A Chinese export armorial porcelain part service


Qianlong, circa 1772Decorated with the arms of Pitt, comprising a meat dish, four plates and a teabowl, each with a large coat-of-arms for the 'Great Commoner' supported by a naturalistic lion and antelope, floral sprays on the rim interrupted by a crest and both earl's and baron's coronets. The meat dish 29cm (11.3/8in) wide. (6).
|Commissioned by the British East India Co. for Prime Minister William Pitt, just made Earl of Chatham, this service was brought home in 1772 by Company agent W.B. Blake. Pitt's wife had earlier been created a baroness. About 1950 much of the service was bought by a Long Island collector, who then sold it at Sotheby's New York in 1974.A barber's bowl in the Mottahedeh collection is illustrated by J. Ayers and D. Howard, op. cit., no. 430.Also see a plate from the service in the Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. no. C.71-1932.