Dish
Dateca. 1758
Artist/Maker
Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory
(1745-1769)
MediumPorcelain, soft-paste
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1968-5
DescriptionOval, soft-paste porcelain dish has been molded to resemble a shell pattern. The hand-painted decoration spans nearly the entire dish. The decoration consists predominantly a branch of leaves and gooseberries. There are also an assortment of insects, including a butterfly, caterpillar, and beetle. There is a line of brown, iron oxide on the rim of the dish.Label TextDishes with this style of botanical decoration are often referred to as Hans Sloane style porcelain. Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) practiced medicine and had a passion for studying nature. In 1713 he purchased a riverside manor in Chelsea which included the Chelsea Physic Garden. Sloane encouraged medical students and the Society of Apothecaries to study, record, and experiment with local and foreign species of plants at the garden. The Chelsea’s Hans Sloane style dishes are a result of the research conducted at the Chelsea Physic Garden.
One of a pair of silver-shaped dishes decorated with the mallow and a branch of a gooseberry bush. Like many other botanical decorated examples, this pair is also painted with flying and crawling insects.
InscribedNo
MarkingsBrown anchor painted in red on reverse
"The brown anchor commonly appears on later Red Anchor pieces as well as on some of those of the Gold Anchor period." Elizabeth Adams, CHELSEA PORCELAIN, 98.
ProvenanceEx. Coll: Lady Gascoigne, Leeds
Purchased from: Otto M. Wasserman, New York
