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Lot Essay
This tureen would have formed part of a fashionable trompe l'oeil table display in which cooked foods masqueraded as their uncooked ingredients, disguised in pastry, sugar, paper and marzipan. Modellers at the Chelsea porcelain factory excelled in creating table wares resembling birds, animals and vegetation, often on an ambitious 'as big as life' scale. These fashionable table wares were highly sought-after at the time and were arguably the most significant productions of the factory.
Little is known about who modelled these lifelike porcelain sculptures, although it is possible that they are the work of the modeller Joseph Willems who is known to have worked at Chelsea from 1749. A driving force behind the choice of subject matter may certainly have been Nicholas Sprimont; his taste for subjects drawn from nature, coupled with his keen eye for commerce, is conveyed in a contemporary advertisement offering: '..a great Variety of Pieces for Ornament in a Taste entirely new' (published 9 January 1749/50).1 Sprimont took inspiration for bird models, and possibly some of the bird tureens, from those that he saw arriving from the Continent from factories such as Meissen, although his interpretation of the rococo style is uniquely English. In addition he also sought artistic inspiration from the engravings published by George Edwards in his Natural History of Uncommon Birds (London, 1743-51).
The celebrated sixteen day auction of Chelsea porcelain sold by Mr. Ford of Haymarket in 1755 titled 'A Catalogue of the Last year's Large and Valuable Production of the Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory' included eleven entries for dove tureens of this type, variously described as 'A beautiful tureen, in the shape of a double pigeon, in a fine basket work dish' and 'a very fine tureen in the shape of a double pigeon as big as life...'.2
F. Severne Mackenna illustrates a 'double-pigeon' tureen, see Chelsea Porcelain, The Red Anchor Wares, Leigh-on-Sea, 1952, pl. 35, fig. 72.3
A tureen of this form was offered at Christie's in New York on 21 October 2014, lot 82. Another example is in the Irwin Untermyer Collection at the Metropolitan Museum, New York (accession number 64.101.657).
1. See Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain, London, 1987, p. 68.
2. For a full reproduction of the 1755 sale see William King, Chelsea Porcelain, London, 1922.
3. This example was subsequently sold by Sotheby's London on 4 December 2013, lot 432.
Little is known about who modelled these lifelike porcelain sculptures, although it is possible that they are the work of the modeller Joseph Willems who is known to have worked at Chelsea from 1749. A driving force behind the choice of subject matter may certainly have been Nicholas Sprimont; his taste for subjects drawn from nature, coupled with his keen eye for commerce, is conveyed in a contemporary advertisement offering: '..a great Variety of Pieces for Ornament in a Taste entirely new' (published 9 January 1749/50).1 Sprimont took inspiration for bird models, and possibly some of the bird tureens, from those that he saw arriving from the Continent from factories such as Meissen, although his interpretation of the rococo style is uniquely English. In addition he also sought artistic inspiration from the engravings published by George Edwards in his Natural History of Uncommon Birds (London, 1743-51).
The celebrated sixteen day auction of Chelsea porcelain sold by Mr. Ford of Haymarket in 1755 titled 'A Catalogue of the Last year's Large and Valuable Production of the Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory' included eleven entries for dove tureens of this type, variously described as 'A beautiful tureen, in the shape of a double pigeon, in a fine basket work dish' and 'a very fine tureen in the shape of a double pigeon as big as life...'.2
F. Severne Mackenna illustrates a 'double-pigeon' tureen, see Chelsea Porcelain, The Red Anchor Wares, Leigh-on-Sea, 1952, pl. 35, fig. 72.3
A tureen of this form was offered at Christie's in New York on 21 October 2014, lot 82. Another example is in the Irwin Untermyer Collection at the Metropolitan Museum, New York (accession number 64.101.657).
1. See Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain, London, 1987, p. 68.
2. For a full reproduction of the 1755 sale see William King, Chelsea Porcelain, London, 1922.
3. This example was subsequently sold by Sotheby's London on 4 December 2013, lot 432.