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Porcelain For Sale
Creator: Bow Porcelain
Creator: Lenox's Ceramic Art Company
Coffee Can, Polychrome "Strutting Bird", Bow Porcelain, circa 1752
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
An early coffee can from the bow porcelain factory, naively painted with the ‘Strutting Bird’ pattern.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can, Blue and White "Bamboo and Pagoda", Bow Porcelain, circa 1751
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
An early coffee can, painted under the glaze with Bamboo and a pagoda. Underglaze B mark.
Provenance: Taylor Collection; Sutherland; Aubrey Toppin; Charles Dyson.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Fortune Teller Figure. Bow Porcelain C1750
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
A young woman standing with the remains of a staff in her left hand, and in apparent apprehension as her future and fortune is being read by an exotic, enigmatic, bearded figure, app...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Cup and Saucer, Kakiemon Decoration, Bow Porcelain Factory, circa 1753
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Low tea cup with clip handle with matching saucer, decorated after the Kakiemon with the two quail pattern. An unusual form with scarce decoration.
Prov...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Japonisme Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can, Blue and White "Swans & Pagoda", Bow Porcelain, circa 1765
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Decorated with an under-glaze blue print of a Chinese landscape, featuring a man at the window of a pagoda, admiring swans on the lake.
Bow didn't produce very much in the way of ...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can, Blue and White "Ribbon Landscape", Bow Porcelain, circa 1753
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
An early coffee can, painted in under-glaze blue with a Chinese landscape.
Prov: Taylor Collection; Roderick Jellicoe.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Figure, Sportsman Toper, Bow Porcelain Factory, circa 1751
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Probably an early prototype, the largely open base showing an apparently unique structure described by Watney as ‘a favourite primitive buttressed by a strong overall cone-shape and further strengthened by a cut-out additional layer inside the base in the manner of pastry making.’ (Freeman Collection, Forward, 1982).
Toper is an old English word for a drunk.
Annulet Mark.
Prov: Taylor Coll, Albert Amor...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Decorative Basket, Bow Porcelain Factory, circa 1760
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
A pierced basket standing on a well-formed rococo base. Perhaps for potpourri, although the internal decoration suggests another use. We think probably oranges, chestnuts, etc.
Pr...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Rococo Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can, Blue and White "Desirable Residence", Bow Porcelain, circa 1758
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Painted in under-glaze blue with the Desirable Residence pattern, featuring telegraph poles, and unusual feature for this period.
Prov: Taylor Collection; Mercury Antiques Melbourne...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Pair of Fluted Dessert Plates, Kakiemon Decoration, Bow Porcelain Factory
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Each of shallow circular form with scalloped rim and painted in the Kakiemon two Quail pattern with a pair of partridges standing between a flowering prunus and a kikyo bush amidst f...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Japonisme Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Shell Sweetmeat Stand, Bow Porcelain, circa 1750
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Three-tiered stand for sweetmeats, in the form of shells and coral, and enameled with flowers; it is rare to find these in such good condition. Probably from a large dessert service.
These stands were popular in the Georgian period and were made by most of the porcelain factories. Many were modelled by a man named Tebo, who went from factory to factory creating these stands. He appears to have used real shells...
Category
Late 18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can, Blue and White "Cross-Legged Man", Bow Porcelain, circa 1751
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
An early coffee can, painted under the glaze with the cross-legged man pattern. An early and unusual shape for this scarce pattern.
Provenance: Taylor Collection; Robyn Robb.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Figure: David Garrick and the Shoeshine Boy, Bow Porcelain, circa 1751
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
A fashionably dressed gentleman, almost certainly the actor David Garrick: he wears a white frockcoat, pink waistcoat and red breeches, all with embroide...
Category
Late 18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can, Blue and White "Scholar's Rock" Bow Porcelain, circa 1751
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
An early coffee can, painted under the glaze with a Scholar’s Rock and associated items.
Prov. Taylor Collection; Stockspring Antiques.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Figure 'Scapino, ' from the Commedia Dell'arte, Bow Porcelain, circa 1751
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Scappino, or Scapin, a zany (zanni) character from the commedia dell'arte: a buffoon, schemer and scoundrel, and the title character in Molière's Les Fourberies de Scapin, first staged in 1671. The Bow figure shows him standing to right against a tree stump, right leg forward; right arm concealed in a tabarro (cape), and a mask in his left hand. He wears a white doublet, gilt frogged in the Hungarian manner, neck ruff, pale yellow-washed breeches above buckled shoes; a pouch on a red-brown strap and a dagger in a scabbard at the waist. Low square plinth base washed in typical pale Bow ‘lettuce’ green. No discernible translucency. H. 5.0 in (12.6 cm).
Provenance: Taylor Collection; Simon Spero London, 2008; the Faith and Dewayne Perry Collection.
The Scapino figure was presumably based on the Meissen modelled 1743-45 by Peter Reinicke, assisted by Käendler, and from the series produced for Johann Adlf II, Duke of Weissenfels, after an engraving by Francois Joullain (1662-1753) for Riccobin’s Historie du Théatre Italien, 1728. The modelling and features of the Bow figure suggest the work of the ‘Muses Modeller’, and the pallete, gilding and detail are also those of the muses modeller figures. This figure illustrated Bradshaw, 1992, as circa 1753, Plate 10 (A12), p.64.
Scapino is depicted musically in William...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Cherub Candlestick, in the White, Bow Porcelain Factory, circa 1750
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
This example illustrated Tilley 1957, Pl. LXVII, #203 who, p.127, also draws attention to the similarity of the modelling of the figure and the Bow Mongolian busts, and their similar...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Doctor, from the Commedia Dell'arte, Bow Porcelain, circa 1752
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Il Dottore from the Commedia dell’Arte, in the white.
