An important and documentary Lowestoft large tureen and cover signed by Robert Allen, circa 1768-70

Footnotes

Provenance
Bonhams sale, 3 June 2015, lot 16

This important tureen and cover does not appear in the literature. Its significance lies in the appearance of the signature 'Allin' and painter's numeral 5 together on the same piece, confirming the traditional association of the painter Robert Allen with this painter's number. This association was previously based upon two bowls and a milk jug inscribed with the name of Allen's aunt, Elizabeth Buckle. One of the Buckle bowls bears the date 1768 and all carry the painter's numeral 5. For a comparable documentary piece, bearing both a painter's name and number, see the jug signed by Richard Phillips and inscribed 'Ann Hammond. Woodbridge. April 1764' discussed by Christopher Spencer, Early Lowestoft (1981), figs.9-11.

In his book Lowestoft Porcelains (1985), p.217, Geoffrey Godden states that only two tureens of this shape and size are recorded, one of these presumably being the example illustrated by Bernard Watney, English Blue and White Porcelain of the 18th Century (1973), fig.78A. Both examples are painted in blue with a Chinese river scene which also appears on platters and on two similarly shaped tureens of smaller size, one in a private collection and another in Norwich Castle Museum.

The present lot is a third example of this shape but painted with an unrecorded and typically quirky pattern. Although the farmhouse in the forefront of the scene has a half-timbered gable and is roofed with pantiles characteristic of eastern England, the building is most unlike those found in Suffolk, with Continental and even Chinese influences in its architecture. The presence of Cupid within the interior of the vessel may suggest that it was made to celebrate a marriage and is perhaps a punch bowl rather than a soup tureen. Certainly its importance must have been recognised by Allen himself, his signature a measure of his pride in such fine work.