The jug slip-cast with two opposing recumbent goats resting on an irregular mound, beneath the curved spout. A large, winged bee rests on a relief-moulded spray of a tall blossoming tea plant, the applied handle naturalistically modelled as a foliate oak branch.

The Ashburnham Centrepiece, 1747-48, Victoria and Albert Museum, M.46:1, 2-1971

Modelled by Nicholas Sprimont whose delight in goats is evident in the similarly addorsed recumbent goats supporting his silver Ashburnham centrepiece.

According to Severne Mackenna ‘the most celebrated early Chelsea objects are without a doubt the goat and bee jugs’. He also points out that the earliest known dated pieces of English porcelain are goat and bee jugs with an incised 1745.

Condition:
Losses to four leaves and leg of bee

Provenance:
The Stanley F. Goldfein Collection

References:

Mackenna 1948
Mackenna, F. Severne, Chelsea Porcelain The Triangle and Raised Anchor Wares, Leigh-on-Sea, 1948 (reprinted 1969), pp. 22-23

Price: £6,500