Sauce Tureen
Date1753-1758
Artist/Maker
Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory
1745-1769
OriginEngland, London
MediumSoft-paste porcelain
DimensionsH: 3 3/8"; L: 6 1/2"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1975-103
DescriptionTureen and cover naturally modeled in the form of a recumbent duck, its head turned to the side and decorated in colors with purple wing feathers and yellow and purple back and tail feathers.Red anchor period.Label TextThis unusual sauce tureen in the form of a duck is one of the few pieces of Chelsea porcelain believed to have been in the colonies since the eighteenth century. The history of its long use in eastern Virginia is traditional, however, rather than strictly documented. Tradition holds that the tureen was removed from Maycocks plantation, Surry County, Virginia, by the Cole family during the Civil War. Martha Cole Ashton later presented it to her grandson, Judge John Ashton Mackenzie, from whom it was acquired by Colonial Williamsburg.
Although no period record of the tureen before the Civil War has been found, the family lived in Tidewater Virginia beginning in the mid-eighteenth century and was of sufficient wealth and sophistication to own English porcelain.
Ducks of this type and size are listed in the 1755 Chelsea sale catalog seventeen times. They are usually in sets of four and are described as "fine" or "very fine" and "in different postures." Twice they are referred to as "for desart." Another recorded duck of this size, in the Cecil Higgins Museum, Bedford, is indeed in a "different" posture--its head is forward instead of craned to one side. The 1756 sale lists none of these small tureens, but does include a pair of large "drake" and "duck" soup tureens.Inscription(s)Anchor painted in red on exterior base, and No.4 painted in red on
interior cover and interior base.Mark(s)NoneProvenanceEx. Coll: Mrs. Martha Everard Cole Ashton, Surry County and Portsmouth, Va.; Judge John Ashton Mackenzie, Portsmouth, Va.
