A Chelsea Goat and Bee jug, circa 1745-47

A Chelsea 'Goat and Bee' jug, circa 1745-47 Of pear shape, supported by two goats recumbent nose to tail on grass, applied in high relief with a finely modelled and naturalistically coloured bee, set on a delicately coloured flowering branch in lower relief, the handle modelled as an oak branch applied with leaves, 11.4cm high, incised triangle mark Footnotes: Provenance Purchased from Klaber and Klaber 1976 An uncoloured example is illustrated by Paul Crane, Nature, Porcelain and the Age of Enlightenment, in Art Antiques London (2015), where the similarity between the recumbent goats on the base of the jug and base of the silver Ashburnham centrepiece made by Nicholas Sprimont is noted. Another possible source for the design has been suggested by Zorka Hodgson, Survey of the Sources of Inspiration for the Goat and Bee jug and some other noted Chelsea creations, ECC Trans, Vol.14, Pt.1 (1990), p.40, figs.21 and 22 where a woodblock print dated 1530 by Domenico Campagnola is suggested. Coloured 'Goat and Bee' jugs are rarer than those left in the white. For other examples see Margaret Legge, Flowers and Fables (1984), p.25, fig.3, John C Austin, Chelsea Porcelain at Williamsburg (1977), p.24, fig.6, and the F S Mackenna Collection of English Porcelain, Pt.1 (1972), p.60, fig.19. A coloured example was sold by Bonhams on 29 September 2020, lot 130. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com