A Battersea enamel plaque, circa 1753-56
Of rectangular form, printed in red and delicately hand-coloured with Europa and the Bull, Europa attended by two maidens and cupid in flight, engraved by Ravenet, in tooled gilt metal frame, 11.6cm x 10.1cm including frame
Footnotes:
Provenance
Ionides Collection
Lady Mullens Collection, Christies, 18 March 1987, lot 448
Bunny and Paul Davies Collection

This plaque appears to be the only recorded coloured example printed with this scene. An uncoloured example was sold by Bonhams, 5 December 2007, lot 134 and another is illustrated by Egan Mew, Battersea Enamels (1926), fig 24(2).

There are a few fine scratches on the upper surface of the plaque in the area between Europa and the attendant to her right. These are roughly in line with Europa's extended left arm and run from the elbow across to the head of the attendant. They are hard to see with the naked eye and are not significant. There is a small chip to the edge of the plaque, just visible under the mount close to the top left hand corner, and another small chip just beside it. There are some fine cracks in that corner related to the chips, two of which extend down into the sky. These are visible in the catalogue photo. There are a few more cracks in the bottom left hand corner, also visible in the photo. There is also a fine crack in the top right hand corner. On the reverse, there is some old restoration to three of the corners, limited in extent, and a few typical fine cracks