Significant Collection of Early English Porcelain Heads Fine & Decorative Auction

 

Roseberys is delighted to present the Susan Beazley Collection of porcelain in the Fine & Decorative sale on Wednesday 1 October. Assembled over several decades, this distinguished collection exemplifies Susan Beazley’s profound knowledge and connoisseurship of early English porcelain from the great manufacturers. It reflects a lifetime devoted to appreciation of the technical refinements, formal elegance and playful innovation characteristic of early English porcelain, with a particular focus on Chelsea, Bow, Derby, Worcester and Lowestoft wares, alongside English-decorated Chinese porcelains and figures from Continental factories.

 

Susan Beazley began her career at Sotheby’s in the 1950s, working closely with A.J.B. “Jim” Kiddell, one of the firm’s most respected directors. Under his guidance she cultivated a scholarly eye and a tactile appreciation for porcelain, receiving as her first piece a sparrowbeak jug. Over the years she developed strong relationships with leading London dealers and became a familiar presence in Kensington Church Street, then colloquially known as “Crock Alley,” as well as at fairs and exhibitions across the UK. Her collecting was informed by both rigorous study and a delight in unusual forms, whimsical designs and subtle interplays of colour, texture and light.

 

 

The highlight of the collection is the rare pair of early Chelsea porcelain figures from the Triangle period (1745–49), so-called for the incised triangle mark characteristic of the factory’s earliest wares. These boyish figures, seated on rocky mounds before oak trees delicately applied with leaves and acorns, exemplify the technical sophistication and aesthetic refinement of early Chelsea production. The early body was a very translucent soft paste, likened to milk-white glass and the introduction of slipcasting allowed for the delicate modelling and intricate detail seen on the present example.

 

Renowned collector Zorka Hodgson identifies the model of the ‘Boy Piper’ as inspired by François Duquesnoy’s marble basso-relievo Concert of Angels (1640-42) for Borromini’s altar in SS Apostoli, Naples. Although the tambourine boy does not appear in Duquesnoy’s relief, his pose and modelling indicate a shared artistic influence. Frank Tilley, in The Clue of the Oak Leaf (Antique Collector, 1950), notes a small group of Triangle period Chelsea porcelain applied with oak leaves in a similar style, situating these figures within a rare and highly documented corpus. 

 

Only a handful of Boy with Reed Pipe models survive, including examples in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and private collections, including the complete example in the Theodore Barclay Collection.

 

 

 

Other highlights include Bow botanical plates, such as a circa 1765 example painted with crimson and yellow cherries, leafy green branches and scattered butterflies. These plates exemplify Bow’s naturalistic approach to decoration and the factory’s exceptional painterly skill, capturing both colouristic subtlety and playful composition. 

 

 

Beyond the Susan Beazley Collection, the Fine & Decorative auction features a number of remarkable highlights in a variety of media. An early Flemish tapestry depicting Solomon and the Queen of Sheba produced in 1570 captures the biblical encounter in intricate detail, with attendants, a caravan of camels and a floral border enlivened with figures and birds (est. £10,000–£15,000). Oudenaarde, on the banks of the river Scheldt, was a centre of Belgian tapestry production from the 15th to the 18th centuries, renowned in the 16th century for its luxury exports and distinctive verdure (“green”) tapestries. 

 

 

 

 

The sale is completed by an exceptional selection of fine furniture, including a remarkable French ormolu-mounted kingwood commode en tombeau after Charles Cressent, possibly by Julius Zwiener and a rare pair of North Italian carved giltwood console tables made in the second quarter 18th century (est. £8,000–£12,000).