Sauce Boat thumbnail 1
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Sauce Boat

1768-1770 (made)
Artist/Maker
Plymouth Porcelain Factory (manufacturer)
Place of origin
Plymouth (England) (made)

Sauce boat of hard-paste porcelain, with scrolled edge and foot and loop handle. The two sides and back are decorated with raised scrolls enclosing panels which are filled in with flowers in colours. The front is painted with a floral spray and inside the lip is a purple ornament.

Object details

Categories
Ceramics
Porcelain
Object type
Sauce boat
Materials and techniques
Hard-paste porcelain, moulded in low relief and painted in enamels
Hard Paste Porcelain
Enamel
Painted
Moulded
Brief description
Sauce boat of hard-paste porcelain, moulded in low relief and painted in enamels, Plymouth porcelain factory, England, 1768-1770
Physical description
Sauce boat of hard-paste porcelain, with scrolled edge and foot and loop handle. The two sides and back are decorated with raised scrolls enclosing panels which are filled in with flowers in colours. The front is painted with a floral spray and inside the lip is a purple ornament.
Dimensions
  • Height: 9.8cm
  • Length: 14cm
Credit line
Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street
Object history
Given by W. Cookworthy, Esq. Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street

J.G.V. Mallet's catalogue entry for this item in the Rococo exhibition catalogue (see below) states:
'...In 1768 when William Cookworthy began to produce a true hard-paste porcelain from the Cornish materials he had discovered, he showed himself an innovator in the chemistry of porcelain-making, whereas in style he remained attached to a somewhat retardataire rococo. The moulding of this particularly recalls the silver prototypes with which it would have been in competition.'
Subject depicted
Flowers (Plants)
Bibliographic references
  • Honey, W. B. Old English porcelain London: Faber & Faber, 1948, p. 231
  • Snodin, Michael (ed.). Rococo: Art and Design in Hogarth's England. London: Trefoil Books and Victoria and Albert Museum, 1984, cat. 047.
  • Panes, Nicholas. British Porcelain Sauceboats of the 18th Century. Wales, Gomer Press, 2009. See Chapter 16: Plymouth and Cookworthy Bristol for examples of this sauceboat shape with different styles of decoration, figs. 380-382 and fig. 379 a silver sauceboat of circa 1750 as a suggested source of inspiration for its design.
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
3096-1901

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O307491/sauce-boat-plymouth-porcelain-factory/
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