Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 99
A Chelsea 'Hampton Court' vase and cover, circa 1752-55
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £7,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A Chelsea 'Hampton Court' vase and cover, circa 1752-55
Of tapering hexagonal shape with rounded shoulders and a short neck, painted in Kakiemon style with the 'Three Friends of Winter', showing a gnarled pine tree, tall bamboo and flowering prunus, alternating with panels of turquoise-green foliate scrollwork centred by a gilt chrysanthemum on a bright red ground, the shoulder and domed cover with matching panels in counterpoint, the neck with a formal border of scrolling foliage, the button finial with a gilt chrysanthemum, 29cm high, red anchor mark to the inside rim (2)
Footnotes
Provenance
With Simon Spero, 2007
Literature
White, Mary, Living at the Whites' House, Vol.4, 2023, p.351
This shape of vase originated in Japanese Kakiemon porcelain in the second half of the 17th century, a substantial collection of which was amassed by Queen Mary II. An inventory of her Hampton Court apartments included 'coloured jars of six squares', and both Japanese Kakiemon and Chelsea porcelain vases of this shape became known as 'Hampton Court' vases as a result. An identical vase in the British Museum (inv. no.1887,0307,II.21.a) is illustrated by Ayers, Impey and Mallet, Porcelain for Palaces, 1990, p.201, p.198, where it is compared to a pair of ormolu-mounted Japanese vases of circa 1670-90 which served as the prototype, pp.172-3, no.152. Also illustrated are examples of the vase-form decorated with other Japanese-inspired patterns, as well as a Meissen example, pp.200-201.