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Liverpool Teabowl & Saucer c.1760-65

This quite rare teabowl & saucer was made in Liverpool in c.1760-65, at the Brownlow Hill factory. This factory was occupied by William Reid until his bankruptcy in 1761, was possibly run for a short time by William Ball, & was then later occupied by James Pennington.

Condition is excellent with no damage whatsoever, although it has the probable later addition of overglaze red enamels & gilding.

Measures: Teabowl 2" high x 3 1/4" diam.; Saucer 4 3/4" diam.

Price SOLD !

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The pattern in underglaze blue of a seated Chinaman in a Chinoiserie landscape, with a bird perched on his hand, is highlighted in overglaze red enamel & gilding to create a psuedo Imari palette.

Similar "Imari" wares with overglaze red enamels were produced by other Liverpool manufacturers such as Christians, but the porcelain body of this item is phosphatic, & the pattern is, I believe, unique to Brownlow Hill.

The footrim of the saucer is undercut, which is typical of Liverpool pieces, & the glaze is pooled & strongly coloured, both pieces exhibiting peppering from the Kiln, another Liverpool characteristic.

In some patterns the overglaze enamel is part of the overall design, & some have had the enamelling added to make slower selling pieces more saleable. Further still, in the 19th Century some pieces were "improved" or "clobbered" in this way to make them moe fashionable. In my opinion, the enamelling here was added some time shortly after manufacture.

Pieces in which the enamelling is added later tend to have a complete underglaze blue design with the enamelling being superfluous, rather than an integral part of the decoration. Here the enamelling of the parrots (?) wings covers part of the underglaze blue design, suggesting it is added later. One lady thought that he was holding a bunch of carrots!

Although it is difficult to determine the exact manufacturer with 100% certainty, it was definitely made at Brownlow Hill. I have seen this pattern referred to as by William Reid, & also by James Pennington. Possibly the enamelling was added in the William Ball period to move exstant stock of Reids, or perhaps it was just a slow moving pattern. In either case current weight of opinion gravitates more towards James Pennington as being the manufacturer of this pattern.

In the picture above & the 2 below you can see the pooled & patchy glaze, typical of Brownlow Hill, & also the
undercut footrim & the peppering from the kiln. Both pieces are naturally unmarked.

This teabowl & saucer is quite rare & in exceptionally good condition with no chips, cracks, or other damage.
It would be a very good addition to any serious collection of Early English Porcelain.