A maroon ground basket in Rococo Revival style with pierced pale yellow ends, a twig handle and five flower reserves with single flowers
Pattern 2/5610
Year: ca 1835
Size: 22.5cm (8.75”) long, 13cm (5”) tall
Condition: handle has been repaired, see last picture
This basket forms part of the Murray Pollinger Collection of Samuel Alcock Porcelain. Most of the collection is not publicly available yet, but if you would like to get access to the first 100 lots, please sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of this page, and we will send you the full catalogue with more information, from which you can purchase more items.
Murray Pollinger was a passionate collector of Samuel Alcock porcelain. He was known as a true gentleman, impeccably dressed, always kind and modest - even some of his porcelain collecting friends had no idea about the size and importance of his collection. From the mid 1980s until shortly before his death in 2022 he collected many thousands of pieces and painstakingly catalogued them. He also went on trips to Staffordshire to discover the history of Samuel Alcock from whatever little documentation has been preserved. Through his painstaking work, Pollinger was able to make sense of the pattern numbering system that was used, and this was a huge step forward in identifying and understanding the porcelain. A website with the results of his research will be made availabe over the course of 2023. While he sold off about half of his collection in 2016, the remaining half is now made available to a new generation of collectors.
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!
