neil guthrie

MEASUREMENTS The tea bowl is 3 3/8” (8.5 cm) in diameter, 2 1/4” (5.5 cm) in height. The coffee can is 2 5/8” (6.7 cm) in diameter, 3 1/2” (8.8 cm) with handle, 2 1/2” (6 cm) in height. The saucer is 5 1/2” (14 cm) in diameter and 1” (2.6 cm) deep.

One of many blue and gold ‘everyday’ patterns produced by various Worcester factories during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some factories offered patterns in simple ‘trios’ like this set, a tea cup with coffee can and saucer.

A nice coffee cup, I really should use the pieces I have in this pattern more.

A spiral fluted porcelain tea cup, coffee can and saucer manufactured during the last quarter of the 18th century at Worcester, decorated in underglaze blue and with gilt oval and berry highlights on the inside rims. I used to collect variations of this pattern, it's somewhat easy to find.

Auction catalogue (lightly edited): ‘Of attractive small size, the round funnel bowl decorated with bucrania and paterae within entwined festoons of husk ornament, the rim gilt, on a diamond-faceted stem, the facets extending into the base of the bowl, over a conical foot, 9.7cm high. This celebrated pattern is described in the 1774 catalogue of Giles's stock as “stags heads and pateras, with festoons, husks, etc...” and a similar design was used by the Giles workshop on Worcester porcelain and other glassware.’

Gilded facet-stem wineglass decorated by James Giles (c1770), at Bonhams, London (sold - alas, not to me - for £307.20 incl. commission; est. £500-800) #c18th #c18 #18thc

Exhibition | Badin: Beyond Surface and Mask From the Swedish Nationalmuseum in Stockholm: Badin: Beyond Surface and Mask Nationalmuseum, 19 February – 9 August 2026 Running alongside and partially integrated with the exhibition on artist Joh…

Exhibition | Badin: Beyond Surface and Mask enfilade18thc.com/2026/02/14/e...

Chantilly on the left. Two white porcelain bottles with square tops and four sides that flare from the base of the next into a somewhat gourd-like shape, painted with flowers in characteristic blue, orange and green

Two bottles, one produced in Arita, Japan (c1680-1700), the other in France at the Chantilly factory (c1735-40). Which is which? Answer in the alt. George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc

An allegory of painting sits, depressed, clutching a palette and brush, with her hand over her eyes, while a personification of love crowns her and pushes away an allegory of jealousy

Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, Love Consoles Painting from the Bitter and Ridiculous Criticisms of her Enemies, 1781, Oil on panel, 21 x 27 cm. (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

Cover of the Penguin edition (reprinted 1980) with a detail from JC Natte's 'View of Bath Abbey' (1805). Chapter 9: 'I am sure of _this_ – that if every body was to drink their bottle a-day, there would not be half the disorders in the world there are now. It would be a famous good thing for us all.'

Drawing of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra on the inside front cover, first page with a brief blurb about the editor, Anne H. Ehrenpreis, and ownership inscription of a much younger me, 'Neil Guthrie 28th March 1981'

I'm re-reading the novels, starting with Northanger Abbey. Used this edition as an undergraduate for Pat Brückmann's inspiring Fiction before 1832 course. (Long) #c18th #c18 #18thc

White porcelain coffee pot with floral decortaion n classic turquoise, pale and dark blue, green and orange. The finial on the lid of the pot is a green-leafed white bud streaked with orange; a characteristic Chantilly staghorn beetle is painted in brown on the top of the lid

Coffee pot (Chantilly, c1735-40), imitating Japanese Kakiemon. George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc

Saint-Cloud porcelain, circa 1730-1740.

Decided to plant tulip bulbs in a couple of 18th century Saint-Cloud pomade pots. So far, so good.

Dealer's description: 'Etching and engraving. 460 x 330mm (18¼ x 13¼"), with large margins. Small tear in margins taped, margins spotted and stained. Engraved portrait of Charles Edward Stuart, half-length, turned to right; in armour, with insignia of the Order of the Garter; in trompe l'œil masonry border, title and coat of arms.' The fact that this (and much other Jacobite material culture, notably the glassware) dates from after 1746 suggests that the defeat at Culloden was not seen at the time as the definitive end-point of the Stuart enterprise. Battered, like the masonry around the portrait, but not destroyed; the Prince did, after all, escape to the continent and might have pulled off a second attempt if he'd been able to bring the French round to his side. This print may have been part of that, as the European powers negotiated the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (which unhelpfully resulted in Charles Edward's expulsion from France).

'Carolus Walliæ Princeps &c. &c. &c. Peint par L Tocqué 1748 et Gravé par J. G. Will en la même année' (Prince Charles Edward after Tocqué, 1748), with Grosvenor Prints, London #Jacobite #c18th #c18 #18thc

Fairly large, and heavy. With bases, too. Pre-sale estimate: $40,000-60,000.

Empty seats in the front. Most of the bidders were in the back or leaving bids by phone or on the internet.

