CIRCA 1765

The Mecklenburg-Strelitz Service was made to the order of George III and Queen Charlotte as a gift for the Queen's brother, Duke Adolphus Frederick IV of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. It remained at Strelitz until the early 1920s when it was bought by Sir Joseph Duveen for his own collection and remained in the USA until given by James Oakes, the Bond Street dealer, to Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother in 1948, on the occasion of their Majesties' Silver Wedding. There are, however, a number of pieces that have escaped, including a pair of candelabra branches that entered Lady Charlotte Schreiber's collection in 1867 and further items in the Campbell Collection, now in the Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, USA. See Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain, London, 1987, pp. 155-156 for a discussion of the service, related services and wares, and p. 156, fig. 126, for a dish of closely similar form to the present lot, formerly in the Katz Collection, now in the Museum of Fine Arts.