An important Limehouse teapot and cover, circa 1746-48

Footnotes

Provenance
Reverend C J Sharp Collection
Watney Collection, Phillips, 22 September 1999, lot 129
Colin E Hanley Collection, Sotheby's, 15 May 2014, lot 122 (part)

Literature
Watney, Bernard, 'Four Groups of Porcelain, possibly Liverpool', ECC Trans, Vol.4, Pt.5, 1959, p.15, pl.11b (as Liverpool)
Watney, Bernard, 'Limehouse Coloured Ware', ECC Trans, Vol.15, Pt.1, 1993, figs.8 and 9
Jones, Ray, The Origins of Worcester Porcelain, 2018, p.225, no.vi
White, Mary, Drinking at the Whites' House, Vol.2, 2021, p.315, fig.b

Exhibited
ECC, Limehouse Ware Revealed, 1993, p.48, fig.110 and p.56, col. pl.XVI
Stockspring Antiques, The Dragon and the Quail, 2000, no.14
The British Museum, East Meets West, 2002

In his 1993 ECC paper, Bernard Watney attempted a classification of known coloured Limehouse wares, all of which match European decoration added to Chinese, Japanese and Meissen porcelain and sometimes on Delft. At the time of writing only 21 pieces of coloured Limehouse were recorded, of which five were teapots including this celebrated teapot. One of these is decorated in polychrome on a white ground much like the present lot, while the other three have clobbered enamel decoration over underglaze blue, and include one in Norwich Castle Museum (inv. no.1946.70.419) illustrated on p.70, fig.26.

Together with a Limehouse cream jug in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no.C.1055-1924) illustrated on p.67-68, figs.11 and 12 and two leaf trays, the present teapot belongs to Watney's 'Kakiemon' group, with decoration inspired by Meissen with its ultimate origins in Japanese porcelain. To this group can be added a libation cup illustrated by Rosalie Wise Sharp, Ceramics: Ethics & Scandal, 2002, p.203, and an English porcelain handle with similar decoration, probably Limehouse, which was sold by Bonhams Oxford on 10 April 2013, lot 33 (part).

While Bernard Watney felt that the enamel decoration was Dutch, it is now considered more likely that it was the work of Dutch enamellers working in London. A key publication on this subject is John Sandon's introduction to Bonhams' catalogue, The Watney Collection of Chinese Porcelain Decorated in Holland and England, 7 November 2003, where the present lot is illustrated, p.10, fig.5. The same decoration is found on Chinese porcelain believed to have been decorated in London, probably in the same workshop where the Limehouse porcelain was enamelled. The birds in flight on the present teapot are particularly representative of this particular group of Limehouse enamelled porcelains. The same hand responsible for the decoration on this lot also appears to have decorated a Chinese teapot illustrated by Watney on p.67, fig.10, a Chinese bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum illustrated on p.68, figs.13-15, together with several early saltglaze pieces including a plate and four teapots, one of which is illustrated on p.66, fig.4. Mary White illustrates it alongside a Chinese teabowl also probably by the same hand. A Pomona teapot of almost identical shape is illustrated by David Barker and Sam Cole, Digging for Early Porcelain, 1998, p.54, fig.2.