Finely slip-moulded with pronounced ridges on the overlapping leaves, The handle moulded as bamboo. Painted in a bright palette with a motif of scattered insects, bugs and flowers.

A Vincennes teapot, circa 1745, Private collection

The painted decoration is borrowed from the almost contemporary rare early Vincennes porcelains a few examples of which must have just arrived in London. The Strawberry (or acanthus) leaf design and the bamboo handle is adapted from a Chantilly example of c.1740. Nicholas Sprimont, the proprietor of the factory, was a skilled silversmith, and has improved on the original design, enhancing its crispness and elegance, he also adapted it to all the forms needed for a complete tea and coffee service. [i]

A partial tea and coffee set at The Colonial Williamsburg foundation (illustrated in Austin 1977)

While the inspiration for the moulding derives from Chantilly porcelain, this group and other Chelsea porcelain from the period has what Severne Mackenna described in 1948 as ‘the unmistakeable signs of being the actual production of a silversmith working in porcelain’.[ii] Nicholas Sprimont came over from Paris bringing new taste developed by Thomas Germain, and created most of the early forms himself. More recently, Sally Kevill-Davies makes a strong case for this, comparing a number of Sprimont’s silver designs to those found in early Chelsea porcelain.[iii] Amongst many other examples, she illustrates a coffee pot for the Oranienbaum service now in the Kremlin Armoury Museum; and a set of tea canister and a sugarbox that have a strong resemblance to the teaplant pattern, which in turn is a close cousin of the Strawberry or Acanthus leaf pattern.

A Chelsea teaplant coffee pot, c 1745-49, private collection; Two cannisters and a Sugar vase by Nicholas Sprimont, Jessie and Sigmund Katz Collection, Museum of fine Arts Boston (1988.1075a-1077a-b)

Another leaf-moulded teapot was produced at Chantilly, perhaps related to the Chantilly cream jug which inspired the Chelsea models, but it is clear that this was not a direct influence on the Chelsea form.

Chantilly ‘acanthus leaf’ teapot, Private Collection

‘Acanthus’, also known as ‘strawberry’ leaf tea and coffee wares are found with the incised triangle and the underglaze-blue crown and trident marks. They appear with coloured European flowers, as here, and with Japanese Kakiemon-style decoration

Condition:
Minute chips to tip of spout, crack to top of handle, finial chipped

Provenance:

Sale Christie’s, 16 June 1975, lot 272. Property of a Gentleman. Alistair McAlpine (later Lord McAlpine of West Green) according to note in Robert Williams catalogue). Sold £5,800.

Anon., sale Christie’s, 9 October 1989, lot 91, illustrated on front cover, (£22,000 Hammer)

References:

Austin 1977
John C. Austin, Chelsea Porcelain at Williamsburg, Williamsburg 1977

Kevill-Davies 2020

Sally Kevill-Davies, Some New Connections between Nicholas Sprimont’s Silver and early Chelsea porcelain, Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle, Vol. 31 (2020), pp105-127

Mackenna 1948
Mackenna, F. Severne, Chelsea Porcelain The Triangle and Raised Anchor Wares, (Leigh-on-Sea, 1948, reprinted 1969)

Manners 2007

‘Some Continental influences on English Porcelain’, Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle, vol. 19 part 3 (2007) pp 429- 470

Exhibited:
International Art treasure Exhibition, Assembly Rooms, Bath, 1973, no. 370A

Price: Sold

[i] See Manners 2007, pp. 432 -434

[ii] Mackenna 1948

[iii] Kevill-Davis 2020, pp105-127