Two-Handled Sauceboat c. 1755

Curator: This beautiful piece is a Two-Handled Sauceboat, crafted around 1755 by the Worcester Royal Porcelain Company. It currently resides here at the Art Institute of Chicago. Editor: Well, isn’t that just precious! It’s screaming Rococo with its frilly edges and those playful little scenes painted on the side. Like a tiny boat bobbing on a china sea! Curator: Precisely! Note how the applied moulded decoration merges seamlessly with the underglaze blue painting, creating a cohesive, if ornate, surface. Editor: It almost feels edible, you know? Like some elaborate confection a pastry chef dreamt up after a long night reading fairytales. I imagine a delicate, almost gossamer sauce shimmering inside, waiting to be poured over, I don’t know, perhaps roasted quail. Curator: The very form is quite striking, actually; observe the boat-like shape, clearly influenced by contemporary silver designs. It embodies the period's penchant for naturalistic and asymmetrical forms. The cobalt-blue decoration adds a certain element, but one might argue it's perhaps too busy. Editor: Busy is what makes it sing! Each little flower, each wave, each miniature human figure is trying to tell you a story. It's a celebration of… excess! Maybe restraint isn't always the best virtue. Curator: But to what end, precisely? Is it merely decoration, or does it function as a microcosm of 18th-century aristocratic taste, displaying both wealth and a fascination with chinoiserie? The applied handles too serve structural, practical function... Editor: Okay, but picture the artist’s hands, painstakingly painting each detail! Maybe they chuckled to themselves, imagining some powdered wig tilting the sauceboat and splattering gravy all over their silk waistcoat. There’s a playful subversiveness. It makes one feel like it had been made for Louis, right before the revolution. Curator: The piece also exemplifies the technical innovation of the Worcester factory. Their mastery of porcelain production allowed them to produce such intricately decorated and shaped wares on a scale that was unmatched in England at the time. It remains today a triumph of mid-18th-century craft. Editor: So, it's a tiny vessel of history and imagination, glazed with the spirit of an era. Beautiful, useful… potentially subversive! A tasty dollop of 1755. Curator: Yes, quite a significant artifact, even if you focus a little too much on those subversive gravies, ah! Editor: Ha! Perhaps. But remember—sauce is destiny!