Watched these two porcelain busts of Louis & M-A sell today at Christie’s, New York. Not to me, $80K on the hammer ($101,600 with charges) is a little out of my price range.

Mary Wilkes was an absolutely extraordinary person. Every bit as talented as her brother, John, whom she resembled in many ways.
Fantastic portrait of her, which really captures her grit and determination.

The decoration is derived from Japanese originals but the shape of the dish mimics the scrollwork of English rococo silver. A dark orange tiger with a flourishing tail looks up at a similarly coloured dragon perched precariously on a single stalk of bamboo amidst pale green, turquoise and orange flowers against a white background

Dish with dragon and tiger (Chelsea, c1750-52), Gardiner Museum, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc

A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED MEISSEN PORCELAIN MODELS OF ROLLERS, CIRCA 1740, MODELED BY J.J. KÄNDLER WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF J.G. EHDER, THE ORMOLU MOUNTS MID-18TH CENTURY Estimate USD 50,000 – USD 80,000

Check out the squirrel on the left! A PAIR OF MEISSEN PORCELAIN MODELS OF JAYS 19TH CENTURY, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARKS, AFTER THE MODEL BY J.J. KÄNDLER Estimate USD 10,000 – USD 15,000

A PAIR OF MEISSEN PORCELAIN MODELS OF PIED WAGTAILS CIRCA 1740, TRACE OF BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK TO ONE, MODELED BY J.G. KIRCHNER AND PROBABLY BY J.G. EHDER Estimate USD 20,000 – USD 30,000

A PAIR OF MEISSEN PORCELAIN MODELS OF GOLDEN ORIOLES CIRCA 1750, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK TO ONE, MODELED BY J.J. KÄNDLER AND J.G. EHDER Estimate USD 20,000 – USD 30,000

Pairs of amazing 18th century Meissen porcelain birds on exhibition at Christie's, New York. All actual size and selling tomorrow. (see ALT)

daguerreotype of Martin Routh. Aged 99, he is slumped in an armchair and his eyes are cast down. He sports one of his famous horsehair wigs. The print is in a small red box stamped with the name of M. Kilburn, 234 Regent Square (who no doubt took the picture).

Poster advertising an Old Library exhibition at Magdalen College. The exhibition is 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day. The exhibition was curated by Dr Emily Jennings and Dr Richard Allen. It runs to 15th April 2026. A black and white photograph of Magdalen staff posed in the Cloisters forms the header of the poster.

This daguerreotype of Magdalen's President Martin Routh was taken on his 99th birthday on 18 September 1854. In it, he can be seen wearing his famous wig, more typical of fashions of the 1750s than the 1850s.
See this, and the wig itself, in our Old Library.
📍Old Library
📆🕑 OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm

Incredible sunset from my office @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Catalogue: 'Bombé octagonal with scroll spout, the hinged cover with wood finial, with leather-wrapped bifurcated swing handle, later engraved on one side with a coat-of-arms, the stand with three double scroll supports on pad feet, the octagonal burner later engraved with a crest on the cover, fully marked on underside of kettle and underside of stand, handle with leopard's head erased twice, cover with leopard's head erased and maker's mark, the burner cover apparently unmarked. The arms [added later] are those of Hall impaling Bilbie for Captain Francis Hall (1805-1888) of the 7th Hussars, Park Hall, Mansfield Woodhouse, Co. Nottinghamshire, and his wife Mary Ann (d. 1877), only daughter and eventual heiress of Joseph Bilbie of Bildworth, Co. Nottinghamshire, who married in 1832.'

Tea-kettle and stand by John Sanders (London, 1717), at Christie's, NY (est. US$4,000-6,000) #c18th #c18 #18thc

Un dessin par @flomanelli.bsky.social derrière moi !

In the form of a life-sized tulip flower in white with puce streaks. The petals are topped with a gilt brass lid and, for the stopper of the bottle, a tiny porcelain bird (also white with puce streaks on its wings). Actual tulips seem a long way off in frigid, snowy Toronto

Scent bottle (Chelsea, c1755), George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc

Eighteenth-century heaven.

