Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 125
An extraordinary Limehouse tea canister and cover, circa 1746-48
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£15,000 - £25,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
An extraordinary Limehouse tea canister and cover, circa 1746-48
Modelled as the head of a boy turned slightly to his left, his eyes gazing upwards, wearing a scroll-moulded collar with a shell-like motif, the pointed top of his large ribbed hat forming the cover, his hat, eyes and clothing all picked out in blue, 13.7cm high (2)
Footnotes
Provenance
Joseph Handley Collection
Bunny and Paul Davies Collection, Simon Spero exhibition, 2013, no.28
Literature
Jones, Ray, The Origins of Worcester Porcelain, 2018, p.214, no.ii
White, Mary, Drinking at the Whites' House, Vol.2, 2021, p.314, fig.a
This wonderful chinoiserie tea canister is perhaps one of the most recognisable and iconic forms made by Limehouse, remarkable for the ambition of its form. The cherub-like boy with very European features contrasting with a curious oriental hat probably derives its inspiration from English silver, much like early Chelsea, although the precise source remains unclear. In his 2013 catalogue, Simon Spero suggests that a silver tea canister by Paul de Lamerie dated 1747 and now at Fairfax House, York, modelled with boy's heads wearing similarly pointed hats at each corner, may have provided the inspiration.
Two similar examples, now at Colonial Williamsburg (inv. nos.1964-2,1A&B and 1964-2,2A&B), are illustrated by Bernard Watney, English Blue and White Porcelain, 1979, col. pl.E (as Liverpool). Another is illustrated by Rosalie Wise Sharp, China to Light Up a House, Vol.1, 2015, p.176, no.595. An example lacking its cover from the Watney Collection was sold by Phillips on 10 May 2000, lot 546. A further two were also sold by Phillips on 29 October 1980, lots 160 and 161 (as Liverpool), of which one is illustrated together with a misfired example by Geoffrey Godden, Staffordshire Porcelain, 1983, p.19, figs.16 and 17, where the author states how a similar cover seen on the Pomona Potworks site in Newcastle-under-Lyme was sadly not recovered.