This is a beautiful small bowl made by Flight in Worcester probably around the year 1785. The bowl is decorated in the "blue scale" style including reserves with fancy birds and insects. It carries a underglaze blue fret mark.
This bowl might in fact be a saucer for one of the famous chocolate cups, which came with a cover and a deep saucer.
The famous 18thC Worcester Porcelain factory was sold to John Flight in 1783. Flight had to confront a lot of problems with the kilns and initially did not bring out any radical new designs, but continued the popular Worcester designs. That this dish is from the challenging mid-1780s ca be seen from the quality of the glaze; it is not completely smooth and has what the kilnsmen called "mouse droppings"; small black specs in the glaze. This was caused by excess sulphur in the kilns that took a number of years to fix. In 1792 Martin Barr joined as a partner and in the decades to follow the factory went through various iterations of Flight & Barr partnerships. This was the beginning of a very properouse era that would last until 1840, when the factory was sold to Chamberlains Worcester, eventually resulting in the Royal Worcester that many of us are familiar with in more recent times.
This beautiful bowl has a pleasing, slightly lobed shape; the decoration consists of a powder blue scaled ground and white reserves with finely hand painted "fancy birds", butterflies and bugs in the Sèvres style. This pattern had been done extensively by the Worcester factory since the 1760s. The bowl is marked on the underside with an underglaze Worcester fret mark that imitates the Chinese marks of that era.
CONDITION REPORT: The bowl is in perfect antique condition without any damage, repairs, crazing or even wear other than some very minimal rubbing as can be expected.
Antique 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. 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.
Dimensions: 14.5cm (5.75") diameter and 5cm (2") high.
Flight Worcester small bowl, blue scale with fancy birds, insects, ca 1785
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We always aim to have happy customers so if you have an issue with or questions about your item, please contact us and we will do anything we can to resolve the issue with you!