A VINCENNES PORCELAIN GILT WHITE ECUELLE, COVER AND STAND (ECUELLE ‘RONDE’ ET PLATEAU ‘ROND’, 2EME GRANDEUR) MADE TO CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF A ROYAL GRANDSON CIRCA 1752-1753, BLUE INTERLACED L'S SURMOUNTED BY A DUCAL CROWN AND ENCLOSING A FLEUR-DE-LYS TO BOWL AND STAND, DESIGNED BY JEAN-CLAUDE DUPLESSIS Estimate USD 40,000 – USD 60,000 Richly gilt and chased with vignettes of the Arts and Sciences including Painting, Music, Literature, Geography, Medicine, Culinary Arts, Military Arts, Fishing and Gardening within a decorative half sun-burst and scroll band edging the rims, the fringed flag seen in the military trophy on the side of the bowl chased with the French royal cypher of interlaced L’s also associated with the porcelain manufactory, the center of the stand gilt and chased with two upturned dolphins emblematic of the newborn dauphin within a trellis arch 8 ½ in. (21.5 cm.) diameter, the dodecagonal stand PROVENANCE Very possibly the gilt-decorated example of the 2nd size delivered to Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (Mme de Pompadour) on 28 December 1752 at a cost of 192 livres (Registre de Ventes XVIII Siècle, 1août 1752 – 30 juillet 1756, Ventes à Crédit depuis le 18bre 1752 jusqu’au 10 7bre 1753, p. 5). With S.J. Phillips, London, 1960s. Acquired from the above by Annie Laurie Aitken (1900-1984) and Russell Barnett Aitken (1910-2002).

A photo of Mrs. Aitken's living room as it was. The soup bowl and cover with stand sitting on a spectacular French table on the right. Edith Wharton would be proud. Everything you see here is up for auction, too.

A fine soup bowl (écuelle) with cover and stand for sale at Christie's. And that's an understatement. Vincennes factory, circa 1753, gilt trophy decoration, possibly owned by Madame de Pompadour. The second picture shows how it was placed in Irene Roosevelt Aitken's living room. (see ALT)

Catalogue: 'Each a bell-shaped bowl engraved with a six-petal rose and a single closed bud on a leafy stem, on a multi-spiral air twist stem and round conical foot.' Not especially interesting specimens?

Two #Jacobite wineglasses (mid #c18th #c18 #18thc), at Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh (est. £600-800)

Pairs of birds on brackets, mostly. The two walls on the sides also have brackets with animal figures. Reminds me of the David Rockefeller sale here a few years ago but that had a specially-built aviary to display all of those Meissen birds, etc.

A PAIR OF MEISSEN PORCELAIN MODELS OF SEATED HARES THE PORCELAIN MID-18TH CENTURY, THE DECORATION OF LATER DATE, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARKS Each with its fur picked out in brown and black, naturalistically modeled alert and seated on a mound base applied with flowers 6 ½ in. (16.5 cm.) high, the slightly taller Estimate USD 5,000 – USD 7,000

A PAIR OF ORMOLU-MOUNTED MEISSEN PORCELAIN MODELS OF PUGS CIRCA 1745, MODELED BY J.J. KÄNDLER, POSSIBLY ASSISTED BY P. REINICKE, THE ORMOLU BASES LATE 19TH CENTURY Each naturalistically modeled seated and wearing a collar painted with deutsche Blumen and applied with bells and a large purple bow at the back, the female dog with a feeding pup, on mound bases applied with flowers and foliage, supported on ormolu spreading plinths headed by rockwork 7 ¼ in. (18.3 cm.) high, overall Estimate USD 15,000 – USD 25,000

A MEISSEN PORCELAIN ‘PADUAN COCK’ TUREEN AND COVER CIRCA 1773, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, MODELED BY J.J. KÄNDLER Naturalistically modeled resting with its legs tucked beneath him, an alert expression below his feathered tufts and comb 10 5⁄8 in. (27 cm.) high. Estimate USD 10,000 – USD 15,000

This week's exhibition at Christie's, New York. The Irene Roosevelt Aitken sale. Here's the room of Meissen porcelain animals and birds on brackets on three walls, an 18th century menagerie. The photos do not do justice to the display. (see ALT)

Oh god, yes please

Virgil's Tomb, with the Figure of Silius Italicus

Virgil's Tomb, with the Figure of Silius Italicus https://www.wikiart.org/en/joseph-wright/virgil-s-tomb-with-the-figure-of-silius-italicus-1779

More in the alt text on that ;)

Marble bust of Sir James Edward Smith (1759-1828), founder of @linneansociety.bsky.social, spotted in the Society this week. In 1784 he bought for £1000 the collection of manuscripts, books & specimens brought together by Carl Linnaeus, which later became the foundations of the Linnean Society.

White porcelain in the shape of a bicycle seat, with handlebars for horns (after Picasso's Tête de taureau (1942)). Decorated in blue with a mounted Indigenous brave brandishing a bullwhip to subdue a white settler lying on the ground. A pair of bemused buffalo look on, and there is a buffalo skull in the foreground of the scene. Edge decorated with Meissen onion-pattern designs

Closer view of the seat. The mounted, high-heeled brave is Monkman's Two-Spirit alter ego, the redoubtable Miss Chief Eagle Testickle

Kent Monkman, Bull in a China Shop (2015), Gardiner Museum, Toronto. A playful take on Picasso and the collision of Indigenous & European. Kent knows bison bones were used in the making of china, and his floral border is derived from Meissen's onion pattern (introduced in 1733) #c18th #c18 #18thc

Just got a ticket for both nights :)

Fantastic! Thank you. Parry was quite good, actually - I was unaware of his work before this

More hunting than political, I expect