Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 144
A rare Chelsea figure group of the Peasant's Supper, circa 1756-58
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £3,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A rare Chelsea figure group of the Peasant's Supper, circa 1756-58
Modelled as a young boy and girl either side of an inverted coopered churn forming a table, using spoons to sample a bowl of food which rests upon the barrel, he seated on a large overturned basket of flowers, she standing beside a small basket of flowers, the rococo scrolled base picked out in gold, 13cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
With D M & P Manheim, New York
Nigel Morgan Collection, E & H Manners exhibition, 2009, no.12
Literature
Legge, Margaret, Flowers and Fables, 1984, p.37, no.73
White, Mary, Eating at the Whites' House, Vol.3, 2022, p.242
Exhibited
National Gallery of Victoria, Flowers and Fables, 1 November 1984 to 10 February 1985
This rare group was Modelled by Joseph Willems after a Meissen original, see the Meissen example sold by Christie's on 1 December 1980, lot 171. Another Chelsea version with a red anchor mark from the Radford Collection was sold by Sotheby's on 3 November 1943, lot 103. An example surrounded by bocage, also marked with a red anchor, is illustrated by Reginald Blunt, The Cheyne Book of Chelsea China and Pottery, 1924, p.46 and pl.16, no.147. Figures with glazed bases but unglazed footrims from the Red Anchor period are particularly rare.