porcelain – Page 2 – Moorabool Antique Galleries

Posted on 07/01/2016 by Paul Rosenberg — Leave a comment

The Sulkowski Charger -purchased by the NGV

We have found a number of outstanding items over the years, and many of these have left Australia for distant shores. It’s with great pleasure that we can announce the acquisition of our latest ‘Great Find’, the Sulkowski Charger, by our very local National Gallery of Victoria.

Sulkowski Meissen Charger c. 1735-8 — Sulkowski Service – Meissen Charger c. 1735-8

This is a large piece of porcelain, measuring 34.5cm across. It isn’t the largest from the service – there appears to be two sizes larger again – but it is an impressive piece, perfectly displaying the large & showy armorial device. It is this coat of arms that makes this so important; experts regard it as the earliest large-scale commission from the Meissen factory made for someone other than the owner of the works, Augustus II ‘The Strong’.

These arms are depicting a marriage, with the two shields beneath the crown representing each family. On the left is Count von Sulkowski (1695-1762), the high ranking court official. On the right are the arms of Baroness Maria Franziska von Stein zu Jettingen (1712-41) who he married in 1728 and had 7 children with. The production of a service such as this 8 years later is almost like a delayed wedding gift for himself; usually they are contemporary with the wedding, but remember the context: Meissen, the first producer of porcelain in Europe, was still in its infancy in the 1720’s, and we could argue that a service of such elaborate sophistication would not have been possible as the capabilities of the Meissen works were not yet experienced enough.

Alexander Joseph Graf von Sulkowski was Privy Councillor, Minister of State, and a Cabinet Minister to the King, Frederick Augustus. He was deeply involved in the Meissen factory, taking responsibility for the deliveries of porcelain to furnish the newly built ‘Porcelain Palace’ in Dresden, and also being responsible for the King’s treasure vaults in Dresden, known as the ‘Green Vaults’.

Augustus The Strong — Augustus II ‘The Strong’

His origins & ascent to power is a tale in itself. Born to Polish gentry, rumour has it his mother fell under the spell of Augustus II ‘The Strong’, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland ( and creator of the Meissen porcelain factory!). Augustus II was known as ‘The Strong’ for his musculature, reinforced by his favourite party trick of apparently ripping iron horseshoes in half with his bare hands….. But there is another aspect to his nickname, the results of which were a debatable 354 illegitimate children!

Rumour has it that Alexander was one such child, and certainly Augustus II cared for the youth who came to the Royal Court at Warsaw in 1711 as a page. He entered the service of the crown prince, Frederick Augustus, who was one year younger, and they grew up together. He received his first title in 1712, ‘Master of the Horse’, and for the next seven years he & the Crown Prince went travelling through Italy, France, and the other German states. A couple of teenagers seeing the sights of Europe together, who can imagine what adventures they had…. certainly it would have been a bonding experience, and so Augustus was well established to rise in status in the court. He became a ‘Gentleman of the Bedchamber’ in 1726, married a court Lady-in-waiting in 1728, and became a Count in 1732. On 1st February 1733, Augustus II ‘The Strong’ died, and his heir Frederick Augustus ascended the throne. Straight away, Alexander was made Privy Councillor, Minister of State, Cabinet Minister and an Imperial Count. He also became a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. He was a Pole, and the only Pole to achieve such a lofty position in the court at that time. Like a Shakespearian play, the scene was set for his fall.

What is fascinating is that this very service has been blamed for his descent; it was so much showier & desirable than the King’s own services, and more importantly, he had not asked permission from the King – the owner of the works – before putting in his order. Certainly, he lost favour at the exact same time the pieces began to be delivered, and so Sulkowski lost his many positions of privilege & responsibility to another of Frederick Augustus’s ministers, Heinrich Graf von Brühl. Brühl takes on most of Sulkowski’s titles, including Director of the Meissen works, and straight away commissions his own grand, Baroque service – the delightful & iconic ‘Swan Service’.

The National Gallery already has a magnificent charger from Brühl’s service, and these two marvelous Meissen chargers will soon be housed together in the same cabinet – graphic depictions of a government power struggle 290 years ago that centered on Meissen, Europe’s first porcelain maker.

