Vase

This vase with its blue-green ground surrounding reserves of birds perched on branches that have been framed in gilding is a rare form produced by the Chelsea factory. Located in what is now London, Chelsea was one of the earliest manufacturers of porcelain in England. The factory first proclaimed the development of “Pieces of the Pea Green and Gold, never before exhibited” in the London newspaper the Public Advertiser in 1759. This and another vase in the collection of the Walters seem to match the description of an entry in a 1761 auction sale by the Chelsea factory: “35 Two fine high scollopped bottles, of the pea-green ground, enamelled with birds, and gilt ornament.” A vase of this form also appears in the foreground of a portrait of the Chelsea factory founder Nicholas Sprimont (1716–1771), his wife Ann Sprimont and sister-in-law Susannah Protin, which is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession number E.300-2021).

Inscription

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

George Robinson Harding, London [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1911, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.