P145 - WORCESTER MUG

 

Circa 1748

Of inverted bell-shape with reeded loop handle painted in the Chinoiserie taste with figures in landscape

4 ¾ in. (12.1 cm) high

 

LITERATURE

Cleo M. and G. Ryland Scott Jr., Antique Porcelain Digest, Newport, England, 1961, pp. 166-167, fig. 53.

 

EXHIBITION

On display in the Scott-Allen Collection at The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia from 1976 until 1996

 

On display as in the “George Ryland Scott Collection” in The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art from June 1955 until May 1960.

 

NOTES BY CLEO M. AND G. RYLAND SCOTT, JR IN THE LATE 1950’S

This colorful mug was purchased in Chester, England, while there in 1957. We purchased it from a dealer, Walter Needham, operating “Quinneys Ltd."   He thought the piece was made in nearby Liverpool. We feel sure it is too fine to have been made there. In recent years, however, Liverpool has been more sought after by collectors and as they copied Worcester and used during the early period the same soapstone clay, it is not easy to be certain. When we were in the Higgins Museum in Bedford, we saw a mug that was an exact duplicate of ours and it was there described as Dr. Wall Worcester. As this is one of the small but top collections in England, we don't doubt their attribution. Also see Plate 84 item 403, Exhibition Catalogue 1948, English Ceramic Circle for a Mug of similar decor called Worcester, and described as: "Mug, inverted bell-shape with reeded loop handle. Painted in colors with Chinese figures and flowering plants. Dated 1760."

 

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The present mug would appear to be one of only three extant bell shape mugs decorated in this pattern. A second, formerly in the Wills Collection, was exhibited at Albert Amor, London in 1984. See Robyn Robb, 2005 Exhibition of Fine 18th Century English Porcelain, London, 2005, p. 7, no. 6 for the third.