A PAIR OF WORCESTER BLUE-SCALE-GROUND KIDNEY-SHAPED DISHES
Lot 294

A PAIR OF WORCESTER BLUE-SCALE-GROUND KIDNEY-SHAPED DISHES

CIRCA 1770

Closed16 December 2010

Price Realised

GBP 9,375

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A PAIR OF WORCESTER BLUE-SCALE-GROUND KIDNEY-SHAPED DISHES
CIRCA 1770
Of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu type, decorated in the atelier of James Giles, each piece painted with bouquets of flowers within gilt kidney-shaped cartouches, the borders with exotic birds in landscape within shaped cartouches issuing trellis-pattern and flowers, within gilt line rims, one with two minor footrim chips, slight wear to enamels and gilding
10¼ in. (26 cm.) wide (2)

Specialist note

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) was an Orientalist, writer of letters, poet and aristocrat. In 1712 she eloped with Edward Wortley Montagu, who became Ambassador to Istanbul in 1716. Having spent much of her colourful life in Italy and France, she returned to England in 1762.

The Worcester porcelain decorated by Giles with this pattern and long-associated with her name post-dates her death by a number of years. Stephen Hanscombe suggests in his 2005 exhibition catalogue that the association may have come from an earlier Giles-decorated service on Bow porcelain. The style of decoration was popular at contemporary factories such as Chelsea and Tournai.

(Stephen Hanscombe, Exhibition Catalogue, James Giles, China and Glass Painter (1718-80), London, Stockspring Antiques, no. 64. See also Aileen Dawson, The Art of Worcester Porcelain 1751-1788, masterpieces from the British Museum collection, London, 2007, pp. 230-1, no. 97.)