To be continued in Part 2…… once the charger is in place in the NGV!

Posted on 15/09/201528/09/2023 by Paul Rosenberg — Leave a comment

A First-Fleet connected Worcester Porcelain Discovery

For Australians, the First Fleet is the beginning of western culture and the foundation of our present society. Items connected with this remarkable period in Australia’s history are understandably scarce. Moorabool is very excited to have a fresh discovery with direct connections to Australia’s founding.

One of the most fascinating tales that can be told about Australia is that of the founding of the British colony in 1788. Items connected to this event are extremely scarce. From a ceramic historian’s perspective, there is the remarkable Sydney Cove medallion, made by Josiah Wedgwood from clay sent back from Australia by Governor Phillip in November 1788. Phillip wrote back in July 1790, noting ‘ I return thanks for the Cup & Medallions ‘ – indicating he had already received back what could be classed as the first Australian Pottery to be made…. although the kiln & sculptors were in England!

Sydney Cove medallion — A ‘Sydney Cove’ medallion, 1789, in the National Museum of Australia

A recent discovery from the same period shares close ties with the first years of British settlement. It’s a coffee cup & saucer, well known as a distinct product of the Chamberlains Worcester factory from the mid 1790’s. It is painted in a fresh looking pattern with ears of barley bound by a gilt bow, and with an interesting central crest featuring a seahorse.

Chamberlains Worcester coffee cup & saucer, c.1795 bearing the SHORTLAND crest for Commander John Shortland of the Alexander, one of the First Fleet ships.

This is the important part; the crest will be familiar to anyone with a knowledge of the Newcastle University, as it shares a common origin, the armorial of the Shortland family. It was chosen as the symbol for the Newcastle University in the 1950’s due to an important connection: the site of Newcastle had been explored by a certain John Shortland in 1797, while in pursuit of runaway convicts from the fledgling colony of Sydney.

This revelation led to some fascinating research. The first thing to note is there is more than one ‘John Shortland’ to investigate, and they have been hopelessly confused with each other in the past due to their similar stories. The Newcastle University’s adoption of the Shortland crest because of its association with the John who explored the area is one such mistake: the actual bearer of the crest was back in England at that time!

Fairbairn's Crests — from ‘Fairbairn’s Crests’ – Shortland is upper right

John Shortland (senior), right, was born in 1739, and died in 1803. He served in the Royal Navy 1755-90, and having proved himself a capable logistics man, in 1786 was appointed naval agent to the transports of the planned First Fleet. He was in fact the ‘man on the scene’ at Portsmouth, responsible for preparing and distributing the stores and convicts aboard the 11 vessels that made up the enterprise: Governor Phillip only arrived two days before departure! John Shortland Snr was a senior officer on board the Alexander, a convict ship with 210 men on board.

As a part of this preparation for the adventure of a lifetime, he was able to secure appointments for his two sons, John and Thomas George Shortland.

His son, John Shortland (Junior), left, was born in 1769 and also entered the Royal Navy, ending his life in a blaze of glory fighting off four French gunships in the West Indies in 1810. The post his father secured for him was that of Master’s Mate on the HMS Sirius, which was captained by John Hunter and carried Governor Phillip.

The departing fleet in 1787 therefore included both John Shortlands. After calling in at Tenerife and Rio de Janeiro, the fleet stocked up on provisions in Cape Town, departing for the last, long leg through the inhospitable cold Southern Ocean. This was an immensely brave undertaking. A modern equivalent would be sending a colony to Mars through the vast coldness of space, into an inhospitable and little understood landscape, carrying everything that would be needed for survival for the next few years – and discovering the land was already populated by a well-established culture that would very soon prove hostile. What a remarkable adventure the Shortland’s had….

The colony of Sydney began to take shape, and a pre-planned re-supply from England was expected any moment: however, it never came. The colony was critically short of food: some of the convict transports had been contracted out by the East India Company to collect tea in China bound for England, and had already left. On 14 July 1788, the Alexander under the command of Lieutenant John Shortland Snr, and three other ships left Sydney to make their way back to England and ensure supplies were sent back to the struggling colony. Things were so bad there was little food spare for the crew on the voyage. Two days out they parted ways, with two ships heading across the South Pacific to Rio de Janeiro, and the Alexander and the Friendship deciding to head to the north and reach the Dutch colony of Batavia. The other two ships limped into Rio several months later, having lost many crew and with those remaining so ill they couldn’t anchor their own ships.

