CIRCA 1765, GOLD CRESCENT MARK TO TUREEN

The present tureen and following plate (lot 68) are from one of the most elaborately decorated services produced at Worcester. Designed for William Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1743-1805), the service was sumptuously painted with fruit and scattered insects within molded borders enriched in turquoise and gilt. The service passed to the Dukes of Cambridge and, in 1904, Christie's sold over seventy pieces for the family along with a similarly decorated Chelsea service dating to circa 1762.

The Dyson Perrins Museum at Worcester holds two examples of this rare tureen form, as well as a stand. Another stand is also known in the Klesper Collection. See S. Spero, Worcester Porcelain, London, 1984, p. 68, no. 64.