sauce-boat
- Museum number
- 1887,0307,X.7
- Description
-
Sauce-boat; porcelain; two handles; flanged sides and scalloped ends; four moulded panels printed in black with Four Ages of Man; printed inside with the 'River Scene' print, showing two swans; remainder painted in colours with flowers.
- Production date
- 1756 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 18.90 centimetres
-
Length: 7.40 inches
-
Width: 17 centimetres (max width inclusive of handles)
-
Width: 6.70 inches (with handles)
- Curator's comments
- Source of inside 'River Scene' print is an engraving inscribed 'Castel & Collins pinxt', 'June' [sc], '1 Swallow. 2 Tringa.' [tringa is a type of redshank], 'Publish'd according to Act of Parliament Augt 24.1752. - Printed for Thos. Bowles in St. Pauls Church Yard': see Guy-Jones 2004, pp. 533-5.
Text from Dawson 2007:
Two-handled sauceboats with an elaborate moulding like this one were produced in some quantity, and many have both painted and printed decoration as on this example. An example with prints only was in the Handley Collection. The prints on this piece are of the rather rare type known as 'smoky primives'. Opinion is divided as to whether these were the work of a so-far anonymous engraver or the first work of Robert Hancock after his arrival at the Worcester factory.
The prints in the circular reserves depict the Four Ages of Man after Louis-Philippe Boitard (active 1733-67); on one side infancy (a mother teaching a child to walk) and youth (three boys playing soldiers), and on the other middle age (a couple with a baby) and old age (a lady with a muff and a man with a long beard among bare trees). The prints are only found on sauceboats like this one.
Inside the sauceboat is a print known as the 'River Scene' depicting waterfowl, including swans, wild duck and a heron perched on an island on a lake, and trees, based on an engraving by Robert Hancock (see no. 57) published in 1752 and printed by Thomas Bowles of St Paul's Church Yard.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: Four Ages of Man
- Acquisition date
- 1887
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1887,0307,X.7