The Alexander and the Friendship made their way up the eastern Australian coastline, around the east of New Guinea, and across present day Indonesia to Batavia. This was an epic journey through unexplored waters, which Shortland was able to document in great detail in his chart, published soon after his return to England in 1789. The work is a detailed map, suitable for use by any ships that might follow that route afterwards, and the acknowledging inscription bears the name of both the father, Lieutenant John Shortland, and the compiler of the map, Thomas George Shortland. Once again, the father had obtained a position for his son on board his ship, this time his second son as second mate.

Their adventures were intense, as wracked by scurvy and illness they made their way through uncharted waters. Things came to a head when the Friendship ran aground: there simply were not enough men to maintain both ships, and so the decision was made to abandon the Friendship and consolidate the crew on the Alexander. Things got even worse, and by the time they reached the coast of Borneo, only a single crew member was fit for duty aloft other than the officers. It was at this moment they found themselves the prey of pirates, who suddenly appeared in four large row-boats and attempted to intercept the ship. A shot fired from a cannon persuaded them to give up the chase. A few days later, they found themselves just a short distance from Batavia- but with only a single man fit for work, the decision was made to drop anchor, although the crew was unable to furl their own sails. A boat with a few barely capable men set out, and were able to bring the much needed assistance of able bodied men back, and finally the Alexander limped into Batavia on 19 November 1788. By late May 1789, she was back in England, and John Shortland Snr was able to deliver the official dispatches Governor Phillip had entrusted to him, revealing the sad state of the colony. He spent his remaining time in the Royal Navy agitating within the Admiralty to ensure the colony was provided for, before retiring in 1790. He was also very interested in further exploration in Australian waters, and we can credit him for urging the Admiralty to dispatch Mathew Flinders in HMS Investigator which resulted in the first circumnavigation of Australia.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney, John Shortland Jnr also had an exciting time. He was involved with the supply runs to Norfolk Island in the effort to keep the colony fed. In 1792, he returned to England, returning the following year to Sydney. Three years later, he was sent in pursuit of the audacious convicts who had stolen the Cumberland, a locally built ship described as ‘the largest and best in the colony’. John Shortland Jnr was sent in pursuit, setting out in two whaleboats. One turned back, but Shortland spent several days exploring the area around Port Stevens, returning with a rough map of the area Newcastle now stands on, and bringing a sample of coal. In a letter to his father back in England he described the Hunter (or ‘Coal’) River he had found, and stated “In a little while this river will be a great acquisition to the settlement”.

He was a member of the criminal court in Sydney, but returned to England in 1800 just in time to be a part of the Napoleonic Wars, heading to Egypt in 1800 as agent of the English troops. After various other postings, he found himself fighting the French in the West Indies, and finally in December 1809 went ‘out with a bang’ fighting as Captain of the 38-gun HMS Junon, taking on overwhelming odds of two 48-gun and two 20-gun French ships. He died of his wounds in January 1810, less than 7 years after his father, and probably before he had a chance to inherit and enjoy the family china……

It is very rarely we get to discover a piece of ceramic as infused with history as this cup & saucer.

Pieces such as this with family crests were commissioned from the factory, and used in polite society while entertaining. When coming to a conclusion about who owned this set, the most likely candidate is John Shortland Snr.

The earliest date possible for Chamberlains Worcester porcelain of this type would be 1793, more probably 1795-1800. As John Snr had returned to England in 1790 and retired to be with his wife Elizabeth, he would have been at the right place, at the right time – with the right motive, to entertain his visitors with tales from his colourful adventures in New South Wales, all over a freshly brewed coffee…..

His son John Jnr however would have been heading back to the Colony in 1794, where he remained for several years. He had a spell in Egypt, then found himself in the West Indies fighting the French, where he met his heroic death in 1810. He never married, and ordering a fine china service was probably not on his agenda in the short spells that he was back in England.

