Anticipating their sale to erudite collectors, George Owen often worked without pay on highly detailed pieces of this type during quiet periods at the Royal Worcester Factory. Over the course of several months he spent painstaking hours on each vessel, carefully piercing the wet clay body freehand - no small feat as the piece had to be kept in its leatherhard stage and the smallest slip meant having to start over. Once reticulated the piece then faced multiple firings and possible destruction in the kiln. For a more detailed discussion on George Owen's experiments see H. Sandon, Royal Worcester Porcelain, London, 1978, p. 31.
A similarly decorated pierced teapot was sold at Christie's, New York, 17-18 October 2012, lot 563.