A highly important First Period Dr. Wall Worcester Teapot and Cover decorated in the London atelier of James Giles.

Mark: 

Crossed swords and 9 in underglazed blue to the underside of base

The Form of the Teapot
Of large Pear shape inspired by the Sèvres form, with double intertwined looped handle with triple palmette upper and lower terminals, the graceful reeded spout with delicately scrolled rim and similar palmette base, both the handle and the spout enriched with thickly applied proud diminishing gilt spots and feuille de choux ornament to the terminals. The slightly domed cover applied with an open flower and double leaf finial.

The Other Surviving Harlequin Service Pieces that have been named:
The Marshall Plate. See H.R.Marshall ‘Coloured Worcester Porcelain of the First Period’, pl. 10, a. on permanent exhibition at The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; The Frank Lloyd Plate. See R.L.Hobson, Catalogue of the Frank Lloyd Collection of Worcester Porcelain, p. 340, pl. 70. The British Museum; The Amor Bowl. See Gerald Coke, ‘In Search of James Giles’, p.213 pl. c. marked crossed swords and 9. on permanent exhibition within the Coke Collection at The Museum of Worcester Porcelain.

Therefore, we shall refer to this teapot as The Haughton Teapot as it is now the fourth piece on record.

The Ground Colour. Solid turquoise or bleu-celeste of a very evenly balanced slightly pale intensity.

Panel No. 1. The first main figural ogival panel, on the front of the teapot
The scene composed of two country folk, in the style of David Teniers, a lady and gentleman both seated on a settle, she wearing typical country attire with a puce and iron red apron dress and a yellow sleeved white chemise, a puce bonnet and showing a low rimmed basket containing roses and damsons, her head inclined towards the gentleman sitting next to her, who is wearing a purple jacket over a white shirt and light iron red breeches, white stockings and black shoes, a blue cravat and a Flemish moffet hat. Both figures seated before garden or farmyard vegetation, between two slightly autumnal deciduous birch-like trees, with a broken fence to one side, a flock of five birds circle above, framed within a heart-shaped ogival gilt border, composed of four scrolled gold lines.

See: a covered milkjug from the Thomas Ernest Inman and Ronald Butti Collections bearing the same scene. Illustrated Albert Amor, James Giles China Painter 1718-1780, 1977, No. 47. Related figures are on the Grubbe Tea canisters illustrated within the Black Book, the Grubbe family archive that we exhibit with this teapot.

Panel No. 2. The second main panel, on the reverse side of the teapot.
Composed of a brightly coloured exotic young lovebird, painted in typical wetbrush style in tones of puce, green, purple, red and yellow, with Phrygian cap-like crest, its beak open as it partakes of the fruit, its wings agitated and tail forked, it stands on a spray of fruit which consists of a branch of red currents, ripe wild rosehips, and damsons. In the centre, where the branches meet and over which the lovebird stands, is a ripe apple, a pear and two further damsons or wild plums, framed within a similar heart shaped gold ogival scrolled border. This style of painting is by a hand seen at work on a very rare service with a tomato red ground of which there is a coffee cup and saucer illustrated Samuel M Clarke, Worcester Porcelain in the Colonial Williamsburg Collection, pl. 31., p.45. col. pl 22.

Panel No. 3. The decoration above the spout
A single spray of iron red flowering chryanthemum and leaves trekked in puce, in the Kakiemon style, within a quatrefoil cloud-shaped gold line border.   This very rare oriental sprig can be found in sprays on the covers of the large blue scale vases that are illustrated H.R.Marshall, ‘Coloured Worcester Porcelain of the First Period‘, pl. 14, no. 256.

Panel No. 4. The decoration beneath the spout
Containing the rarest of all Giles scale patterns, a multi-scaled outlined ground of tomato red, yellow washed border, tomato red scales, within a double heart-shaped ogival panel composed of four gold line scrolls (an enlarged detail of this panel appears on the inside covers of this catalogue).

The only place where this extremely rare pattern is recorded is on a teacup and saucer in the H.R. Marshall collection, illustrated, Coloured Worcester Porcelain of the First Period, pl. 19, 346.

Panel No.5. The decoration above the handle terminals
Painted with a spray of flowering Scarlet Pimpernel, showing the typical scarlet flowers with a black interior, together with frond-like leaves, within a thick slightly oval gilt frame.

A saucer dish with purple scale with scarlet pimpernel at 3 o’clock, illustrated Gerald Coke, In Search of James Giles, colour plate. XXIII.

Panel No. 6. The decoration beneath the handle terminals
Painted with a stylised Japonesque Mons, the centre of which is a tomato red oval, surrounded by a pale green band, from which issue the gold bordered white petals, within an opaque over glaze blue border, all on a white ground, framed within a gold oval.

Panel No. 7. The first decoration on the cover
Painted in puce, and washed over with green monochrome, with a tied ribbon floral garland, composed of a chrysanthemum surrounded by auriculas and smaller European flowers, the garland tied with a double bow love knot on either side and at either end with a narcissus-like flower, within a double ogival heart shaped panel framed with four gold scrolls.

The double bow love knots are seen on an extremely rare teacup with cut fruit and cisleé gilding, The Zorensky Collection, fig.422. It would appear, that example could be commemorative of a marriage having turquoise double love knots. The pattern is also seen on the H.R.Marshall plate from this service in the Ashmolean Museum.

Panel No. 8. The second decoration on the cover
Painted with a very fine bouquet of European flowers, composed of an open red rose, surrounded by red tinged auriculas and a spray of purple mimosa to one side, between double opaque overglaze blue lines enriched with twin gilt barbs, within a similar double ogival heart-shaped gold border.

This pattern is found on teawares, See Zorensky fig.416, also on small scalloped shaped dessert plates, also the gilt barbs appear on a series of extremely rare landscape plates, an example from the C.W.Dyson Perrins collection exhibited Amor James Giles China Painter 1718-1780. p. 29, no.7.