He stands in an histrionic pose against a tree stump and wears a high brimmed hat (presumably a black academic bonnet), long-buttoned coat over frilled cuffs, falling jabeaux, breeches, boots and a cloak; his right hand on hip, his left arm and hand raised. Slightly grey-white porcelain; even, unctuous glaze. Straw translucency. Underside wiped; air hole at centre. Square hole at rear for mount. Measure: H 6.3 in (16 cm).
Provenance: Taylor Collection, from Stockspring Antiques, London, 1998. The Miss G...
Category
Late 18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Figure, Mercury, Bow Porcelain, circa 1748
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
He wears a winged helmet and sandals, a loosely draped pink, white, and yellow washed cloak over a short tunic, and leans arrogantly against bales, his message sack over his left sho...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Pair of figures: Jupiter and Juno, or Zeus and Hera. Bow Porcelain C1752
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
She stands barefoot, wearing a long-sleeved robe in white, deep pink and washed pale yellow and partly edged with gold; a red and gilt-topped sceptre in her right hand, an outsize pe...
Category
1750s English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Figure of Pointing Boy by Bow Porcelain Factory, circa 1751
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Presumably based on the work of the Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy (1597-1643), also known as Il Fiammingo.
A small series of Chelsea figures from the late 1740s was also ba...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Figure of The Vintner's Companion, Bow Porcelain Factory, circa 1748
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Moulded in a dense body in typical muses modeller style and with slightly drab glaze. She stands by a fruiting vinestock and carries an open basket of grapes in her right hand, her e...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Early Cream Boat, Worcester, circa 1753
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
A small, early boat of rare oval form, the more usual being the hexagonal.
Appealingly naïve polychrome decoration of the period, possibly done outside the factory at one of the enamelling works.
The early Worcester...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Early Bow Porcelain Pickle Dish, circa 1748
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
In the early ‘mushroom grey’ body, probably made by hand; decorated with some very good flower painting.
Provenance: Taylor Collection; Simon Spero 2007.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Tankard with Printed Decoration, Bow Porcelain Factory, circa 1758
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Pint mug, in baluster form, decorated with early transfer prints of pheasants and two sheep. Transfer printing on bow porcelain is very rare.
Prov: Taylor Coll; Winifred Williams,...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can, Blue and White "Banana Trees", Bow Porcelain, circa 1753
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
An early coffee can, painted in under-glaze blue with banana trees in a landscape.
Prov: Taylor Collection; Parkside Antiques.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Kitty Clive Figure
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
One of Bow's theatrical figures.
The actress Mrs Catherine (Kitty) Clive, 1711-1785, as Mrs Riot, the Fine Lady, introduced, with The Fine Gentleman, into David Garrick...
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Cauldron Salt Cellar, in the White, Bow Porcelain Factory, circa 1752
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
A cauldron-shaped salt: a direct copy of a contemporary (Georgian) silver shape in soft-paste porcelain.
Provenance: Taylor collection.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can, Blue and White "Man at the Window" Bow Porcelain, circa 1760
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Painted in under-glaze blue with a pattern possibly depicting a reluctant bride.
Provenance Taylor Collection; Mercury Antiques.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Coffee Can: Blue and White "Stork & Banana Tree". Bow Porcelain C1753
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
An early coffee can, painted under the glaze with the Stork & Banana Tree pattern.
Provenance Taylor Collection; Sutherland Collection.
Category
Mid-18th Century English Chinoiserie Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Pair of Itinerant Ballad Singer figures. Bow porcelain C1748
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
Flemish man and wife, in the white. He wears an open coat, waistcoat, breeches and tricorn hat, and plays a hurdy-gurdy. She wears a sleeved dress, long apron and linen cap and carri...
Category
1740s English Neoclassical Antique Porcelain
Materials
Porcelain
Antique and Vintage Porcelain Dinner Plates, Platters and Serveware for Sale
Today you’re likely to bring out your antique and vintage porcelain in order to dress up your dining table for a special meal.
Porcelain, a durable and nonporous kind of pottery made from clay and stone, was first made in China and spread across the world owing to the trade routes to the Far East established by Dutch and Portuguese merchants. Given its origin, English speakers called porcelain “fine china,” an expression you still might hear today. "Fine" indeed — for over a thousand years, it has been a highly sought-after material.
Meissen Porcelain, one of the first factories to create real porcelain outside Asia, popularized figurine centerpieces during the 18th century in Germany, while works by Capodimonte, a porcelain factory in Italy, are synonymous with flowers and notoriously hard to come by. Modern porcelain houses such as Maison Fragile of Limoges, France — long a hub of private porcelain manufacturing — keep the city’s long tradition alive while collaborating with venturesome contemporary artists such as illustrator Jean-Michel Tixier.
Porcelain is not totally clumsy-guest-proof, but it is surprisingly durable and easy to clean. Its low permeability and hardness have rendered porcelain wares a staple in kitchens and dining rooms as well as a common material for bathroom sinks and dental veneers. While it is tempting to store your porcelain behind closed glass cabinet doors and reserve it only for display, your porcelain dinner plates and serving platters can safely weather the “dangers” of the dining room and be used during meals.
Add different textures and colors to your table with dinner plates and pitchers of ceramic and silver or a porcelain lidded tureen, a serving dish with side handles that is often used for soups. Although porcelain and ceramic are both made in a kiln, porcelain is made with more refined clay and is stronger than ceramic because it is denser.
On 1stDibs, browse an expansive collection of antique and vintage porcelain made in a variety of styles, including Regency, Scandinavian modern and other examples produced during the mid-century era, plus Rococo, which found its inspiration in nature and saw potters crafting animal figurines and integrating organic motifs such as floral patterns in their work.
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