A WORCESTER TEABOWL, COFFEE-CUP AND SAUCER

This type of bird painting is distinct from the 'Fancy Bird' decoration seen on Chelsea, Worcester and Giles-decorated porcelain which owes something to Vincennes/Sèvres and Tournai decoration. Whilst the painting on this trio is more ornithologically plausible, it is more naïve than earlier Meissen bird-painting copied from print sources. A related coffee-cup, teabowl and saucer is illustrated by Aileen Dawson, The Art of Worcester Porcelain 1751-1788, Masterpieces form the British Museum collection, London, 2007, pp. 214-5, no. 89. A similar bird painting on a yellow-ground teabowl and saucer is illustrated by Gerald Coke, In Search of James Giles 1718-1780, Kent, 1983, p. 131, pl. XVII.