A small octagonal Chelsea teabowl, circa 1753

Finely painted with a castle and trees to the foreground, birds flying above, and a ladybird and flying insect to the reverse, the rim enamelled in brown.  The decoration is in the manner of Meissen from the 1740s, and is found mainly in the period before the Chelsea factory changed the porcelain recipe in about 1754-55.

Diameter: 6.2cm

Condition: a low, fine crack, barely visible but running around most of the teabowl.  There is a tiny rim chip just above the birds on the left.

£950