Period: George III
Maker: Worcester Porcelains
A slightly smaller example of this beautiful Worcester dessert basket can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum (to view, click here). It dates from around 1770, during the ‘Dr. Wall’ or First Period of Worcester porcelains.
In the centre is a bunch of hand-painted English flowers, set inside a rococo medallion of blue-scale ground embellished with acanthus scrolls and floral sprays in gold. The sides are pierced to resemble interlocking circles. On the inside, the openwork is painted in enamels with small flower heads and leaves; in between are small gilded squares. The top rim is decorated with gilt laurel branches on blue-scale ground, echoing the medallion. On the outside, moulded pink rosettes have been applied, and their petals protrude along the top.
The basket was made entirely by hand, even though by this time moulding techniques were quite advanced. After throwing on a potter’s wheel, intersecting circles were incised into the exterior of the basket, and each hole was cut out while the clay was still wet.
The base, speckled with kiln dust, bears the Worcester fret mark.
PROVENANCE: From the collection of Jeanne and Milton Zorensky and subsequently the Coldwell Collection
CONDITION Porcelain baskets are notoriously fragile, and the condition is very good for its age. There is a stable hairline crack below the openwork, visible on one of the magnified photographs. There are a few chips to the moulded pink petals along the top rim. (More of these petals have survived on our basket than its sister in the V&A, judging from the museum’s photograph.) Minor rubbing to orange flower heads in the central painting.
Height: 6.3 cm; Diameter: 20.3 cm
Medium: Soft-paste porcelain
Origin: Worcester, England
