CIRCA 1808-10

The Angerstein Coalport silhouette service is remarkable for its exquisite decoration, completeness and almost unbroken provenance. By family tradition, it was made for John Julius Angerstein (a great patron of the Arts) and decorated, probably in London, from silhouette designs thought to have been executed by the collector’s daughter-in-law, Amelia Angerstein or her mother’s friend, Lady Templetown. There are forty-five distinct silhouette vignettes, each depicting a charming domestic scene in the life of the young family. The service passed down through the line of John and Amelia’s daughter, Julia, until 1965, when it was repurchased by another branch of the family, and it has remained in their ownership until the present time. When offered at Sotheby's London in October 1965, the service caused quite a sensation, and spirited bidding brought the service to a record price for an English dinner-service.

The majority of the original service is presented in this lot. Two plates were sold in the Wormington Manor sale, Sotheby’s on 21-22 July 2003, lot 134. Two examples of single plates are known in the Art Institute Chicago (1966.381 and 1966.380) and another is in the collection of A.F. Twist in England.¹ These individual examples appear to have been separated from the main service after the group was sold by Sotheby’s in 1965.

It was likely to have been John Julius Angerstein who commissioned the production of this service for his villa in Blackheath, known as ‘Woodlands’. Angerstein, an avid collector, was born was born in Russia to a German family. He came to England in 1749 and swiftly progressed to underwriter and then chairman of the maritime insurance company, Lloyds. He used his self-made wealth to amass an extraordinary art collection, including works by Titian, Claude and Rubens, which was eventually to form the nucleus of the National Gallery, along with the collections of Sir Thomas Lawrence and Benjamin West.

Angerstein’s patronage of the arts was extensive and whilst he focused on Old Master works for display in his Pall Mall house, the Blackheath villa housed works by many contemporary British artists and included representations of the Angerstein family and their friends.² As an English service representing the family, the Coalport service would have fitted perfectly in this setting.³ Hospitality was central to life at ‘Woodlands’ and visitors ranged from artists such as Thomas Lawrence, to Royalty, including Caroline, Princess of Wales. A contemporary account describes the courses served on one occasion: ‘Two kinds of soups, mackerel and turbot, sirloin of beef, roast ducks, and roast pullets, macaroni, tartlets, several kinds of cheese and caviar with toast… Ices and desserts would be served, including pineapples’.⁴

The silhouette designs adorning this service were very much in vogue, seemingly just for a short period between the years 1808 and 1810. Other similarly decorated pieces by the Coalport factory include a group of wares with silhouettes of George III, commissioned to commemorate the 1809 jubilee⁵ and a service with classical silhouettes, made for the Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776-1834), produced circa 1808.⁶ The making of silhouettes was a fashionable occupation for young ladies in the early 19th century and the attribution of the designs to Amelia Angerstein seems likely. It is possible she may have learnt the skill from her mother’s friend, Lady Templetown, an accomplished silhouette maker, or that Lady Templetown herself created the designs for the service. The designs are also linked to some sketches which were sold in Property from the Collection of the late Cyril and Shirley Fry, Sotheby’s London on 8th July 2021, lot 174. This group illustrates similar domestic scenes with Amelia and her children, John Julius William Angerstein, Caroline Amelia Angerstein, Henry Frederick Angerstein, Elizabeth Julia Angerstein and Amelia’s nephew, Willy Locke. The infant in arms illustrated on our service may either have been George Angerstein, who died in 1808, or Frederick Angerstein (born 1809), and hence the dating of the service.⁷

The Angerstein service was a very personal commission and design, whilst also representing the height of Regency fashion. Its appeal has stood the test of time and a limited group of designs from the service has been more recently reproduced on porcelain wares made by Mottahedeh Vista Alegre for the Art Institute Chicago and these have been admired and used anew by recent generations. The extensive service presented here embodies both personal and national history, as well as an enduring style and charm.

1. This plate may have been the same as the example in the collection of Sue McKechnie, see Sue McKechnie, British Silhouette Artists and Their Work, 1760-1860, London, 1978, p. 56, pl. 79.
2. See Susanna Avery-Quash, ‘Erratum: ‘The lover of the fine arts is well amused with the choice pictures that adorn the house’, Journal of the History of Collections, December 2017, for a discussion of these collections.
3. See John Julius Angerstein and Woodlands, 1774-1974: a bicentenary exhibition celebrating the building of Woodlands by John Julius Angerstein, Exhibition Catalogue, 13 September to 5 November 1974, London, 1975, pp. 5-6 for a description of such an occasion, when The Princess of Wales was entertained for dinner, and the family children were introduced.
4. See Cyril Fry and John Bunston, John Julius Angerstein and Woodlands, 1774-1974: a bicentenary exhibition celebrating the building of Woodlands by John Julius Angerstein, Exhibition Catalogue, 13 September to 5 November 1974, p. 5.
5. See Geoffrey Godden, Coalport & Coalbrookdale Porcelains, London, 1970, p. 44, for a discussion of these works and their attribution to John Rose’s Coalport factory.
6. See the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 39802) for a group of three oval fruit-dishes from this service.
7. See A.F. Twist, Widening circles in finance, philanthropy and the arts. A study of the life of John Julius Angerstein 1735-1823, Lewiston, 2002, p. 158 for further discussion on this subject.