A Chelsea mug, circa 1752-55


Of bell shape, the handle applied with a band of flowers and leaves picked out in pale colours, finely painted with a great snow owl perched on a leafy branch, flanked by two smaller and rather agitated birds, the reverse with four ombrierte insects including two brightly coloured moths, brown line rim, 13.4cm high, red anchor mark
|Illustrated and discussed by Paul Crane, Nature, porcelain and Enlightenment: George Edwards and the Chelsea porcelain birds, ECC Trans, Vol.8, 2017, p.48-49. The image of the owl is copied from George Edwards, A Natural History of Uncommon Birds, and of Some Other Rare and Undescribed Animals, Vol.2, pl.61 (1747). Edwards states he knew of two preserved examples of the owl, one belonging to Sir Hans Sloane. The addition of the two other birds to the composition is reminiscent of the 'mobbing birds' style inspired by Meissen and subsequently copied at Worcester a few years later.