An extraordinary Bow shell centrepiece or pickle stand and a triple-shell sweetmeat, circa 1750-55 Left in the white, the first of impressive three-tiered form, the broad pierced foot supporting three large shells arranged around the central column, an elaborate superstructure of smaller columns and pillars of coral between them supporting the graduated second and third tiers of shells, surmounted by a whelk shell finial, the foot, central stem and smaller columns applied with a profusion of shells and seaweed 32.5cm high, the other modelled as three large shells arranged around a whelk shell finial, resting on a pierced rockwork base applied with further shells, coral and seaweed, 21cm wide, an unusual 'feathery' painter's mark in blue (2) Footnotes: Provenance Anton Gabszewicz Collection Literature Anton Gabszewicz, 'Rococo Bow Porcelain', in Charles Dawson (ed.), Scrolls of Fantasy, The Rococo Ceramics in England (2015), p.157, fig.7 These elaborate objects are examples of Bow's more upmarket products and would have been highly fashionable in the early 1750s. Anton Gabszewicz suggests that the fantastic grotto-inspired shells may be a reference to Palissy's 16th century pottery. A similar centrepiece was sold by Bonhams on 18 May 2016, lot 321. A similar triple-shell sweetmeat stand from the Geoffrey Freeman Collection is illustrated by Anton Gabszewicz, Bow Porcelain (1982), p.43, no.41 and by Gabszewicz and Pearce, 'Bow porcelain revealed: finds from excavations in High Street, Stratford, 2006, Part II', ECC Trans, Vol.32 (2021-22), p.26, fig.44. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing