Saucer

Nicholas Sprimont, a Huguenot goldsmith, ran the Chelsea porcelain factory, supported financially by the diplomat Sir Everard Fawkener. He was born in Liège, a French-speaking part of Flanders, and was trained as a silversmith. His skill as a modeller and designer is reflected in many of the factory's early productions. A wide range of influences inspired Chelsea wares including designs found on French, German and East Asian porcelains. Chelsea porcelain was aimed at an aristocratic, wealthy clientele.

This soft-paste porcelain octagonal saucer is decorated in enamel colours with a pattern based on a Japanese Kakiemon design. In Chelsea sale catalogues of the mid 1750s, it was called the 'lady' or 'fine old Japan Lady' pattern. The distinctive turquoise-green, red, blue and gold decoration stand out against the pure white body of the saucer. Such scenes were attractive to fashionable society who sought out exotic, Oriental-inspired decorative objects for their homes.