Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 76
A Chelsea swan scent bottle and stopper, circa 1755
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £4,000
Ask about this lot
Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A Chelsea swan scent bottle and stopper, circa 1755
Finely modelled, its face and legs sparingly yet naturalistically coloured, a chased gold mount serving as a collar around the bird's slender neck, the head forming the stopper, the domed foot enamelled with floral sprigs and a ladybird, the concave underside with a mixed bouquet, 7.8cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
With E & H Manners, 2007
Literature
White, Mary, Beasts at the Whites' House, Vol.1, 2020, p.203, fig.4
A very closely related swan scent bottle attributed to St James's (Charles Gouyn) was sold by Bonhams on 30 November 2022, lot 215. Errol Manners refers to the rivalry between Sprimont and Gouyn in 1750s London and draws attention to these scent bottles and other toys as an area of considerable and direct competition. See Errol Manners, 'A Documentary 'Girl-in-a-Swing' Seal and other considerations on the porcelain of Charles Gouyn's factory', ECC Trans, Vol.18, Pt.3, 2004, p.401-2.
Mary White illustrates the present lot alongside a different St James's example and four other porcelain swans including a model produced at Bow, lot 78 in this sale. Although all three were produced in London within the span of a few years the Chelsea and St James's versions, formed as scent bottles with gold mounts, would have been considered a different class of item, aimed only at the most wealthy clientele, requiring refined taste and deep pockets.