FINE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART
Foreword
The year 2004 has been a very active year for us with our Exhibition ‘Splendour in the Grass’ and following on from this one of the most busy years we can remember at the International Ceramics Fair and Seminar in June, that as you know we both exhibit at and organise. The International Ceramics Fair and Seminar has not only forged a link with the Museum curatorial world introducing them to collectors and Ceramic Dealers alike but is an event which continues to produce great friendships and lasting memories within all fields of the Art World.
We are simply delighted to present our Autumn selling Exhibition ‘Splendour of a Golden Age’ which includes some of the finest early English porcelain, from three English private collections, to be seen on the open market in recent years. The Exhibition is entirely born out of the Ceramics Fair for it was last year in 2003 that we renewed our acquaintance with Dr. Paul B. Riley, when we Exhibited our collection of early blue and white English porcelain. To many of you the name of Dr. Riley is synonymous with the world of collecting and more especially with his continuing researches into the production at the Chelsea manufactory. Since last year we have acquired many important pieces from his private Chelsea collection. The friendly invitations from him and that of his wife Helga have been fascinating to say the least. Many times over the last year have we boarded the train at London Kings Cross with the knowledge of splendid home cooked biscuits and delightful lunches of wild salmon or local prawns followed by delicious summer pudding or marvellous blackcurrant cakes, all home made. We have looked forward to our conversations, which have of course included their beloved Chelsea porcelain but can also range from Grouse shooting in Ireland, seeing flocks of the purple Emperor butterfly in the South of England, to the D Day landings in France in June 1944, where Dr. Riley landed on Sword Beach.
Whilst reading many of Dr. Riley’s notes and comments another relationship has become very apparent, that of his friendship with the late Dr. F. Severne Mackenna, familiar for his exceptionally far sighted and important trio of books written on the Chelsea production through the triangle, raised, red, and gold anchor periods. Dr. Mackenna lived in Droitwich, descended from the great and very ancient family of Severnes who lived for centuries near the Shropshire border close to Abberley. He became close friends with Frank Hurlbutt who indeed became his mentor and slowly as these collectors and friends including, Wallace Elliot and Dr. Bellamy-Gardner died superb examples were duly added to his collection, which he then immortalised in his photographic and watercolour albums tinted by his own hand. Dr. Riley told us that when he acquired no.8 in the catalogue, Mackenna, said, ‘I’m glad you’ve got that, it was my favourite piece’. And is described by him in his book ‘Chelsea Porcelain, the triangle and raised anchor wares’ as an example of one of the finest floral paintings to be found on Chelsea porcelain. To us it is this one single example that has captured the whole essence of what our catalogue is about, the intense personal interaction between the collector and the object, indeed Aldous Huxley in his book ‘The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell’, puts this relationship very succinctly ‘Few human beings concern themselves less with utility than do collectors of porcelain and glazed earthenware and what their owners crave is a special kind of beauty- the beauty of curved reflections, of softly lustrous glazes, of sleek and smooth surfaces. In a word, the beauty that transports the beholder, because it reminds him, obscurely or explicitly, of the praeternatural lights and colours of the Other World’.
Many of the items in ‘Splendour of a Golden Age’ will also be familiar to collectors through their illustrations and inclusion in Elizabeth Adams’ book, ‘Chelsea Porcelain’. Dr. Riley helped Mrs. Adams with the production of this book and many of his pieces were used and illustrated alongside those belonging to the British Museum. The Exhibition is really centred round the earliest of the production at Chelsea and extends until about ten years after the beginning circa 1754-55 during the red anchor period. We have also included several pieces from other factories and these can be found after the Chelsea section, we include a very rare pair of Bow chick boxes and covers which are beautifully naturalistically coloured. The Early Worcester section contains a marvellous coloured tankard of bell shape painted with two very lively pheasants, in the famille rose palette. For those interested in bird painting the very important Worcester jug must rank as one of the great examples of the hand of James Rogers, and one of the barns in the background of the scene has a circular window hole at the upper storey, which is a particular feature of Worcestershire barns built in the early eighteenth century and is there for the barn owl to fly in and out unhindered to nest and to catch mice.
The Chelsea pieces begin with the extraordinary display of the ‘Tea plant’ moulded items, nos.1-5. Here can be seen the very start and root of the designs at Chelsea which take their influence from the silver designs of the proprietor Nicholas Sprimont who had travelled from Liege and from circa 1744, through his partnership with Charles Gouyn during the incised triangle period, was producing fashionable shapes and designs in porcelain for Royal and aristocratic London society. It has been a joy to compare the four different hands at work on these important pieces and to note the very clear differences both in palette and style. The triangle period pieces have a bewitching quality to the paste, very like early Vincennes, showing tiny pinpricks of luminosity within the lustrous body, indeed we know from contemporary records that both Orry de Fulvy at Vincennes and Sprimont at Chelsea were both very conscious and aware of what each other were creating.
