A Rare Chelsea Fluted Rectangular Dish, painted with two reflected ogival panels containing harbour scenes, with merchants at conversation beside ruined classical buildings, reserved on the white porcelain ground which is scattered with sprigs and sprays of European flowers and insects in flight. This type of decoration is linked to ‘Kauffahrtei’ scene decoration executed by Christian Frederich Heroldt at Meissen during the early 1740’s. The ogival panels are bordered by a double iron red and deep lilac line. This is a very interesting detail which can be seen approximately 15 years later, on some of the very early patterns executed in the Giles Atelier.

For example, tankards bearing green camaieu landscapes, see Franklin Barrett, ‘Worcester Porcelain’, pl.67B for the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This type of painting is seen at Chelsea when the paste is at its most perfect, with that wonderful quality of plasticity, still with moons present in the body and with a small amount of tin oxide in the glaze. There are no instances of pieces with this style of decoration either in the 1755 or 1756 sale catalogues, by which time the paste had again changed. The style of the floral painting is still transitional, with features of the raised anchor period still encountered, such as the tiny star- shaped florets and the juxtaposition of the blue and yellow enamels seen both on these flowers and on the wings of one of the insects.