The fashion for serving vessels naturalistically modelled and painted as animals or plants is a perennial one in Europe. During the mid-eighteenth century it was probably sparked by the Meissen porcelain factory’s experiments with naturalistic designs, and it proved hugely popular with the English pottery and porcelain factories, and with some of the French potteries making tin-glazed earthenware. Such naturalistic vessels were a form of visual pun and were intended to delight and surprise, especially those small vessels formed as animals or vegetables associated with the first, predominantly savoury courses of a large, formal dinner. For, as Benjamin Franklin (one of the founding fathers of the United States), explained to his wife in 1758, these were in fact used for the cream and stewed fruit served during the final, sweet dessert course of the meal. However, Chelsea’s very large tureens shaped as swans, hens and boar’s heads (the last of which had an under-dish decorated with hunting accessories), were intended for savoury soups. By lifting the cover of this tureen to serve her guests, the hostess would reveal the band of delicately painted flowers around the rim of the tureen. Swan tureens were included in factory sales of Chelsea porcelain in 1755 and 1756, when they were clearly among the most important pieces. They were described a ‘large as life’ and ‘curious’ – the latter also meaning ‘skilfully made’ or ‘ingenious’ during the eighteenth century – and they were sold with or without under-dishes painted with pondweed. Swans had been eaten at great feasts in medieval times and were still served roasted in England at the time that this was made.