Fergus Gambon
Director
Lot 250
An important Swansea ice pail, cover and liner, circa 1815-17
5 June 2019, 10:30 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £47,562.50 inc. premium
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Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
An important Swansea ice pail, cover and liner, circa 1815-17
Potted in the finest 'duck egg' porcelain, the pail of shallow bucket form supported by three gilded bun feet, the angular twin handles ribbed at the sides and picked out in gold, the scrolled finial similarly treated, painted in London with a passionflower and two buds, the reverse with a pink anemone, daffodils within the interior of the cover, within delicately gilded borders of classical vases and anthemions, a different scrolled border inside the flange of the cover, 20.2cm high, paper Gosford Castle Collection labels, collection number 44 (3)
Footnotes
Provenance
Gosford Castle, County Armagh
Sir Leslie Joseph Collection
Sotheby's sale 8 July 1980, lot 190
Illustrated by A E (Jimmy) Jones and Sir Leslie Joseph, Swansea Porcelain Shapes and Decoration (1988), p.115. Ice pails occur only rarely in Welsh porcelain. Two Nantgarw examples of slightly differing form were sold by Bonhams on 8 April 2009, lot 249 and 2 November 2015, lot 211. Another shape of Swansea ice pail is illustrated by W D John, Swansea Porcelain (1958), illustration 37. The pair to the present lot, also from the Sir Leslie Joseph Collection, was sold by Sotheby's, 16 May 1992, lot 345 and is now in the National Museum of Wales (Item Number NMW A 33709)
Two Swansea services of this pattern are recorded, the Gosford Castle and the Marquis of Exeter service. Both use the finest quality 'duck egg' porcelain. Apart from subtle differences in the gilded border, the distinguishing feature is that the Gosford Castle service is unmarked whereas the Marquis of Exeter service bears an impressed Swansea mark. Unfortunately, the London workshop responsible for the fine quality botanical painting found on both sets is not recorded. Another plate from the service, also bearing the original paper label, was sold in these rooms on 14 November 2018, lot 441.
