This is a rare and sublimely made little ewer created by George Owen and painted by Ernest Phillips at Royal Worcester in the year 1903. The ewer has honeycomb piercing and a beautiful hand painted bouquet of roses. George Owen was the top artist at Royal Worcester and Ernest Phillips was one of only two painters George Owen collaborated with regularly on his pierced pieces. 
 
This small ewer is ivory-white with a very fine honeycomb-pierced body and a pierced and hollow handle, topped by a little pine apple. There is a leaf-moulded rim on the base and the upper neck, and both these rims and the handle are picked off in gilt. The front of the ewer has a beautiful lavish bouquet of roses painted by Ernest Phillips. 
 
The ewer is extremely rare; although Owen and Phillips made quite a few of these little ewers, we have never seen one as complex and elaborate as this one. This ewer has a very complex band of honeycomb piercing, and Phillips' flowers are a lavish bouquet of roses in a basket, while usually he painted more modest garlands. 
 
The original Worcester factory was founded in the mid 18th Century and belongs to the group of famous pioneering potteries in Britain. It went through various changes and take overs, and in the mid 19th Century it merged with Chamberlains and Grainger, both earlier split-offs, taking the new name "Royal Worcester". The pottery distinguished itself with its extremely high quality of artwork, hiring the best artists and always coming up with very vivid designs full of flowers, birds and fruits. It was in operation until the early 21st Century but eventually succumbed to the changing times.
 
George Owen was a modeller with a truly unique skill of reticulating (piercing) extremely fine decorative pieces. While there were other modellers with this skill, no one was able to work to Owen's standard and his pieces stand out in perfection, detail and beauty. Owen worked behind locked doors and never allowed anyone to see how he created his "ivory reticulated" pieces as they were called - he would even put away his tools when disturbed, lest anyone would discover his method. One thing that made Owen unrivalled at his skill was the fact that he was ambidextrous, i.e. he could work right-handed as well as left-handed with the same precision, allowing him to change hands depending on which side of a vase he was working on and applying equal pressure either way. Owen had his vases cast especially thinly by his son, however even his son was not allowed to watch him work and the piercing took place behind a locked door.
 
Owen's pieces were incredibly expensive to make; the slightest lapse of concentration could lead to the knife slipping or the item drying out too much, which would ruin it. Then during firing in the kiln anything could go wrong and one could never be sure whether these very fragile pieces would come out broken or sagged. Each piece would take many months to create, often with intermittent periods of having to slowly be brought to the correct degree of wetness in a "wet box". Yet Owen's skills saw Royal Worcester through a very difficult period as they attracted much-needed attention at trade shows and created a new fashion among the wealthy elites.

The ewer was painted by the famous porcelain artist Ernest Phillips, who started working for Royal Worcester in 1890 and continued until his death in 1932. He specialised in very fine flowers. Phillips' flowers have a particular neat finish that reminds you of the very early Worcester style. Few artists had the sense of colour and fine hand that Phillips did and his paintings were very popular. Phillips knew what he was painting; he loved growing flowers himself and knew all about them, spending much of his free time painting water colours of his beloved flowers. Phillips was one of only two painters George Owen collaborated with, the other being Owen's contemporary Harry Chair. What is special about the flowers on this ewer is that Phillips usually painted running garlands on Owen's pieces, but in this case he painted a basket with a bouquet of roses.
 
The ewer is marked with the puce Royal Worcester mark with a date mark for 1903 and shape number 1260, which was brought out in 1887 but described in the shape book as "not pierced". However, the fearless George Owen did pierce this tiny shape. The painted image is signed by Phillips on the lower left hand side.
 
The ewer is not signed by George Owen but is considered a genuine Owen. There are several reasons: 1) this ewer was finished in 1903 but could well have been made by Owen before signing his work became the standard in 1900, as Owen often worked with a backlog of several years; 2) the quality of the piercing is extremely fine; 3) the very fact that this shape no. 1260, which was not registered as pierced, was pierced at all points to it being executed by Owen and 4) the fact that the ewer was painted by Ernest Phillips, who was one of two painters collaborating with Owen. These four reasons all point to this ewer being a genuine Owen piece.
 
CONDITION REPORT This ewer is in perfect condition.
 
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 15.5cm (6") tall and 7cm (2.75") diameter.