PLYMOUTH PORCELAIN MODEL OF A PHEASANT
CIRCA 1770
the crested bird with long tail feathers, perched on a tree stump applied with flowers and foliage, with polychrome enamel decoration; paper label to base inscribed ‘Cookworthy’s Hard Porcelain Plymouth. A. Trapnell' and a paper label for ‘Albert Amor 2000 Exhibition’
21 cm high
This piece bears two inventory sticker numbers, 603 and 1833, which appear to relate to the A. Trapnell collection. A publication entitled ‘A Catalogue of Bristol and Plymouth Porcelain, with examples of Bristol glass and pottery, forming the collection made by Mr Alfred Trapnell’ was published by Albert Amor in London, 1912.
For a coloured pair see Anne McNair, The Lady Ludlow Collection of English Porcelain (2007), p.186, no.169. Bonhams have offered white glazed examples of this model on 8th September 2010, lot 113, and 29th September 2020 lot 163.In 1768, William Cooksworthy of Plymouth became the first person in Britain to make true or hard-paste porcelain of the type then being imported from China by the English East India company.  It had taken many years of experimentation.  He applied for a patent, established a company and began production on a commercial scale.  The Plymouth factory was never commercially successful due to lack of finance and the challenges of working with a new and unstable material.  The factory was short lived.  It closed in 1770, and Cooksworthy took himself, the moulds and patterns, and any undecorated ware to Bristol.  There he founded the Bristol hard-paste factory, along with various partners including Richard Champion, who had been a shareholder in the earlier Plymouth factory.