We conclude that this fascinating piece of ceramic history belonged to John Shortland Snr, perhaps a well-deserved retirement present for himself and his wife. It is a wonderful link to the earliest history of our country, a prime piece to apply the maxim of ‘if only it could talk’…… Just imagine the tales it could have heard, of shipwreck, pirate attacks, strange new lands, the tropical paradises, and of the colony at Sydney Cove which John Shortland Snr could quite proudly say he was essential in creating.

The Shortland Cup & Saucer sold at the 2015 AAADA Antiques Fair, Sydney.

Posted on 15/05/201528/09/2023 by Paul Rosenberg — Leave a comment

An Important Swansea plate with Welsh subject, newly discovered….

An Important fresh discovery:

Swansea Porcelain plate painted by Thomas Baxter with a Welsh subject, circa 1818

'The Bard', after de Loutherbourg 's lost work, depicted as an engraving in Gray's ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’ - painted by Thomas Baxter on Swansea Porcelain! — ‘The Bard’, after de Loutherbourg ‘s lost work, depicted as an engraving in Gray’s ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’ – painted by Thomas Baxter on Swansea Porcelain!

Produced for just a few short years in the early 19th century, Welsh porcelain is a rarity in the collecting world, and Welsh porcelain with Welsh subjects is almost unheard of. Add to this the name of the artist Thomas Baxter, considered to be the best of his time, and the result is simply stunning.

This is ‘The Bard’, a dramatic Swansea porcelain plate painted by Baxter, with a fascinating tale to tell.

Baxter is well known for his beautiful shell still-life pieces of shells or flowers. In such pieces he uses a similar format and technique as what we see in the Bard plate; a gloomy back-ground, slightly textured by stippling the paints on in a graduated palette, and the raking light that here highlights the face and front hand, is also seen in his shell-works. Baxter excelled in fine details, and the amount of realistic detail is certainly evident in the Bard plate, in particular the tendons and skin on his hand, and the hair that is buffeted by the stiff Welsh wind.

The subject is an ancient Druid playing a harp. In the complete source painting, his dramatic stance makes sense, as he is busy taunting the enemy (English) soldiers on the other side of a ravine.

The literary source is most likely a poem, ‘The Bard’, by the English poet Thomas Gray (1716-71). Gray penned the poem, and published it with the help of his good friend Horace Walpole in 1757.

The engraving in ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’, by Edward Jones. 1784

The source of this illustration seems to be an engraving from ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’, by Edward Jones. This was published in 1784, with subsequent editions in 1802 & 1808, a convenient date that links with the creation date of this Swansea plate. This engraving was based on a painting depicting Gray’s poem, an oil by the Franco-English artist Philip James de Loutherbourg.

A fascinating artist, he was a child protege artist in the late 1760’s, and came to London in 1771, employed by Garrick to paint the backdrops of theatre sets. His style is very dramatic, with sharp contrasts and dramatic skies. It is easy to see why Baxter was drawn to paint his scene, as it suits his own sense of drama.

De Loutherbourg’s lost ‘The Bard’, a copy in the Museum of Wales — De Loutherbourg’s lost ‘The Bard’ oil, a copy in the Museum of Wales

De Loutherbourg’s ‘The Bard’ is known from an 1840 copy hanging in the Museum of Wales, the original’s whereabouts is unknown. The British Museum notes that there was a drawing of this subject by de Loutherbourg in the possession of Horace Walpole, now in a private collection. Walpole was the patron who published ‘The Bard’ in 1757. This would presumably be the preliminary sketch for the now-lost oil. Perhaps Walpole also owned this oil ?

Did Baxter work from the above mentioned print, or did he in fact have access to the original now-lost oil? As a London based artist, de Loutherbourg’s works were also exhibited there, and so there is a high probability that Baxter would have seen the c.1775 original. Further supporting this is the amazing detail Baxter put into the hand, something that would not have been apparent in an engraving, but obvious in the original oil painting.

Baxter has adapted the composition to fit the plate, effectively shifting the view point lower and thus balancing the composition – but there’s no doubt the original painting, or the frontispiece of the book was the source for the plate.

