Details
Painted with various grisailles scenes surrounded by rocaille scrolls and shells, with bianco-sopra-bianco borders and gilt line rims, comprising:
Two two-handled oval soup-tureens, covers and stands
Two oval serving-platters
A circular bowl
Two dinner-plates
Twenty-four soup-plates
Sixty-two plates
15 in. (38 cm.) wide, the serving-platters
Provenance
Major General Sir George Burns, sold Christie's London, 24-26 September 1979, lot 743-801.
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Lot Essay

Major General Sir George Burns may well have inherited the service from his great-uncle, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. Each grisaille 'shield' and motto in the service is different, and several of the mottos are mis-spelt. Their meanings are unknown, though it is possible they may have Jesuit significance (see D. S. Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, London, 1994, no. 139, pp. 132 and 133 where a strainer and dish from this service, in the Hodroff Collection, is illustrated).

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