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Lot Essay
The George II 'Venus' swan-headed and plinth-supported pot, embellished in French 'picturesque' fashion, has its handle clasped at the rim and base to bas-relief wreaths of fruit and flowers. These are tied to the nature-deity's shell badges by wave-scrolled reeds; while fruits-of-the-sea festoon its shell-tipped lid.
The pot commissioned, with other shell patterned tableware, by Robert Balch (d.1779), had its invoice recorded in June 1748 in the Gentleman's Ledger of the goldsmiths Messrs Wickes and Wakelin at a cost of £18.17s, which included £3 for the wooden handle (Ledger for 1747-1750 in the National Art Library, f.49). It bears the London hallmark for 1747-8, together with the mark adopted in that year by Edward Wakelin, when entering into partnership with George Wickes. In the same year the firm sold another pot of this pattern, but with its flower-festooned lid tipped by a bacchic pine-cone (see Sotheby's 18 March 1982).
The pot commissioned, with other shell patterned tableware, by Robert Balch (d.1779), had its invoice recorded in June 1748 in the Gentleman's Ledger of the goldsmiths Messrs Wickes and Wakelin at a cost of £18.17s, which included £3 for the wooden handle (Ledger for 1747-1750 in the National Art Library, f.49). It bears the London hallmark for 1747-8, together with the mark adopted in that year by Edward Wakelin, when entering into partnership with George Wickes. In the same year the firm sold another pot of this pattern, but with its flower-festooned lid tipped by a bacchic pine-cone (see Sotheby's 18 March 1982).