Hen and Chicks Covered Tureen on Stand
Medium
soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions
24.8 × 34.9 × 25.7 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Decorative Art and Design
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1984.58
Tags
gender unknown
About this artwork
The ceramic factory at Chelsea, located along the river Thames in western London, was Britain’s most renowned factory of decorative porcelain in the mid-1700s. Large tureens in the form of chickens or rabbits appealed to wealthy aristocrats, who took great care in developing specimen animal and poultry breeds on their country estates. The design for this particular tureen was taken from a popular seventeenth-century print by Francis Barlow depicting a farmyard.