Lot Essay
An entire tea and coffee service was made in circa 1750 for the family of Bales of Suffolk, who married a member of the Wilmot family from Derbyshire. It is the only recorded Chinese armorial service, for which a matching enamel tray was made. See Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, 1974, p. 342 for the tray, p. 130 for a porcelain teapot from this service, and p. 44, where the author explains that although the design on the teapot is a more simply painted version of the same scene, it is very likely that the enamelling of both the porcelain service and the enamel tray was carried out in the same workshop in Canton.