This would appear to be the only pair of Meissen vases of this type recorded in the literature. While the 18th century provenance of these vases remains unknown, the survival of at least three rare red-anchor Chelsea porcelain vases, circa 1752-56, which appear to be direct copies, suggests a possible English ownership by the mid-18th century. Although there are slight differences between the Kakiemon borders of the Meissen and Chelsea variants, the colour palette, the painted figures and even the patterns on their costumes clearly match. The figure panels of one of the Chelsea vases, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acc. no. 30.318a-b, are copied from one of the present vases. By 1921 this vase was with Stoner and Evans, London and subsequently entered the Alfred E. Hutton Collection. It was later gifted to the museum by Richard C. Paine in 1930. A second Chelsea vase, lacking its cover, and probably the pendant to the above, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, acc. no. C.336-1926. This vase is painted with figure panels taken from both of the present vases, illustrated in Manners, 2007, p. 446, pls. 42 a&b, where the author cites a further pair in the Huntingdon Library (which, however, employed different sources for the figure panels), and an example in a private collection (illustrated in Ayeys, Impey, & Mallet, 1990, p. 201, fig. 197).
(Right) Chelsea Porcelain factory vase, ca. 1753-55 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Whilst it cannot be proven with certainty, it seems probable that the Chelsea porcelain factory had access to the present vases. A potential 18th century owner of the vases is Sir Charles Hanbury Williams (1708-59), who was British Envoy to the Saxon Court between 1747-49 and 1751- 54. In a letter dated June 9, 1751, Sir Charles wrote from Dresden to his friend Henry Fox at Holland House:
"I receiv'd a letter about ten days ago from Sr. Everard Fawkener Who is I believe concernd in the manufacture of China at Chelsea. He desird me to send over models for different Pieces from hence in order [to] furnish the Undertakers with good designs -And would have had me send over fifty or threescore pounds' worth. But I thought it better & Cheaper for the Manufacturers to give them leave to take away any of my China from Holland House and to copy what they like. I have therefore told Sr. Everard that if He will go to your house you will permit him and anybody He brings with him to See my China, & to take away such pieces as they may have a mind to Copy."
In the late 1740s the Chelsea manufactory's chief financier was Sir Everard Fawkener (1695-1758), secretary to William, Duke of Cumberland, and a personal friend of Sir Charles. We know that at least two pieces from the Meissen 'Hanbury Williams' service were borrowed by the factory, as nearly identical Chelsea copies exist: a dish painted with a Rhinoceros, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and a lobed dish painted with a stag, now in a private collection. The Meissen prototypes for these are now in the Collection of the Duke of Northumberland, Alnwick Castle, illustrated in Clarke, ibid., pls. 66-67.
On June 16th, 1751, Henry Digby, late 7th Baron Digby, who was an aide to Sir Hanbury Williams in Dresden, wrote a letter to his uncle Lord Ilchester, in which he recounts his observations of the Saxon Court and opulent lifestyle of Count Brühl, but in closing he writes:
"Sr Charles sends his very humble Respects to Her Ladyship [Lady Ilchester] & that he will certainly send her Ladyship two or three very fine pieces of China soon, that he should be glad to know what her Ladyship likes [...] for as to such Jars at his Holland House they are not to be got & if he was to be speak such they would cost a vast deal He desires likewise to know whether there are any particular Pieces at Holland House Her Ladyship had taken a particular Fancy to."
Vases, both Japanese Kakiemon examples and those inspired by them, were referred to as ‘Jars’ or ‘Jarrs’ in mid-18th century England. Nicholas Sprimont, the proprietor at Chelsea, is known to have purchased 'Six Jars and Beakers of Dresden China Ware' from the chinaman Thomas Morgan of Dover Street, Piccadilly. (Sotheby’s is thankful to Patricia Ferguson for this reference). The chinaman Robert Fogg included in his card of the 1760s, ‘at the China Jarr (sic)’ New Bond Street, London. It is tantalising to speculate the present vases were included among the ‘Jars’ at Holland House referenced in Digby’s letter, however documentation that would firmly place the vases there has yet to be discovered. From the letter we do learn that Hanbury-Williams was using the display of his personal collection at Holland House as a sort of showroom to procure clients for whom he could source Meissen porcelain in Dresden.
By the mid-18th century ‘Dresden’ (Meissen) porcelain was slowly becoming available, in small quantities, to the London market via Chinamen and Toymen. In 1747 the Chinaman James Anderson, presumably based in London, is selling stock, including “Jars, Beakers, Ewers…Some fine Dresden….”; in 1750 Mr Ford is stocking “curious Dresden and Chelsea figures” and in 1758 an advertisement for Thomas Turner of Bennet Street, St. James, lists his entire stock in trade to be sold, including “fine old Japan and other china including Dresden and Chelsea brought from his warehouse at Grand Parade at Bath.” The ‘toyman’ William Deard, who in the 1750s dealt in Haymarket handled “Dresden and other Fine China” (as cited by R. Hildyard, 'London Chinamen and others', E.C.C. Transactions, Vol. 18 No. 3, 2004).
The direct source for the Turkish figures appearing on the present examples is the book by Charles-François Silvestre (1667-1738), "Differents habillements de Turcs, dediez à monseigneur le duc de Bourgogne", circa 1700. One vase is painted with three figure panels taken from plates titled 'Visir Azem, ou Grand Visir'; 'Un Dogangi, ou Fauconnier du G.S.' and 'Vendeur de balets Turc.', the other vase with a figure panel from a plate titled 'Selictar Aga ou Celuy quiporte l'Epée ou les armes du G.S.'
