A Lowestoft Tea Bowl and Saucer, circa 1785
This Lowestoft tea bowl and saucer are painted with a Chinese garden scene in which bamboo issues from a large blue hollow rock. Beside this is a red ‘swastika’ fence behind which are enormous pink peonies. The painter has used a combination of underglaze blue and overglaze gilding, brick-red, pink and green enamels. The borders are decorated with an ‘egg and flower’ design in underglaze blue and brick-red.
This type of simple decoration, using underglaze blue and overglaze enamels, is associated with the Redgrave family at Lowestoft, and it is likely that such patterns were painted by a small team of women led by Mary Redgrave.
Unmarked.
Condition: Good – no damage or restoration, just characteristic Lowestoft stilt marks to the rims, and minor glaze faults to the underside of the saucer.
Dimensions: Saucer – Diameter 12.5 cm
The Illustrated Guide to Lowestoft Porcelain, Geoffrey A. Godden (Praeger, 1969).
Lowestoft Porcelain in Norwich Castle Museum, Volume 2, Sheenah Smith (Norfolk Museums Service, 1975).