A highly important 'A'-marked snuff box, circa 1744-45

Footnotes

Provenance
With Stockspring Antiques, 2012

Literature
Ramsay, W Ross, Edwards, Howell G M, Manners, Errol and Howkins, Ashley, 'Geochemical Investigation of a Ceramic Snuff Box: 'A'-Marked English Porcelain Attribution confirmed', Ceramics in America, 2023, p.96, fig.9
White, Mary, Living at the Whites' House, Vol.4, 2023, p.73

The enigmatic 'A'-marked group of porcelain has been the subject of considerable debate for a number of years. Identified as a distinct group in 1937, it is so-called on account of the presence of an incised 'A' or an 'A' in underglaze-blue found on a number of pieces. Whilst it has close similarities to Italian porcelain, a British origin for the group was first established by R J Charleston and J V G Mallet, 'A Problematical Group of Eighteenth-century Porcelains', ECC Trans, Vol.8, Pt.2, 1972. Scientific analysis subsequently confirmed that the paste is a 'hybrid' hard-paste type containing kaolin, and differs from all other early English porcelains in both paste and glaze, see Ian Freestone, 'A-marked Porcelain: Some recent Scientific Work', ECC Trans, Vol.16, Pt.1, 1996, pp.76-84 and W H R Ramsay, A Gabszewicz and E G Ramsay, ''Unaker' or Cherokee Clay and its relationship to the 'Bow' Porcelain Manufactory', ECC Trans, Vol.17, Pt.3, 2001, pp.474-99.

It is now widely accepted that the composition of 'A'-marked porcelain corresponds closely to the material described in a patent filed by Edward Heylyn and Thomas Frye on 6 December 1744, traditionally known as the 'First Bow Patent', which details the manufacture of a material produced using 'an earth, the produce of the Chirokee nation in America, called by the natives unaker...' as the principle ingredient. George Arnold and Edward Heylyn are known to have acquired a property in Bow, Middlesex in the latter part of 1744, and it is here they would have carried out experimental firings of the 'First Bow Patent' from December 1744. The factory was short-lived and production had probably ceased before Frye and Heylyn commenced production of their 'Second Patent' at their new premises. The 'A'-marked group is therefore datable to 1744-1745 and arguably pre-dates Chelsea, perhaps representing the first commercially viable porcelain of high quality ever produced in Britain.

The present lot is one of just three similar 'A'-marked snuff boxes, all of the same distinctive shape and the same basic sombre palette, but with markedly different decoration. They are illustrated and discussed in detail together by Ramsay, Edwards, Manners and Howkins, 2023, pp.90-112. The other examples are both indistinctly marked with an incised 'A' to their interiors. A key example in the National Museum of Wales (inv. no.NMW A 34692) is painted with floral sprays to the sides and a landscape scene to the cover within intertwined scroll borders, and was first published by Arthur Lane in 1958. The other is painted with harbour scenes and ships in Meissen style and was sold by Bonhams on 18 April 2012, lot 168. The present lot is remarkable, the decoration unparalleled among the 'A'-marked wares both in its style and sophistication. All three boxes were analysed by Cranfield University in 2011, confirming that they are the products of the same short-lived London manufactory, see Howell G M Edwards, William H Jay and W Ross H Ramsay, 'High-fired early English porcelains of the 'A'-marked group, east London (c.1744): A Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy compositional study', Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, Vol.53, No.4, 2022, pp.4-5 for a summary.

Approximately forty specimens attributed to the 'A'-marked group have been recorded to date. Their decoration has traditionally been divided into two principal classes, termed 'High Style' and 'Stock Patterns', see J V G Mallet, 'The 'A' Marked Porcelains Revisited', ECC Trans, Vol.15, No.2, 1994, p.241. The former comprises finely painted decoration, mostly incorporating figure subjects derived from print sources, combined with rococo scroll ornament, with the main inspiration appearing to be Meissen porcelain from the 1720s and 30s. While all three of the snuff boxes are painted in this so-called 'High Style', they are markedly distinct and the decoration on the present lot would appear to be unique, exuding European rococo mastery. The 'Stock Patterns' are also probably inspired by Meissen, in particular their indianische Blumen decoration, see lot 180 in this sale for an example.

Clear stylistic links between flower and insect painting on some 'A'-marked wares and on Chelsea porcelain of the early triangle period confirm that both classes of decoration date from the mid-1740s and have a London origin, see Errol Manners, ''A'-marked Porcelain and Chelsea; a connection', ECC Trans, Vol.19, Pt.3, 2006, pp.471-5 and lot 70 in this sale. There are also close links between formal flower painting on 'A'-marked porcelain and on the 'drab' or 'mushroom-glazed' group of early Bow porcelain, see Ross Ramsay and Anton Gabszewicz, 'The Chemistry of 'A'-Marked Porcelain and its relation to the Heylyn and Frye Patent of 1744', ECC Trans, Vol.18, Pt.2, 2003, pp.269-74. This early Bow group is now believed to be the earliest production at the new factory, or 'New Canton', on the Essex side of Bow Bridge, see lot 106 in this sale.