Featured Help Needed, Pearlware Sauce Ladle, Lion's Paw

I hope there is someone out there who can help me with this ladle. It's just a transferware small sauce ladle, aout 6.5 inches long, probably first half of the 19th century, but I am intrigued by the lion's paw base of the handle. I haven't been able to find anything quite like this on another ladle, and it reminds me of 18th century furniture. It also has a pistol-grip handle, which is like antique cutlery. I'm not expecting it to be very exciting or valuable, but I really would like to know if anyone has ever seen another ladle with these features.

 

I think that's Chinese - the blue tinge glaze.

 

I wrote a long reply to this and it seems to have disappeared, so apologies if it appears twice! I know the modern Chinese blue-tinged transferware you mean, usually with a glossy finish and a royal coat of arms underneath and a name like "Victoria". Once seen it is easy to spot, sometimes in the window of a tea shop to add an antiquey atmosphere! This ladle shows blue only in the crevices of the paw, and has a great deal of wear to it, so I am confident it is pearlware. See:
http://www.thepotteries.org/features/pearlware.htm
It may be impossible to identify a maker or date for it, but I'm hoping that someone has seen a ladle with a lion's paw base to the handle before, hopefully accompanied by its tureen with a maker underneath! I have been looking hard, I can't find anything like it online, but I'll keep searching.

 

I actually meant the older blue tinged, not the Victoria Ware. I think yours is late 18th into early 19th Chinese.

 

I think it look legitimately old, but I'm easily fooled. I would expect a modern Chinese item to be a bit brighter and sturdier. I think the wear it shows, and its delicacy are appropriate to an old item. I don't know anything about it, but I like it.

 

Sorry, I misunderstood! It didn't occur to me that it might be Chinese export. That might account for the difficulty in finding anything like it, although I have been searching for just "ladle, lion's paw", so Chinese should turn up as well. I will have a look for Chinese export tureens with their ladles, and see what they have to offer. If I was any good at porcelain pastes it might be easy to place, but in the damaged areas it does seem more like earthenware to me. On the other hand, it is fairly thinly potted. I know lions are a Chinese thing, but the odd use of a paw for the handle reminds me more of Georgian furniture with lion's feet than a Chinese motif. Thank you for your input, you have sent me searching in a new direction. Did the Chinese use transfer prints at that point?

 

Me too.