Tea canister
Category
Ceramics
Date
c. 1745
Materials
Porcelain, enamel, gold
Measurements
120 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 433505
Summary
Tea canister, porcelain, of ovoid shape, with a band of scrollwork in high relief where the body and the spreading foot meet, with a straight neck surmounted by a domed lid with a bud-shaped finial, made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China, Qianlong period (1736–95), c. 1745, decorated in famille rose (‘pink family’) enamels and gold with the arms of Egerton as borne by the Dukes of Bridgewater: argent a lion rampant gules between three pheons sable, with the crest, above a peer’s helm (almost certainly incorrect), on a chapeau gules turned up ermine, a lion rampant of the first supporting an arrow erect or, headed and feathered argent, the motto ‘Sic donec’ (‘Thus, until’), a downward-pointing spearhead border in red and gold around the neck and lobed vignettes of flowers on the lid.
Full description
This tea canister was probably made for John Egerton (1721–87), who in 1748 married Lady Anne Sophia de Grey (1730–80), daughter of Henry, 1st Duke of Kent (1671–1740). Egerton’s sons succeeded as the 7th and 8th Earls of Bridgewater, while his granddaughter, Sophia (1787/8–1814) was the first wife of John Cust, 2nd Baron and 1st Earl Brownlow (1779–1835).
Provenance
Purchased by the National Trust with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1984.
Marks and inscriptions
Sic Donec (Egerton family motto)
References
Howard 2003: David Sanctuary Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, volume 2, Chippenham, 2003, P20, p. 345