Pair of Sauce Tureens

Details

Date

1813

Author / Artist

Flight, Barr and Barr Worcester

Dimensions

20cm high

Material

Porcelain

Catalogue number

HBT.1.1-6

Current location

Museum

The 186-piece ‘Stowe Service’ was sold in the 1848 Stowe Sale for £28.18.0 to T. Delarue of Bunhill Row. During the years that followed, the family sought to recover pieces from the Service. In 1922, the contents of Stowe again came up for sale. This time, what remained of the Service was bought by the noted porcelain dealer J. Rochelle-Thomas of St James’s, who described it in an advertisement in a 1923 issue of ‘Connoisseur’ as ‘The Most Magnificent Dinner Service Ever Made’.

The heraldic achievement with which each piece was painted is of exaggerated grandeur and complexity, reflecting the family’s relatively recent rise to the nobility. Its original owner, Richard 2nd Marquess of Buckingham, was made a Duke in 1822. He had only just succeeded his father when the service was ordered, and the richness of the service reflects his aspirations.

In 1974, at a Sotheby’s sale, a single lot was purchased (two sauce tureens, one with a repaired lid) by the Hall Bequest Trust for £900. With great generosity the vender Peter Thomas later presented the school with two of the plates from the service, one from the Barr, Flight and Barr period (1807-13) and the other from the Flight, Barr and Barr period (1813-40).