CIRCA 1745-49, INCISED TRIANGLE MARK

The fluidity of form and decoration of this coffee-pot encapsulates Nicholas Spirmont's skill as a silversmith and designer. The lobed shape and applied flowers may derive from a silver or metalware prototype, perhaps echoing similar silver repoussé designs. Severne Mackenna suggested that the form may be derived from a silver design published in Plukenet's Phytographia in 1691.¹ The baluster shape and domed cover also echo porcelain and metalware forms made for the Turkish market, while the scrolling handle and shaped spout are more typical of the European rococo style. This fusion of Eastern and Western elements is particularly striking when viewed in white undecorated porcelain although Chelsea also produced an enamelled version of this design.² Interestingly this design was used on a variety of coffee (or chocolate) wares including beakers, saucers, sugar-bowls and cream-jugs but it does not appear to have been used for teabowls.

For a sugar-bowl and cover of this type see World's End Exhibition, Chelsea, Old Chelsea, 25 - 29 May 1948, no. 10 (Mackenna Collection). A coffee-pot and cover of the same type is illustration by Simon Spero, The Bowles Collection of 18th Century English and French Porcelain, San Francisco, 1996, cat. no. 1. Spero also illustrates a coffee-pot of the same form with a replacement ivory handle from the Lady Reigate Collection, see Simon Spero Exhibition 2002, English and French Porcelain 1740-1780, October 2002, London, Kensington Church Street, cat. no. 1. See also the example illustrated by John C. Austin, Chelsea Porcelain at Williamsburg, Williamsburg V.A., 1978, pl. 15.

A small number of coffee-pots have appeared at auction in recent years. An example sold Christie's London, 2-3 June 2015, lot 78 and again Christie's London, 23 October 2024, lot 79. Another example sold Bonhams London, 14 April 2010, lot 72.

1. F. Severne Mackenna, Chelsea Porcelain and the Raised Anchor Wares, London, 1948, p. 26, and see also pl. 4, fig. 9 for a coffee-pot formerly in M.G. Kaufman's collection.

2. See William King, Chelsea Porcelain of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1922, pl. 7, for an enamelled coffee-pot also bearing the triangle mark.