An early characteristic of production at the Chelsea manufactory was that the wares or the early figural forms were for the most part left in the white, perhaps in order to emphasise the ability of being able to reproduce the lustrous ceramic ware, which had its roots in the Orient and had been highly revered for centuries or perhaps to underline the sculptural importance of the pieces being an indication of the perceived value and esteem in which the objects were held, no.7 the Child’s Head and the Owl no.11 illustrate this point.
In 1749 Nicholas Sprimont and Charles Gouyn quarrelled and the two split, Gouyn moved back to St. James’s where he had been a jeweller beforehand and continued to manufacture porcelain in the form of scent bottles and seals which he then beautifully mounted in precious metals, together with these fashionable trinkets were produced a series of figures and animals of which no. 10 is an unrecorded example and comes from our second Private collection. Meanwhile at Chelsea sales of the porcelain ceased and the factory moved during the end of the year 1749 to new premises on Lawrence street. And so it was that a revitalised factory advertisement appeared in The Daily Advertiser on the 9th January 1750.
‘The Manufacturer of China Ware at Chelsea takes the liberty to aquaint the Publick, that he has been employed since his last Sale in making a considerable parcel, of which the Assortments are so far advanced, that he hopes to be in a Condition to offer it to Sale in the Month of March next; it will consist of a variety of Services for Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, Porringers, Sauce Boats, Basons, and Ewers, Ice-Pails, Tureens, Dishes and Plates of different Forms and Patterns, and of a great Variety of pieces for ornament in a Taste entirely new’.
The advertisement coincided with the new recipe and development of the porcelain paste or body, it was very much thicker and more pliable than the triangle period body and the glaze was whitened with tin oxide, thus giving it the ‘Voluptuousness…highly pleasing to the senses of touch and sight’ as stated by Dr. Mackenna on page 32 of his first book within the Chelsea trilogy. Nos 8, 9, 12 and 13 show the incredible floral work that emanated from the enamellers at this period laid out on one of the most charming pastes that has been created. The language of flowers has fascinated people for centuries, in the eighteenth century particularly the meanings would have been generally known and therefore it should not surprise us that people could be cheered up, chastised or simply thanked with flowers so why not with flowers on porcelain? The marvellous dish No.8 that belonged to Dr. Mackenna has a very personal message attached to it for it shows the heartsease, the daisy, the speedwell, the rose and the yellow anemone and therefore the dish states ‘Behold look at me, the beauty and purity of true love can be swiftly forsaken or chided’ perhaps this is why he felt such an attachment for this piece.
One of the great surprises of the Exhibition is No.20 and comes from our third Private English collection. The great Boar hunt group, which is hitherto unrecorded and illustrates beautifully the grand level to which Sprimont was aiming his decorative ware, for only the very highest ranking members of the English Aristocracy or Royal family could hunt the great wild Boar and this group was possibly for a single order for an important commission. The great paintings by Frans Snyders, Jean Baptiste Oudry and Jean Luc Desportes had become important symbols of the Aristocracy in their domestic circles and many revelled within the interest on the field and this group, which is probably after Oudry shows Sprimonts success and ease with his many adverts to the ‘Quality and Gentry’ and the ‘Nobility’.
A Chelsea Exhibition could not be complete without naturalistic wares, this positively horticultural period stretched the factory to its organic limit during the mid 1750’s and nos x and xx show the two peony dishes, both in rare colours. It was at this time that the paste changed again and by circa 1754 it was a thinner body that could take the very intricate moulded of the new tantalising forms, no.18 the pair of pierced bowls and stands show how the factory fully embraced the swirling pierced shapes that had become very desirable in other modes of decoration. It is now generally known of the connection between the ‘Hans Sloane’ type decoration and the illustrations within Philip Miller’s ‘Figures of Plants’, which was published between 25th March and 20th December 1756 for these two volumes illustrate 300 of the plants contained within the Chelsea Physic Garden, which was on land owned by the Lord of the Manor of Chelsea, Sir Hans Sloane. However it is less well known that the Chelsea enamellers probably had access to one of the most important butterfly collections to have been assembled, No. The beautiful and important pair of oval indented dishes and No. the ribbed teabowl show real butterflies possibly taken from the James Pettiver collection, which was at that time owned by Sir Hans Sloane and can be seen now in the Natural History Museum London. So we very much look forward to seeing you here within the gallery where we hope that you will have as much joy from the flora and fauna as we have had in the research of these collections and that more memories will be created to be added to the individual pieces.
Brian
Haughton and Paul Crane
London 2004