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Lot Essay
Cf. the examples from the Rous Lench Collection sold in these Rooms, 30 May 1990, lot 571.
The attribution of English porcelain hounds of this type occasionally given to Coalport may be further illuminated by Professor J.H. Whitfield of Edgbaston's undated pamphlet 'Comes Canitis, Canes Comitis' ('The Earl's Dogs are Earls Amongst Dogs'). This relates to the correspondence between Professor Whitfield and the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1956/7 concerning a pair of Chinese Export hounds that were at the Shrewsbury family home, Ingestre, in Staffordshire. The hounds, later sold by the Earl at Sotheby's on the 20th November 1956, lot 78, may well have been at Ingestre in the late 18th or early 19th Century and almost certainly provided the original models for the Rous Lench examples and the present lot, most probably made nearby at Coalport, or, perhaps Worcester. Professor Whitfield raises the point that the Shrewsbury family name is Talbot, and that the hounds may have been originally purchased to reflect the hunting hounds (talbots) which are the supporters of the family's coat-of-arms.
The attribution of English porcelain hounds of this type occasionally given to Coalport may be further illuminated by Professor J.H. Whitfield of Edgbaston's undated pamphlet 'Comes Canitis, Canes Comitis' ('The Earl's Dogs are Earls Amongst Dogs'). This relates to the correspondence between Professor Whitfield and the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1956/7 concerning a pair of Chinese Export hounds that were at the Shrewsbury family home, Ingestre, in Staffordshire. The hounds, later sold by the Earl at Sotheby's on the 20th November 1956, lot 78, may well have been at Ingestre in the late 18th or early 19th Century and almost certainly provided the original models for the Rous Lench examples and the present lot, most probably made nearby at Coalport, or, perhaps Worcester. Professor Whitfield raises the point that the Shrewsbury family name is Talbot, and that the hounds may have been originally purchased to reflect the hunting hounds (talbots) which are the supporters of the family's coat-of-arms.