A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN CRESTED SLOP BASIN AND SEVEN COFFEE CANS

A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN CRESTED SLOP BASIN AND SEVEN COFFEE CANS, C1820 enamelled with the crest of a squirrel sejant eating a nut and gilt initials EWG on a salmon ground, coffee cans 6cm hProvenance: The crest is that of Gilbert, the initials being those of Commander Edward William Gilbert, RN (1788-1849) thence by descent to the vendor..Literature: Howard (D S), Chinese Armorial Porcelain, 1974, p990 and Vol II, Chippenham 2003, p687.Commander E W Gilbert was the fourth son of the Rev . Edmund Gilbert, Vicar of Constantine, Cornwall. He married, in 1822, Mary, daughter of John Simpson. The Gilberts were descendants of the brother of the Elizabethan navigator Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c1539-1582) the half brother of Sir Walter Raleigh (c1554-1618). The saucer illustrated by Howard has an apparently under decorated ground, so the present item would appear to be part of a contemporary, unrecorded service.