A PLYMOUTH (WILLIAM COOKWORTHY) LARGE MUG

This lot has no reserve.

Lots 95-108 and 222-225 are painted in the same pattern, variously known as 'Kylin', 'Bengal Tyger' and 'Dragon in Compartments'. Taken directly from an early 18th century Chinese famille verte design of the Kangxi period, it proved to be extremely popular and was produced at Worcester, Coalport, Spode, and other English factories. Although examples by the Worcester factories are the most commonly found, smaller firms such as that of William Cookworthy at Plymouth also made it from circa 1768 onwards. Wares are often unmarked, making firm attribution to a given factory difficult unless the shape itself is particular to that firm or the piece is marked. Idiocyncratic variations such as the 'seaweed' gilding and slightly more elongated beasts found on Coalport examples are helpful indications of the maker.

A PLYMOUTH (WILLIAM COOKWORTHY) LARGE MUG

CIRCA 1770, IRON-RED 4 MARK, INCISED 2

Details

A PLYMOUTH (WILLIAM COOKWORTHY) LARGE MUG
Circa 1770, iron-red 4 mark, incised 2
Of slender baluster form with reeded strap handle, painted in bright colors and enriched in gilt in the 'Dragon in Compartments' pattern with four ogival cartouches alternately painted with a stylized mythical beast and a still life of vases on a table reserved on a green-seeded green ground, the border in iron-red with a cell-pattern and stylized lotus
55/8in. (14.2cm.) high

Provenance

With Swan Coach House, Atlanta

Special notice

This lot has no reserve.

Lot Essay

See F. Severne Mackenna, Cookworthy's Plymouth & Bristol Porcelain, London, 1946, figs. 41, 103 for another example marked with the same distinctive 4 in iron-red.

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