Penrose Antiques

Description

We have for sale a Swansea dessert plate that can be considered a bit of a rarity. The plate was part of a service ordered in 1816 by the banker Thomas Coutts on his marriage to the actress Harriet Mellon. It seems that the dinner service was sold by the Coutts family in 1922 at Christies.

The plate has a typical Swansea duck egg porcelain body and was decorated at the London atelier of John Sims by James Turner with a scene in polychrome and gilt of a large central basket of flowers surrounded by a gilded rococo band
and 3 butterflies.

The plate is 9 inches (22.8cm) in diameter and is in a fair condition with some staining and wear to the gilt.

This Swansea plate is illustrated in "A journey with William Billingsley" 2016, ISBN: 9783741809903 and also illustrated in "Swansea Porcelain. The Duck-Egg Translucent Vision of Lewis Dillwyn" by Howell G M Edwards, edited by Morgan Denyer, page 51, 2017, ISBN: 9780244325787