Of bell shape, with a grooved loop handle, each side with an elaborate chinoiserie landscape painted in puce monochrome within the quatrefoil panels, reserved on a pale yellow ground, further decorated with formal floral sprigs, an iron-red foliate border with gilt flowerheads to the rim, 8.7cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
With W W Warner Antiques, 2011
Literature
White, Mary, Drinking at the Whites' House, Vol. 2, 2021, p. 132
The overall composition of this mug is clearly inspired by Meissen and is an example of the earliest use of a coloured ground at Worcester. The finely executed landscapes are reminiscent of the 'Romantic Rocks' and other patterns painted in underglaze blue, but the puce overglaze painting allows for much more intricate detail. A pair of similar mugs from the Lady Charlotte Schreiber Collection is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. no. 414:576-1885) and another from the Klesper Collection is illustrated by Simon Spero, , 1984, p. 90, no. 94 and col. pl. 27. See also the example from the Ralph Kenber Collection sold by Bonhams on 15 December 2020, lot 185.