a victorian parcel-gilt and polychrome-decorated papier mache tray

BY JENNENS & BETTRIDGE

Details

a victorian parcel-gilt and polychrome-decorated papier mache tray
By Jennens & Bettridge
The shaped top decorated with exotic birds, foliate scrolls and floral sprays with a gilt background, within a sloped moulded border, stamped JENNENS & BETTRIDGE MAKERS TO THE QUEEN beneath a crown to the reverse, minor restorations
36cm. wide x 46cm. deep

Lot Essay

Messrs. A. Jennens and T.H. Bettridge were the most celebrated of the Birmingham papier mâché manufacturers, who flourished between 1816 and 1864. This tray, of serpentine form known as 'gothic' or 'Chippendale Chinese' and decorated with iridescent gold on a bronze-powdered ground, is painted with exotic birds and flowers after the 'natural' fashion introduced in the 1830s by Edwin Haselar. A set of similar trays is illustrated in S.S. DeVoe, English Papier Mâché of the Georgian and Victorian Periods, Conneticut, 1971, p. 49, fig. 36.

See illustration

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