A Chinese soft-paste porcelain English-decorated teabowl and saucer mid 18th century

A Chinese soft-paste porcelain English-decorated teabowl and saucer mid 18th century, with bianco-sopra-bianco decoration of bamboo and chrysanthemum beside a fence, within underglaze blue cell diaper borders, later enamelled probably in the Giles atelier with European flowers of 'Type A', a butterfly and other insects beside, and two Chinese coffee cups also London-decorated with sprays of flowers and single sprigs, one with a caterpillar, 11.1cm max. (4)

Provenance: the Helen Espir Collection, nos. 876, 786 and 787.

Illustrated: Stephen Hanscombe, The Early James Giles and his Contemporary London Decorators, p.65, no.7.

Floral decoration by the London ateliers falls into two categories, as originally defined by Bernard Watney and detailed by Stephen Hanscombe in his book, The Early James Giles and his Contemporary London Decorators. The spiky, pencilled manner of the teabowl and saucer and one cup is indicative of Type A, while the rounder petals and red-dotted caterpillar are classified as Type B. There has been much discussion about the attribution of each type of decoration to differing workshops, but Stephen Hanscombe remained of the opinion that both types were largely the work of the Giles atelier.