A Derby shaped circular soup plate from the Duke of Northumb...

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Hammer

£800

A Derby shaped circular soup plate from the Duke of Northumberland service, painted possibly by William Billingsley, with a spray of pink roses and five smaller sprigs, light blue border honeycomb border in gold and raised white enamel, with three oval reserves with panels of pink roses, 25.5cm diam, crown, crossed batons and D mark in puce, gilder's number 1 inside foot rim for Thomas Soare, c.1791

This lot is probably one of the twenty-four soup plates supplied to the second Duke of Northumberland in 1791 as a matching to an earlier Chelsea-Derby service likely to have been ordered on the occasion of his second marriage in 1779. The London Day Book for 25 April 1791 refers to them as being decorated with the same pattern as the earlier pieces 'enam'd groups of roses, rich mosaic border on a light blue ground to match'. The original service was painted by Edward Withers, the replacements are likely to be by William Billingsley, For a discussion, see Stephen Mitchell, The Marks on Chelsea-Derby and Early Crossed-Batons Useful Wares (2007), P.50-52

Provenance Sir Leslie Joseph Collection; G Cope Collection