Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 145
A fine Chelsea figure emblematic of Smell, circa 1755
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£1,500 - £2,500
Ask about this lot
Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A fine Chelsea figure emblematic of Smell, circa 1755
From a set of the Senses by Joseph Willems, modelled on a large scale as a young man seated on a rocky outcrop before a flowering tree stump, his robes painted with neat floral sprays in iron-red and with a pale yellow lining, embracing a large pierced pot pourri urn delicately painted with European flowers, a bouquet in his right hand and similar flowers and leaves applied to the branches surrounding him, a comical dog appearing from underneath his right leg, on an irregular rocky base, 28.5cm high, red anchor mark
Footnotes
Provenance
Crane Collection, Bonhams, 31 March 2010, lot 218
Literature
White, Mary, Living at the Whites' House, Vol.4, 2023, p.124
Other examples of this most impressive figure are illustrated by William King, English Porcelain Figures of the XVIII Century, 1925, fig.18 and by Arthur Lane, English Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century, 1961, p.66 and pl.12. Lane describes the set as 'conspicuously fine', ranking with the most impressive of all European porcelain sculptures, and it is clear to see why he highlights Smell as one of the best of the set. All five figures of the Senses are illustrated in 'Mr Alfred Hutton's Collection', EPC Trans, No.1, 1929, pls.I and II. It is clear from the Chelsea sale catalogue of 1756 that these figures were sold separately, there described as 'fine' and 'large', see Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain, 2001, p.126 and also p.124, fig.9.6 for a figure of Touch. For a figure of Sight, see Reginald Blunt, The Cheyne Book of Chelsea China and Pottery, 1924, pl.1.