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Lot Essay
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.
The flamboyant combination of the richly-gilt boldly-moulded forms, sumptuous blue panels and elaborate bird and flower-painting have earned it both praise ('..the very triumph of rococo art..') and criticism; in a letter by Horace Walpole to Horace Mann, dated 4th March 1763, he comments on the service as follows: 'I saw yesterday a magnificent service of Chelsea china which the King and Queen are sending to the Duke of Mecklenburgh. There are dishes and plates without number, an epergne, candlesticks, salt-cellars, sauce-boats, tea and coffee equipages - in short it is complete - and costs twelve hundred pounds! I cannot boast of our taste; the forms are neither new, beautiful nor various. Yet Sprimont, the manufacturer, is a Frenchman; it seems their taste will not bear transplanting...'
Nevertheless, the service is the most significant of any produced at Chelsea, being the only one made to a Royal commission. 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 Oates, 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. Lady Charlotte Schreiber purchased a pair of candelabra branches in September 1867 from Lazarus, a dealer in Hamburg, for #1.10/-; see Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of the Schreiber Collection (London, 1915) Vol. I, p. 45, no. 254. See also some the examples from the Campbell Collection now in the Wintethur Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, USA; and the soup-plate from this service sold in these Rooms, 23rd May 1977, lot 184.
See Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain (London, 1987), pp. 155-156 for a discussion of the service, related services and wares, and ibid. 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, Boston. See also Rococo Art and Design in Hogarth's England, exhibition catalogue, Victoria and Albert Museum, 16th May - 20th September 1984, p. 259, no. 039, for pieces from the Royal Collection.
The flamboyant combination of the richly-gilt boldly-moulded forms, sumptuous blue panels and elaborate bird and flower-painting have earned it both praise ('..the very triumph of rococo art..') and criticism; in a letter by Horace Walpole to Horace Mann, dated 4th March 1763, he comments on the service as follows: 'I saw yesterday a magnificent service of Chelsea china which the King and Queen are sending to the Duke of Mecklenburgh. There are dishes and plates without number, an epergne, candlesticks, salt-cellars, sauce-boats, tea and coffee equipages - in short it is complete - and costs twelve hundred pounds! I cannot boast of our taste; the forms are neither new, beautiful nor various. Yet Sprimont, the manufacturer, is a Frenchman; it seems their taste will not bear transplanting...'
Nevertheless, the service is the most significant of any produced at Chelsea, being the only one made to a Royal commission. 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 Oates, 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. Lady Charlotte Schreiber purchased a pair of candelabra branches in September 1867 from Lazarus, a dealer in Hamburg, for #1.10/-; see Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of the Schreiber Collection (London, 1915) Vol. I, p. 45, no. 254. See also some the examples from the Campbell Collection now in the Wintethur Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, USA; and the soup-plate from this service sold in these Rooms, 23rd May 1977, lot 184.
See Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain (London, 1987), pp. 155-156 for a discussion of the service, related services and wares, and ibid. 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, Boston. See also Rococo Art and Design in Hogarth's England, exhibition catalogue, Victoria and Albert Museum, 16th May - 20th September 1984, p. 259, no. 039, for pieces from the Royal Collection.