Pick of the week

I had hoped to continue the theme of flight with a Grosvenor School linocut by Claude Flight, but could not find a recent sale. However, an exhibition at Albert Amor, the porcelain dealer in Bury Street, St James’s, SW1, provides me with an excellent alternative. The shop is offering the collection of Worcester porcelain brought together by David Mellor, who was John Major’s Heritage Secretary, and his partner, Viscountess Cobham.

The first Worcester factory was set up by John Wall and William Davis in about 1751. The pair were bought out in 1783 by their sales agent Thomas Flight; under the management of his son and members of the Barr family, the factory, on the bank of the Severn, won several Royal Warrants and eventually took over its main competitors in the cathedral city.

The Mellor-cobham Collection includes 11 from the 260-piece ‘Hope’ service (pictured) commissioned in 1789 by the future William IV. They were painted with roundels of Lady Hamilton as Hope and were inherited by Lord Frederick Fitzclarence, the King’s third illegitimate son.