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Jefferyes Hammett O'Neale

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A very rare Chelsea reeded Botanical tea bowl and saucer, beautifully painted in an unusual elegant hand with a spray of Physalis Peruviana or the Cape Gooseberry, showing the brightly coloured oval orange stipled fruit with their purple outer paper-like cases, together with the two toned related heart-shaped leaves, veined in great detail in dark puce, both the teabowl and the saucer with a very fine double sided gilt dentil edge.
Circa 1755-58.
Diameter of the Saucer: 5ins. (12.5cms.)
Mark: Red Anchor Mark to the underside of both pieces.

Tea wares bearing this very vividly cheering botanical decoration are very rare and would appear to come at the end of the red anchor period but are afforded an unusual elegance, which reminds one of the realism yet to be seen which will emanate from the London Atelier of James Giles in the next ten years and which of course will include many former members of the decorating studio at Chelsea. The fluted shape of these however is early and is usually seen during the raised anchor period with either Kakiemon style decoration or coloured or puce carmine decoration depicting figures at conversation within landscapes, associated with the work of Jefferyes Hammett O’Neale, or harbour scenes after decoration on Meissen porcelain of the 1740’s. However there was a tradition of using well tried and tested successful shapes throughout the period of the factory’s production, for example the silver shaped dish which is first seen in porcelain during the raised anchor period and is used right through and into the gold anchor period.
There are a pair of saucers of this same decoration by the same hand which are illustrated by John C. Austin. ‘Chelsea Porcelain at Williamsburg’, pl. 83. These are the only fluted teawares with this type of botanical decoration that we can find recorded within the literature.
The Cape Gooseberry plant is beautifully observed with its somewhat vining tendency apparent in the graceful upward way it has been painted crowned with its Chinese lantern cases.

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