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Lot Essay
The earliest known example of such a shell-shaped basket, on cast dolphin feet, is by Paul de Lamerie, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A later example of 1747 is in the Farrer Collection, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Rococo Art and Design in Hogarth's England, 1984, no. G21. In the catalogue entry Phillipa Glanville suggests that this design was perhaps inspired by earlier Meissen porcelain examples, which were imported into London in the 1730s. She cites a scallop-shaped dish by Heroldt of circa 1728 with a painted diaper border which bears resemblance to the piercing on the Lamerie baskets (see Pantheon, XV, 1935, p. 203).
Phillips Garden, Edward Wakelin, and Thomas Gilpin all produced baskets of this design in the 1740s and 1750s. An example by Phillips Garden of 1752 was sold at Christie's, London, 5 July 2000, lot 7 and another of 1755 from the Reksten Collection was sold in the same Rooms, 22 May 1991, lot 48. A pair of baskets made by William Cripps in 1758 was sold in The Hahn Family Collection of English Silver, Christie's, New York, 23 October 2000, lot 229.
Phillips Garden, Edward Wakelin, and Thomas Gilpin all produced baskets of this design in the 1740s and 1750s. An example by Phillips Garden of 1752 was sold at Christie's, London, 5 July 2000, lot 7 and another of 1755 from the Reksten Collection was sold in the same Rooms, 22 May 1991, lot 48. A pair of baskets made by William Cripps in 1758 was sold in The Hahn Family Collection of English Silver, Christie's, New York, 23 October 2000, lot 229.