An identical depiction of ‘The Bard’ can be found on a Chamberlains Worcester cup & saucer (right), painted by Baxter and titled underneath ‘Gray’s Bard’.

'Gray's Bard' by Baxter on FBB porcelain — ‘Gray’s Bard’ by Baxter on FBB porcelain

‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’ is considered to be one of the first flowerings of the Welsh nationalistic spirit, being a compilation of music and poetry about the Druids and their Kin. When we consider the Swansea origins of the plate, and the possibility that this was painted while Baxter was resident at the short-lived Swansea works (employed 1816-19) , it doesn’t take much imagination to conceive a local patriotic gentleman with Welsh interests having a copy accessible……. possibly Dyllwin the proprietor of the Swansea works himself?

–View this plate on the moorabool.com website–

This previously unrecorded plate is a fresh discovery, having been catalogued previously as ‘Paris Porcelain’. It has been purchased by the Geelong Art Gallery, with funding from the McAllister Bequest. The Gallery has collected numerous examples of fine quality early 19th century painting on porcelain, and the plate is in good company alongside several impressive examples of Baxter’s work.

Posted on 14/03/201528/09/2023 by Paul Rosenberg — Leave a comment

From the Dawn of porcelain production in Europe….

‘China’ was for centuries an expensive, exotic import from the far East. There were many attempts at producing it in Europe, but it wasn’t until 1709 that the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger apparently ‘discovered’ the secret, and in 1709 he was responsible for the founding of the Meissen porcelain factory, under the direction – and funded by – Augustus II ‘The Strong’. This was the first porcelain factory to make commercial amounts of porcelain in Europe, according to the authentic Chinese definition of ‘porcelain’ – and remarkably, it is still a functioning concern, being a state run business in Dresden in the modern age.

Albrechtsburg, Meissen — The Albrechtsburg, location of original Meissen factory.

The secret to making porcelain was kept for the next two decades, helped by the location of the factory, in the Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen, which is located on top of a hill with a single gatehouse for access. Workmen’s comings & goings were strictly controlled, and none knew the entire process to the mystery of porcelain production. However, the value of the product meant there were many other attempts in Europe to emulate Meissen’s success, and industrial espionage resulted in workmen being lured away from the works. This was instigated by a private businessman in Vienna, a Dutchman named Du Paquier, and he gives his name to the second porcelain works to be founded in Europe. He made his first limited examples in 1719, and for the next 25 years was the only real rival to Meissen for porcelain in Europe.

Böttger porcelain cup, Meissen, circa 1715 — The Dawn of European Porcelain: Meissen & Du Paquier

Moorabool is excited to be able to offer an example of porcelain from the infancy of each of these factories, the 1st and the 2nd to exist in Europe. On the left is a Meissen cup, of the early porcelain body known as ‘Böttger Porcelain’, dating to c. 1715. On the right is a Du Paquier cage cup/stand, circa 1725.

Both of these amazing rarities will be a part of our 2015 Catalogue, opening in Geelong & online on March 28th.
They will be the subject of their own page here in the near future, with more photos & in-depth history.

Posted on 13/03/201523/11/2023 by Paul Rosenberg — Leave a comment

A Yellow Sévres new discovery, 1788

A colourful Sévres coffee can & saucer has a fascinating tale to tell, and is an as-yet unpublished clue that helps to identify a under-appreciated Sévres artist.

The cup & saucer – a ‘gobelet litron’, third size – is a stunning yellow colour, with a finely painted blue continuous landscape in blue that seems to float on the thick yellow ground. There is a border of dainty colourful scrolling foliage, and in the centre of the saucer, a pinwheel device almost like a

target. It’s fully marked to both pieces, and being unusual – and knowing the way Sévres was so often copied and outside-decorated – a full examination was required to ensure it was authentic. This brought to light some problems, and shows once again the ever-changing field of ceramics research: never believe absolutely what you read in print!

