Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 14
A rare English delftware bird feeder, dated 1751
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£2,500 - £3,500
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A rare English delftware bird feeder, dated 1751
London or Liverpool, of D-section and tapering form, painted in blue with a charming rural landscape scene, a farmer standing to the left sowing seed, a lady seated at a spinning wheel to the right, all before distant buildings, a scrolled foliate border to the rim, the reverse inscribed 'C P/ 1751' within an shaped cartouche, 6cm high, 8.3cm wide
Footnotes
Provenance
Christie's, 20 April 2000, lot 9
With Jonathan Horne
Longridge Collection, Christie's, 3 November 2011, lot 123
Literature
White, Mary, Beasts at the Whites' House, Vol.1, 2020, p.181
White, Mary, People at the Whites' House, Vol.5, 2024, p.303
Delftware bird feeders originated in Holland and these are frequently depicted in use on Dutch Delft birdcage plaques and tile panels. English bird feeders are rarely found and the present example would appear to be unique in form, and it is unrecorded by Lipski and Archer, Dated English Delftware, 1984. The farmer sowing seeds is perhaps an amusing allusion to the feeder's intended contents and, as Mary White points out, it would have made an unusual addition to a bird cage. An example of U-shape from the Graham Slater Collection was sold by Bonhams on 16 April 2025, lot 450 and relates closely to contemporary wall pockets.