Description:

An earthenware covered sauce tureen printed in blue underglaze and overglaze enameled in several colors in the Chinese Sports #2 pattern as recorded in the TCC Pattern and Source Print Database. Minton also used this pattern on painted bone china and recorded it as pattern #539 c.1810.  Pearlware versions are found on both dinner wares and tea wares.  Each piece in a service portrays a different scene with children engaged in sporting games. In the central pattern here, the children are seen flying a kite. Minton used a narrow linear design for the border on hollow ware pieces, as in the case of this tureen and on tea wares.  Other dinner ware pieces employed a wide border, as is the case on the large platter (see Chinese Sports # 1 also included in this exhibit), in which multiple sporting scenes are depicted.  Miniature sporting scenes are also found on the tureen lid. Each of these scenes in miniature, becomes a central design on other shapes. The pattern should be considered one of a series. Geoffrey Priestman attributes the series to Minton due to its characteristic Minton shapes and to the documented pattern 539.  See Priestman, Geoffrey H. An Illustrated Guide to Minton Printed Pottery 1796-1836. Sheffield, UK: Endcliffe Press, 2001, page 80.