A quick look in the authoritative book on the subject, ‘SÉVRES PORCELAIN’ by Eriksen 1987 (p153 #46) apparently attributes the mark ‘ f B ‘ to a certain Francois-Marie Barrat, active 1769-91, a date that conforms nicely with the date 1788. However, the next entry is more accurate for the mark: #47, a ‘f B’ combination. Eriksen attributes this to Francois-Marie Barrat as an alternate mark, but states ‘….the compilers have never seen mark 47 which may be an incorrect rendering of Barrat’s usual mark.’

I can now demonstrate that this is wrong; there is another artist with a surname starting with B, Bouillat, who came to Sevres in 1758, and remained active there until 1810, a remarkable example of the dedication workmen felt to the factory. His mark was a capital Y, so he is not the artist in question; rather, his marriage in 1768 to a female artist at the factory, Genevieve-Louis Thevenet – (herself the daughter of a Factory artist Louis-Jean Thevenet!) resulted in a son and a daughter, who both became painters at Sévres. The son, or fil in French, began work at the factory in 1786, and left to join the army in 1793. During that time this mark appears on a series of pieces, including this cup & saucer. The lower-case f is obviously a stand-in for fil , and the B for Bouillat. The mark ‘fB’ should now be identified as Francois Bouillat, painter of flowers and landscapes.

On this basis, his work can be found on a service in the Queens Collection, and also a cup & saucer in the Hermitage, Russia. This example is particularly interesting as it has the same fluted colourful pinwheel device to the centre as our cup & saucer. It also bears small panels of the same vivid yellow, overpainted with brown scrolling foliage & urns, and is dated 1789.

There is a second painters mark, set in next to the footrim, consisting of ‘…’ . This mark is that of Jean-Baptiste Tandart, a prolific painter from 1754-1803. He is recorded as a ‘painter of flowers’ , which along with the secondary position of the mark indicates he was responsible for the garlands of flowers in the border.

The landscape decoration is known as ‘paysage circulaire’ (circular landscape) and in this form is extremely rare on Sévres, with the scene in blue painted directly on a brilliant yellow ground. This was technically a feat in itself, and perhaps was not used much due to the issues we see on this cup & saucer: the blue tends to bead into clumps, and the thick yellow enamels shift in the heat of the enamel firings. While the yellow pigment had been a very early Sévres development, the tone seen here appears in the early 1780’s and is not repeated after the Revolution. There are a handful of specimens scattered around the globe in various collections, making this a most rare & desirable item.

Moorabool is pleased to offer this rarity as a part of our 2015 Exhibition & Catalogue, opening in Geelong & online on March 28th.

Posted on 01/03/201528/09/2023 by Paul Rosenberg

It’s a funny thing….

Humour is a funny thing. We always groaned at our parents jokes; they were so old-fashioned & not funny. Now my kids do the same to mine – today, humour is rapidly moving on, along the evolutionary path to the greatest possible laugh. I just don’t get a lot of it. lol.

Looking back, the old humour of previous centuries is just as odd. Moorabool has a fantastic selection of ‘ceramic laughs’ to share in our upcoming exhibition. Most are Staffordshire figures, or the German porcelain ‘fairings’ – cheaper clumsier models, the humour often risqué and bad-taste. This ‘cheap’ appearance would suggest that the people laughing were the poorer folk. However, this is clearly not the case, as we have some very rare porcelain versions of the same subject as the Staffordshire pottery models, and they are sophisticated and would have been expensive.

Early Minton Figures c.1825 Cobblers Wife & Friar — Early Minton Figures c.1825 in front of the original 1820’s Minton shapes book, as reproduced in Godden’s ‘Minton’

The Cobbler & his Wife,

otherwise known as Jobson and Nell, comes from a Georgian popular poem. It was immensely popular, re-printed many times throughout the second half of the 18th century and well into the 19th. The story is simple; the village cobbler, Jobson, was a bit of a drinker, and went on the occasional binge. When this happened, no shoes got mended. When the village parson desperately needed his shoes done for Sunday, Jobson ‘left him in the lurch’, stating that the Parson could do them himself – because he was well used to ‘cobbling soles’ …. and that’s the humorous bit: the play on words between soul and sole. A cobbler and a Parson being practically the same in their careers.

