Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 55
A Chelsea 'Fable' saucer, circa 1752-53
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 Chelsea 'Fable' saucer, circa 1752-53
In the manner of Jefferyes Hamett O'Neale, of lobed form, painted to the centre with the fable of 'The Wolf and the Crane', with a brown line rim, 11.9cm diam
Footnotes
Provenance
Selwyn Parkinson Collection, Sotheby's, 21 June 1966, lot 115
With Billy Buck, Steppes Hill Farm Antiques, 2010
Literature
White, Mary, 'Luxury porcelain decoration in London 1750-55: O'Neale and London Ateliers', ECC Trans, Vol.30, 2019, p.44, fig.27
White, Mary, Beasts at the Whites' House, Vol.1, 2020, p.130
The fable of 'The Wolf and the Crane' concerns a crane who places her head into the jaws of a wolf to extract a bone from his throat in return for a handsome reward, which the wolf subsequently reneges upon. The source print is an engraving by Francis Barlow, published in the 1666 and 1687 editions of Aesop's Fables, Fable LXXXIV. While traditionally attributed to O'Neale, Mary White highlights differences in the style of painting on this saucer which suggest that a different hand is probably responsible, see Mary White, 2019, pp.44-5. However, the palette and the way in which the mountain in the distance has been incorporated into the design suggests a painter who was familiar with O'Neale's work. A cream jug painted with a similar version of this fable is illustrated by John C Austin, Chelsea Porcelain at Williamsburg, 1977, p.75, no.58. See also the teabowl and saucer illustrated by Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain, 2001, p.100, fig.84 and by Stephen Hanscombe, Jefferyes Hamett O'Neale, 2010, p.39, no.13, which was sold by Bonhams as part of the Elizabeth Adams Collection on 27 November 2024, lot 180. The same subject by a different hand is found on a Chinese saucer, lot 60 in this sale.