A rare Charles Gouyn Seal Fob, circa 1750-59
This rare Charles Gouyn (St James’s, Girl-in-a-Swing) seal fob is modelled as a Chinaman with a pot of flowers resting on a green hollow rock formation. His clothes are very attractively painted. The motto in red reads MA BELLE LES AURA (My darling will have them). Gold-mounted and set with a carnelian seal, the matrix engraved with a pelican piercing her breast with her beak.
Tiny seal fobs such as this, often richly decorated and mounted in gold, were made for wealthy aristocrats to give as gifts and love tokens.
This model, decorated in different colours, is illustrated in Bryant, Plate 36, Fig.12.
Condition: No cracks or restoration, just a minute patch of glaze loss to his hat.
Dimensions: Height 3.5 cm
The Chelsea Porcelain Toys: Scent-bottles, Bonbonnieres, Etuis, Seals and Statuettes, made at the Chelsea Factory, 1745-1769 & Derby Chelsea, 1770-1784, G.E. Bryant (The Medici Society, 1925).
Chelsea Porcelain, Elizabeth Adams (The British Museum Press, 2001).