A John Rose Coalport 'Animal Service' dessert plate, circa 1...

Hammer

£150

A John Rose Coalport 'Animal Service' dessert plate, circa 1800-05 'The Jackal', the dark-blue ground flanked by gilt stylised foliage, the centre painted with the animal in a grassy landscape, untitled, dark blue ground with border gilding of a sparser type, 22.5cm diameter Notes: This is a slightly different design to the preceding lots, with smaller animals in landscapes which leave part of the centre roundel blank and a much simpler gilt external border. This second style is untitled to the reverse and the animals' direction is mirrored to that of the book and the preceding service. This style forms one of at least three services using the same source of inspiration. The third style was sold as a complete service at Christie's in 2003 and featured the animal painting with a rich gilt border. For further information see the footnote. The Jackal "...although it is the most numerous of all the wild animals of the East, there is scarcely any one left known in Europe, or more confusedly described by historians. They very in size. Those of the warmest climates are said to be the largest. They are of a reddish-brown colour.-- The smaller Jackal is about the size of a Fox, and its colour is a bright-yellow ... Jackals go in packs of forty or fifty, and hunt like hounds in full cry from evening till morning. They destroy the poultry, attack the flocks: They roam through the villages and gardens, and carry off everything they eat: They enter stables, yards, and outhouses, and devour skins, and every thing that is made of leather; such as harnessing, boots, shoes, etc. Nothing can escape their rapacity. They will ransack the repositories of the dead, and greedily devour the most putrid bodies; for which reason, in those countries where they abound, the inhabitants are obliged to make graves of a great depth, and secure them with spines, to prevent the Jackals from raking up the earth ...' Bewick, Thomas, Ralph Beilby, 1800. A General History of Quadrupeds : The Figures Engraved on Wood. Newcastle upon Tyne, S. Hodgson, R. Beilby, & T. Bewick.