Early 19th Century Hicks & Meigh Imari Ironstone Armorial Sauce Tureens and Stands, Pair - 4 pcs

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Hicks & Meigh Imari Ironstone Armorial Sauce Tureens and Stands, Pair, Circa 1815

Few pieces bring as much color and … Read more Hicks & Meigh Imari Ironstone Armorial Sauce Tureens and Stands, Pair, Circa 1815

Few pieces bring as much color and as good a story to a table as this pair of English ironstone sauce tureens, each with its original cover and two-handled stand. They were made for the officers' mess of the 41st Regiment of Foot, and every piece is stamped with the regiment's own badge: the Roman numeral XLI inside a blue garter beneath a rose and gilt crown.

The palette is classic Regency Imari — iron-red, deep cobalt blue and gold — painted with flowering branches, chrysanthemums and peonies over bands of cobalt reserved with gilt trellis. The tureens sit on shaped spreading feet with gadrooned bodies, gilded scroll handles and rope-twist finials; the stands have scalloped rims and handles modeled as gnarled branches.

They earn their keep in a dining room — a pair on a sideboard or flanking a centerpiece on a long table, filled with sauce for a dinner party or left empty as sculpture. The reds and blues sit beautifully against dark mahogany, painted paneling or a lacquered console, and the covers lift off so the stands can serve on their own as small dishes for olives, nuts or a candle. Equally at home in a paneled library or a modern kitchen where they supply all the color a room needs.

Marked to the undersides in underglaze blue with the Royal Arms above STONE CHINA.

They have survived remarkably well: no chips, no cracks, no restoration, with only the light softening of the gilding that two centuries of use will bring.

Dimensions:
Length: 9 1/4 inches (23.5 cm)
Height: 7 inches (17.8 cm)

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