberry decoration, see lot 105 in this sale. An inventory of jugs of this type, applied with strawberries around the base, is provided by O Glendenning and Mrs Donald MacAlister, 'Chelsea, the Triangle Period', ECC Trans, Vol.1, Pt.3, 1935, p.30. They list two coloured examples and one left in the white, and cite a second white example in Dublin Museum which is applied with leaves only. A white example was sold by Bonhams on 20 November 2019, lot 226.