Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 59
A large Chelsea dish, circa 1753-54
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£1,500 - £2,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A large Chelsea dish, circa 1753-54
With a fluted border, finely painted in puce by Jefferyes Hamett O'Neale with a classical landscape scene within a scalloped border, depicting a Roman soldier on horseback conversing with two figures, a further soldier with a shield and spear to his right, two small figures gazing at classical imagery and indistinct inscriptions on an enormous obelisk in the distance, distinctive rockwork in the foreground, the border with a spray and scattered sprigs of flowers, a puce line to the scalloped rim, 31.3cm diam, red anchor mark
Footnotes
Provenance
Stephen Hanscombe Collection
Faith and Dewayne Perry Collection
Simon Spero exhibition, 2013, no.7
Literature
Hanscombe, Stephen, Jefferyes Hammett O'Neale, 2010, pp.78-9, no.67
White, Mary, 'Luxury porcelain decoration in London 1750-55: O'Neale and London Ateliers', ECC Trans, Vol.30, 2019, p.38, figs.7, 9 and 10
White, Mary, Eating at the Whites' House, Vol.3, 2022, pp.252-3, fig.a
Mary White notes how the scene on this dish exemplifies O'Neale's ability to impart a sense of communication and movement into the subjects he painted. It bears a remarkable similarity to a pierced oval dish formerly in the Major W H Tapp Collection inscribed '12 O'Neal', illustrated by Mary White, 2019, p.38, figs.6 and 8 and by Stephen Hanscombe, 2010, pp.68-9, no.54, widely regarded as a key documentary piece of O'Neale's work. Both dishes are painted with classical scenes depicting remarkably similar obelisks, and the close similarities in painting styles are discussed on p.39. In his 2013 catalogue, Simon Spero notes how the style in which the figures, horse and the distinctive rock formation are painted are also characteristic of O'Neale's hand, as these features occur in many of his fable subjects. See for example the rock formation on lot 57 in this sale. Two dishes of similar form and size painted in puce with landscapes incorporating classical ruins are illustrated by Stephen Hanscombe, 2010, pp.80-81, nos.68 and 69. Compare also to the octagonal teapot painted in puce by O'Neale, lot 58 in this sale.