Lot 69. A very rare grisaille 'London Hospital' bowl, second half 18th century. Estimate $20,000 - $30,000. Price Realized $75,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

A continuous scene shows 'London Hospital' with shepherds and their flock in the foreground as various carriages and strolling figures pass by, the interior with a European gentleman walking on a country path beside his small dog, all beneath a gilt scroll-and-shell border - 15 ¾ in. (40 cm.) diameter

Provenance: With Staal & Sons, London.
Acquired from Elinor Gordon, Pennsylvania, in 1996.

THE COLLECTION OF J. JEFFERSON AND ANNE WEILER MILLER 

Literature: M. Beurdeley, Chinese Trade Porcelain, p. 191; Hervouet & Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnie des Indes a Decor Occidental, p. 240.

Notes: This very rare bowl, called 'probably unique' by Hervouet, depicts the hospital's new building in Whitechapel designed by Boulton Mainwaring and begun in 1752. Founded in 1740 - one of five major private charity hospitals to arise in a uniquely English effort in the 18th century - London Hospital was intended to serve the sick and injured poor of the East End, particularly factory workers, seamen and their families. George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield and son of Thomas Parker, Lord High Chancellor, headed the committee overseeing the building project. The Earl's second wife had a Chinese armorial dinner service; the Earl's sister, Elizabeth, married Sir William Heathcote in 1720, when they ordered the well-known Heathcote-Parker dinner service. It seems likely that either one of these family members or another aristocratic patron of the hospital ordered this magnificent bowl.

CHRISTIE'S. CHINESE EXPORT ART, 21 January 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza