Gerald's Musings

A round Worcester teapot I've had since the days when I worked out of the West End and had the chance to go to Sothebys' European ceramics auctions on the first Thursday of every month. Those were the days... with Liane Richards, Delomosne, David Thorne from down here in Devon, that nice man from Grosvenor Antiques at the table before the rostrum. This puce and gilded pattern is quite well known but not common and it dates from 1765 - 70. There has been some old restoration to the cover, long before my time, and acuole of small pieces of foliage are still missing but it looks well and i'm not going to change but I would now be prepared to sell it and concentrate my resources on less well covered works like Y or Baddeley Littler.

I referred back to my musing about Sothebys ceramic sales;  they weren't on Thursdays...it was the first Tuesday in the month  and the nice man fom Grosvenor Antiques shop in St Christopher's Place was Stafford Lorie....with Hutchings and Davies up from Newport and Mumbles for any Swansea or Nantgarw.

This shows an obconical creamer in a form which I regard as the iconic Factory Y shape. There is nothing else quite like it and this one is in remarkably good condition without any of those ugly firing cracks with which so many pieces emerged from the kiln of   ?  Well I was very taken with the case which Michael Berthoud put to the New Hall and Friends annual gathering, because I have always felt that Josiah Wedgwood was a serious man and would not have mentioned Baddeley Booth in jest when he contested Richard Champion's patent before Parliament on behalf of the rest of the Staffordshire potters. Whoever made the Y porcelains produced simple wares of a calibre and character that I am happy to promote and display 200 years later. They had coal and steam and water but they hadn't created electricity or harnessed gas, they hadn't built the rail system or finished the canals.......Factory Y deserves some further intuitive research, inspired guesswork or better still a real discovery. I think it's the least Michael deserves.

An attractive fluted teabowl and saucer which was made at one of those enigmatic porcelain factories in Staffordshire in the last decade of the 18th Century.
It is known as the "Plus Class" group because many of their wares bear a pattern number followed by a little +.  Sure enough both pieces are marked as Pattern Number "161 +"  The pattern is known elsewhere, specifically at New Hall as pattern 140.

This is the other side of the Keeling Teapot which decorates the front of Jean Barratt's book of Keeling Shapes and Patterns in which it is classed as pattern X109
I have it in pride of place on a display cabinet, but, No, sorry, you can't buy it. It is already committed to one of those nice people who collect when the opportunity arises, so I may well enjoy it's company for another couple of months. I do however still have new copies of Jean's book which is well worth it's £35 price tag  + £5 UK postage.

This sort of situation adds to the case for being at least part dealer, part collector. Unless you have a museum or mansion, a spare Ephrussi palace, it is very difficult to buy the wealth of interesting items still on offer unless you can pass on those which are losing their novelty or research significance; and these days there is always the computer image that you can save to remind you of the gems you once owned !

This has all the characteristics of a Keeling teabowl and saucer but the pattern is not recorded in Jean Barratt's recent book. The general view including Jean Barratt's is that this probably is Keeling and looking at the pattern book it seems to me that it would fit in very well at No.147 or 149. So would someone kindly come up with a matching teapot and creamer carrying the actual pattern number,  please! There are two tiny hairlines in the bowl and both pieces are slightly discoloured so that they look like creamware but are nonetheless translucent.

Jean Barratt , having got back to Portugal and examined her drafts for the book, has forwarded the pictures of an octagonal teapot and creamer in this pattern and similarly, though worse, discoloured. They were not enough to convince her that she should include the pattern.
So look out for the first revision to see if the numbered teapot I requested has come to light and if indeed it proves to be 147 or 149! Anybody wishing to pursue the research can also acquire the evidence herein...

What is it about Pugs that people find so endearing?
This one is only 4" high and being porcelain doesn't snuffle. He is in the classic Meissen style but at present I don't know who made him, figures not really being my field. There are some hieroglyphics on the base and "R" in flowing script incised on his chest (no wonder he's pensive). That should identify him to someone?

With the publication of the new comprehensive A & E Keeling Pattern Book by Jean Barratt as the culmination of 10 years' research I am listing a few items I have available in addition to the admirable volume itself. It is in a softback format similar to Pat Preller's New Hall pattern book and supplement 1, and in my view of a similar calibre.

It is not in general distribution but can be supplied £35, plus packing & postage £5 (UK). I have a few copies, and they can also be obtained from Pat Preller, Rosie Cooke, Peter Cottam or from Jean herself, if one of those is easier.

ISBN 978-989-20-1816-4
141 pages