A Very Rare Worcester Milk Jug and Cover, Circa 1765-68

Puttick & Simpson, London, April 2, 1963;

Thomas Ernest Inman Collection;

Christie's London, November 19, 1979, lot 191;

Albert Amor, London;

R. David Butti Collection, no. 111, bearing labels;

Bonhams London, May 10, 2006, lot 59

London, Albert Amor, James Giles China Painter, 1977, fig. 47, bearing label

London, Albert Amor, The Golden Age of English Porcelain, 1980, fig. 52, bearing label

London, Albert Amor, Important English Porcelain, June 1985, fig. 8521

This milk jug was part of a service formed of Worcester and Chinese porcelain painted in the atelier of James Giles. It is not known how complete the service was in the 18th century, but at the point of sale in 1963, twenty-three pieces from the service remained together. Nine pieces were Worcester porcelain, including the present milk-jug, a sugar bowl, a waste bowl and six coffee-cups, and in Chinese porcelain there was a tea canister, nine teabowls and four saucers.

Pieces which likely came from the 1963 sale include a Worcester slop bowl and two coffee cups, and a Chinese porcelain tea canister and two bowls and saucers which were in the Barratt Collection, Crowe Hall, Bath, sold at Christie's London, December 10, 2010, lots 301-306. A further Worcester coffee cup, and a Chinese teabowl and saucer sold at Bonhams London, December 10, 2008, lot 176. The Worcester sugar bowl from the service was in the Mrs R. M. Robertson Collection, exhibited by Albert Amor, London, 'Treasures from Toronto', 1993, fig. 43

For examples of the service and similar wares see Stephen Hanscombe, James Giles: china and glass painter (1718-1780), 2005, fig. 88, and Hanscombe, The Early James Giles and His Contemporary London Decorators, 2008, figs. 115-117.

A similar part-service, formerly in the Harrow Bunn collection and now in the collection of Her Majesty The Queen, at Sandringham House, Norfolk, comprises a teapot and cover, milk-jug and cover, slop-basin and five cups and saucers.

The figure seen on the present milk jug also features in a slightly extended scene with a companion figure on the important Worcester 'Harlequin Service' 'sky-blue' ground teapot decorated by James Giles, with Haughton Gallery, London.