Chelsea-Derby plate, Giles type decoration, c.1770

rim chip restored

22.3cm D

These fascinating plates belong to a group associated with the workshop of James Giles. Coke illustrates two examples in his 'In Search of James Giles' book, p187- a Worcester example and a Chelsea-Derby example from a mixed service. These are curious in that they have exactly the same pattern- and repeating the pattern is not associated with Giles, where the elements of a design are usually mixed and refreshed for each piece. He also illustrates a Liverpool bowl, now known to be Seth Pennington of Liverpool, which he claims is by the same hand.However, close comparison of the two plates in our possession show them to be quite different in technique and method; they share the same motifs, such as a cut lemon, but paint it differently. (ref. Hillis -Liverpool- p379 & 394 for examples of this 'superior' decoration on Seth's porcelain, and discussion on why they are not considered to be Giles)Hanscombe in his James Giles 2005 catalogue illustrates a related Liverpool bowl, a related teapot, and a Chelsea-Derby dish from the same repeating service Coke showed (117-119). This chapter is titled SOME POSSIBLE GILES PIECES, for while the flamboyant style, the use of cut fruit, and the odd vegetable all suggest the Giles studio was responsible for these interesting pieces, the details suggest otherwise. As Hanscombe points out, repeating patterns are rare (as in the mixed Worcester & Chelsea-Derby service linked to these plates) , the double line dentil rim is not seen on other Giles pieces, and the butterflies are quite different to established Giles versions. The conclusion we can make is that while not definitely Giles, they are of the same type, so one of the other decorating studios in London in the latter 18th century is the likely candidate, perhaps an unknown artist who had spent time in the Giles studio, where he picked up the unmistakeable flamboyance of the master- but with his own idiosyncrasies. Unfortunately Giles is the only name we have substance to, the others are just ghosts.....ref. Bradley- Derby Porcelain- p151 for an identical plate in the Derby Museum with the same hand at work, with the same fruits and butterflies, although in a different layout. Another example is retained in the Rosenberg Collection, Geelong.