Late 18th Century First Period Worcester Porcelain Soup Tureen, Cover and Stand, Pine Cone Pattern, Blue and White

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Description

First Period Worcester Porcelain Soup Tureen, Cover and Stand, Pine Cone Pattern, Blue and White
Dr. Wall Period, Circa 1770

… Read more First Period Worcester Porcelain Soup Tureen, Cover and Stand, Pine Cone Pattern, Blue and White
Dr. Wall Period, Circa 1770

The oval soup tureen, cover and stand are transfer-printed in underglaze blue with the Pine Cone pattern, the best known and most prolific of the printed patterns produced at Worcester in the 1770s. The deep oval tureen has a gadrooned rim and rises from a low oval foot, and is fitted at either end with a rustic branch loop handle, each applied with a spray of oak leaves and acorns modeled in relief. Both sides are printed with the principal group of the pattern, two pine cones set among a large open peony-type flower, a smaller blossom and broad leaves, with lighter sprays of flowers and berried foliage to either side, and the interior is printed in the well with a spray of auriculas.

The domed cover is printed en suite with scattered floral sprays and, at the center, a small moth printed from a separate plate, and is surmounted by a looped twig finial applied with leaves and acorns matching the handles, the finial and its applied ornament picked out in underglaze blue. The oval stand has a gadrooned rim edged with a blue line and molded shell handles washed in blue at either end, and is printed with the central Pine Cone group surrounded by six smaller floral sprays. The pattern is a European floral composition rather than a chinoiserie, and the crisp, dense engraving is characteristic of the best of the factory’s underglaze printing.

Set on a sideboard or at the center of a dining table, the tureen and stand make a substantial blue-and-white statement, and they sit as comfortably among a collection of later blue-and-white ceramics as in a pared-back contemporary dining room, where the crisp printing reads clearly against a plain ground.

Dimensions
Overall height, tureen and cover on stand: 11½ inches (29.2 cm)
Overall width: 17 inches (43.2 cm)
Overall depth: 15¼ inches (38.7 cm)

Marks
The stand bears the shaded crescent mark printed in underglaze blue, the mark characteristically used on Worcester’s transfer-printed wares of this period. The tureen is unmarked, as is usual for the hollow wares of these services.

Provenance
Jean and Joseph Connolly Collection, Montréal.
Private Maine collection.
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge.

Condition
Good.

References
Lawrence Branyan, Neal French and John Sandon, Worcester Blue and White Porcelain 1751–1790, p. 382, ref. II.C.11, for the Pine Cone pattern.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Margaretten collection, Worcester oval tureen printed with the Pine Cone pattern, 2021.81.91, for the pattern on a tureen of this period.
The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, Worcester quatrefoil soup tureen, cover and stand, circa 1770–1775, Hofheimer collection loan L2005.10.219, for the same tureen form with gadrooned rims and bifurcated branch handles terminating in acorns and oak leaves, there painted in enamel colors.

Historical Context
The Worcester factory was founded in 1751 by a partnership that included Dr. John Wall, and the years to 1783 are known as the First or Dr. Wall period. Transfer printing in underglaze blue, in which an engraved copper plate is inked, its impression taken on paper and transferred to the biscuit porcelain before glazing, was in use at Worcester from the late 1750s and allowed finely detailed designs to be produced in quantity for the factory’s large blue-and-white dinner and dessert services. The Pine Cone pattern, introduced about 1770, became the most successful of these printed designs and was used across the whole range of table wares; so popular was it that versions were subsequently produced at Caughley and Lowestoft. The tureen form, with its gadrooned rims and naturalistic branch handles applied with oak leaves and acorns, was used at Worcester for both blue-and-white and enameled services of the early 1770s.

(Ref: VM98771) See less