Early Minton Figure c.1825 Cobblers Wife

Of course, the poem goes on another dozen verses, with his wife Nell seeking to blackmail him into behaving by giving him no supper; Jobson resolves this by pinching the Parson’s roast beef dinner for himself! The Parson runs around until he finds his roast beef in Jobson’s house,

“When he found his roat Beef / It gave him relief / To think he his meal should not lose / Down together they sat / And eat both lean and fat / And forgave Jobson keeping the Shoes. “

Quite slapstick, and not producing many belly laughs today, the poem would have perfectly suited a pantomime – for which purpose it was adapted. There were numerous variations of the pottery figures produced in Staffordshire, and surprisingly they were also one of the earliest figures in the Minton Factory shape book of the 1820’s. While the Staffordshire examples are often crudely potted and would not have sold for much, the pottery examples we have are as good as they get. Dating to circa 1800, they are well modelled and well coloured, and have the unusual feature of the names of each character impressed into the front of their plinth.

Early Staffordshire figures - Old Age , Jobson & Nell, c. 1820 — Early Staffordshire figures – Old Age , Jobson & Nell, c. 1820

The Minton example is in the factory’s bone china body, a beautiful creamy white. The colours are well done, and there is the added expense of gold, which would have instantly vastly inflated the price. The form is also interesting; it follows a metal ‘chimney piece’ shape, where small metal ornaments cast as a flat panel were placed on the narrow shelf of a mantel piece. There are only a handful in the Minton shape book, and they are rare at other factories also; obviously they were a breakable product, not a suitable substitute for the usual cast brass ornaments.

Early Minton Figure c.1825 Drink, or The Friar

The second Minton porcelain chimney piece that Moorabool has is ‘The Friar’. (They came together, and bear the Australian Antique import seal of the 1920’s-30’s …. nice to think they have always been together since they were purchased new almost 200 years ago) This curios piece is yet another enigmatic piece of early humour. Along the plinth runs the verse “PRO OMNIBUS BIBO”, which translates as “I drink for the benefit of all“. Funny? almost, in the context of a friar being there to serve the community. There is much more to this story, though, in the form of a tale that comes from the popular folk tales of the ‘wandering Jew’. In this tale, ‘Pro omnibus bibo’ was the ‘song sung in solo’ by one of the monks at a great monastery the wandering Jew visited in France. All the brethren had been confined to their beds by sickness, leaving the single friar to go through the devotions all by himself….. including consuming the entire allocation of ale usually divided amongst his comrades! This image of a stout friar swigging directly from the barrel must have really amused people at the time. The image we have traced to a frontispiece on a song sheet published in 1830, the words by E. Whatmore, the music composed by Edward Schultz.

Imagine… pre-TV, pre- internet, the family gathering around the piano to sing a jolly funny song about a friar that liked to drink a lot. What fun we miss out on these days! lol/ (;

These & more exciting pieces will be a part of our 2015 Exhibition & Sale of Recent Acquisitions, to be held in Geelong, opening March 28th at 11.

Posted on 16/02/201528/09/2023 by Paul Rosenberg

A Valentines Curio from the South Seas….

The ‘back-story’ behind some pieces can lead you in all sorts of unexpected directions. This was the case with a lovely little Worcester milk jug, known as a ‘sparrow beak’ due to its triangular spout.

A Worcester sparrow beak jug, Valentine pattern, circa 1760

Painted in colours with a rather niave pattern, it is known as the ‘Valentine’ pattern due to the obvious depiction of kissing doves on cupids bow, and the two hearts on the altar of love. Looking deeper, we find a tale that leads to one of the remarkable stories of exploration in the mid-18th century.

Its origins are in a Chinese Export pattern, and was produced at Worcester in the 1750’s and early 60’s. It appears on a range of Chinese Export wares just prior to 1750. The Chinese artists got the design from a special commission, which is well documented: it was designed by Lieutenant Piercy Brett for Commodore Anson, during their voyage around the world, which lasted 1740-44. Anton set off with 8 ships to disrupt the Spanish in their South American colonies, but things did not go well. He succeeded only at great cost – of 1,854 men setting out, only 188 were to return.

