This is a beautiful plate made by Chelsea in about 1755, which is known as the "Red Anchor" period of the factory.
Chelsea was one of the very early adopters of porcelain in the British china industry. Founded in 1744 the Chelsea pottery was for about 40 years the leading maker of fine chinaware, excelling in their sense of style, perfection and constant innovation and inspiring many following generations of china makers.
The company was started by French silversmith Nicholas Sprimont and you can see the influence of the French style of silverware in the shape of this feather-moulded plate, which was taken from an previous version in silver that Sprimont made early in his career.
Chelsea items are very rare as production levels were still low at the time and of course many items simply have not survived. The Chelsea pottery was only in production for about 30 years, which further adds to the scarceness of the items; it is rare to come across Chelsea items.
The plate is moulded in the "feathered" shape with fine feather-like shapes on the rim that have been picked out in puce and aquamarine green. This shape was inspired by the silver items that Nicholas Sprimont would have designed previously. There are very finely painted wild flowers dotted all over the plate; these are not placed in planned locations, but where ever there was a blemish to hide, as was usual at the time. This creates a very playful and spontaneous effect that would be impossible to design in a planned manner.
This plate is marked with a red anchor mark, which dates it between 1753 and 1758. It also has a "Falcon House Collection" label, presumably of the collection it previously belonged to.
CONDITION REPORT The plate is in perfect antique condition without any damage, repairs, crazing or significant wear. It has a little area of scraping under the glaze of the rim (see last picture), which happened during production.
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1800s, and this meant that china from that period can have some firing specks from flying particles. British makers were also known for their experimentation, and sometimes this resulted in technically imperfect results. Due to the shrinkage in the kiln, items can have small firing lines or develop crazing over time, which should not be seen as damage but as an imperfection of the maker's recipes, probably unknown at the time of making. Items have often been used for many years and can have normal signs of wear, and gilt can have signs of slight disintegration even if never handled. I will reflect any damage, repairs, obvious stress marks, crazing or heavy wear in the item description but some minor scratches, nicks, stains and gilt disintegration can be normal for vintage items and need to be taken into account.
There is widespread confusion on the internet about the difference between chips and nicks, or hairlines and cracks. I will reflect any damage as truthfully as I can, i.e. a nick is a tiny bit of damage smaller than 1mm and a chip is something you can easily see with the eye; a glazing line is a break in the glazing only; hairline is extremely tight and/or superficial and not picked up by the finger; and a crack is obvious both to the eye and the finger. Etcetera - I try to be as accurate as I can and please feel free to ask questions or request more detailed pictures!
DIMENSIONS 21.5cm (8.5").
