A rare Worcester Bowl, circa 1775
Using a combination of underglaze blue and iron red and green enamels, this rare Worcester bowl is painted in the Chinese idiom with trailing floral sprays and two lotus-shaped panels. Just above the foot rim is a Sèvres-style black enamel chain border washed over in green.
No example of this rare pattern is recorded without the additional overglaze decoration and the design would appear sparse and incomplete without it.
Script W mark in underglaze blue.
Provenance: The Zorensky Collection; an English Private Collection.
Condition: Good – no damage or restoration. There is light surface wear consistent with use, mainly to the interior base, and a couple of small potting flaws from manufacture.
Dimensions: Diameter 15.2 cm
Worcester Porcelain 1751-1790: The Zorensky Collection, Simon Spero & John Sandon (Antique Collectors’ Club, 1996).
Ref. A bowl with identical decoration is also housed within the Henry Rissik Marshall Collection of Worcester porcelain at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (accession number WA1957.24.1.846).