A Worcester Tea Bowl and Saucer, circa 1758-62
This finely-potted Worcester tea bowl and saucer are painted in the Chinese idiom with a pattern of large, intricately trailing flowers, Daoist sacred scrolls, and flying insects. This design is variously known as the Hibiscus or Honeysuckle pattern.
Provenance: The Crane Collection; an English Private Collection.
Condition: Good – no cracks or restoration, just minor early potting, glazing and firing anomalies, including a kiln touch to the rim of the tea bowl. The painted decoration is in excellent order, with only the slightest wear to part of one flower on the saucer. There is a glaze flake to one small leaf on the saucer. No other damage.
Dimensions: Saucer – Diameter 11.8 cm; Tea Bowl – Diameter 7.4 cm
Worcester Porcelain 1751-1790: The Zorensky Collection, Simon Spero & John Sandon (Antique Collectors’ Club, 1996).