Born in Staffordshire in 1697, he is notable as the first British officer to visit mainland China. Previous visitors had only been allowed at the British trade ‘factory’ in Canton. While at the British factory in Canton that he put in his order for his ‘Valentine’ service – was he thinking of impressing someone back home on his return? It is said the 206 piece service was a reward by the Chinese Merchants Guild at Canton for his quick action in using his crew to extinguish a devastating fire that was spreading through the foreign factories zone. It was this quick action that also allowed him an audience with the local officials, who in reality were probably very happy to see him sail away: his ship bristled with cannon, and he was letting them off daily as a show of force – the Chinese had nothing to compare with a British man-of-war at that time.

1stLordAnsonSMALL The Chinese probably thought he was a pirate looking for a base, and in a way he was. He came up with a scheme to capture a Spanish treasure ship he had intelligence about, and set a trap for it as it sailed from Mexico to the Phillipines in 1743. This ‘Manila Galleon’ was the Nuestra Señora de Covadonga, and it held more than one million pieces-of-eight, a vast amount of money at the time. This prize meant the redemption of his otherwise disastrous voyage, the wealth being very welcome back in England. His share of the loot set him & his family up for life.

A fascinating feature of the pattern is the slightly bizarre tree, with an entwined vine. This is in fact an impression of the encounter with the Polynesian ‘wonder food’, Breadfruit, encountered as Anson and his surviving crew members sheltered on the small Pacific island of Saipan in 1742. A sketch from this encounter was used in the original Chinese commission design; many copies later and it has emerged as something most definitely unique – although nothing like a breadfruit tree!

His ‘success’ on his voyage soon led to promotion – in 1745 he was promoted to Rear Admiral. He almost immediately resigned the position when Admiralty refused to confirm Anson’s promotion of his First Lieutenant, Piercy Brett, to rank of Captain while on the voyage. A few months later, and a change of Admiralty board brought about the acknowledgement of Captain Brett. He was, of course, the one commissioned to design the Valentines service for his Captain.

Promoted yet again, he becomes Vice Admiral and commander of the Chanel Fleet in 1746; he was raised to the Peerage in 1747 as Lord Anson; in 1761 he is promoted to Admiral of the Fleet.

He married in 1758 to Lady Elizabeth Yorke; was this the lady of whom Anson was thinking when he had the service commissioned? His wife was related to his mother through marriage, so they would certainly have been aware of each other before his great adventure in China and around the world. Perhaps she enjoyed using it in the years before they were married; in any case, it was a short marriage as the Admiral sickened, and died in 1762.

This interesting piece of Dr Wall Worcester will be a part of our 2015 Exhibition – and Sale – to be held later in March.

Posted on 18/01/201528/09/2023 by Paul Rosenberg

A Tournai Bacchus group, c.1765

A Large Tournai figure of Bacchus & his merry band, Circa 1765.

Measuring almost 40cm high, this is a very large piece of 18th century porcelain. Modelled in the round, it was intended as a table-piece, to be placed in the center of the table. Bacchus sits astride a barrel raising his cup, accompanied by several cherubs….. rather young to be drinking! One is raising a small glass, while the other is filling a bottle from the bung of the barrel. Moving around the figure, there is a semi-clad woman with a basket of pears….. what her significance is I am not sure, but she doesn’t appear to have a drink: another cherub is approaching her around the rock pile, holding up a bottle while riding a goat backwards; clearly under the influence!

The central Bacchus with the barrel & the child filling the bottle is a good recreation of a Meissen model, by Johann Joachim Kaendler, circa 1745. (Moorabool had one such group in the late 1990’s). The rest is the creation of the Tournai artists, who were particulary skilled at creating an ‘island’ of rocks on which the figures are placed, along with foliage to soften the composition; in this case, there are grapevines growing rampant.

Unmarked, it links clearly to other pieces attributed to the porcelain works at Tournai, such as these examples in the Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington;

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O99123/clock-case-lecreux-nicolas/

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O307967/figure-group-children-tournai-porcelain-factory/

This amazing piece is a part of Moorabool Antique Galleries ‘Recent Acquisitions’ Exhibition, to be held in our Geelong premises in March 2015.