Derby Hunting Service with fruiting vine borders, Circa 1810
The plates, ice pails and sauceboats finely painted with a gilt-edged circular medallion depicting scenes from the hunt, reserved on or below bands of purple fruiting vines embellished with gilt tooled foliage and tendrils.
Comprising:-
Pair of Ice Pails and Covers,
Two double handled Sauceboats, Covers and Stands,
Thirty two Dessert Plates,
Four rectangular-shaped Dishes,
Two lobed oval Dishes,
Four lozenge-shaped Dishes,
Two heart-shaped Dishes,
One footed Dish
Painted factory marks in iron-red, some with 1 or 22 painted inside footrim.
Ice pail 11ins high (28 cms)
This service appears to be the only known example of this combination of hunting scenes and puce and gilt vine borders and it was probably painted by William Cotton, Thomas Brewer and Cuthbert Lawton.
It has been suggested that the scenes have been taken from the seventy colour plates in “The British Sportsman” by the English painter and engraver William Samuel Howitt (1765-1822) published in 1812.
Literature
John Twitchett, Derby Porcelain, p277, pl. 67 for a vase painted in a similar style and attributed to William Cotton.
“English Ceramics”, The Frances and Emory Cocke Collection, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. Pl. no. 133, p.137 for similar plate from this service.