A particularly rare model is this soup tureen with its frond handles, foliage finial and paw feet, that follows a French rococo design, c.1750, probably made first in faience at the Strasburg or Höchst factories. They are thought to have been made for the French market in the 1750s.
The Minneapolis Institute of Art has a tureen of the same form but quite different famille rose decoration as part of the Leo and Doris Hodroff collection.
This example in underglaze blue was closer to another in the Peabody Essex Museum. It came for sale at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne on October 14 where, guided at a modest £500-700 (it had some condition problems), it sold at £6500.
Sauce tureens
A pair of Qianlong period export sauce tureens and stands offered by Dore & Rees (25% buyer’s premium) in Frome on November 8 were also inspired by French rococo silver or ceramics.
Probably of a slightly later date, c.1770, they were moulded with shells and a berried knop and painted with coloured flower sprays. Both with small hairline cracks to the body and light rubbing to gilt and decoration, they took £2000.
A single tureen and stand of identical form made $3200 as part of the Christie’s New York sale of the third tranche of the Tibor collection in January 2021.
