Description:
Chinese export porcelain saucer, part of a 23-piece teaset decorated en grisaille (or encre de chine or ink color) in black, red, and gilding with the scene, "The Finding of Moses." Chinese enamelers developed ink-color decoration as a method of reproducing print images on porcelain for the western market. Dominated by black enamels and washes, ink-color decoration was first produced in the 1730s and remained popular throughout the 18th century. Often period documents refer to this decoration as "pencil'd," reflecting its use of fine brush strokes and black color. This scene is based on an anonymous engraving in the Old Testament published by Pierre le Petit in Paris in 1669. According to the Old Testament, the Pharaohs of Egypt had enslaved the people of Israel, but feared their strength and numbers. Pharaoh decried that "every son that is born to Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live." To save her son's life, a Hebrew mother made a basket of bulrushes, daubbed with bitman and pitch, into which she put her son and left him floating among the reeds at the Nile's edge. When the Pharaoh's daugher and her handmaidens came to bathe in the river, she found the baby whom she adopted and raised as her son, naming him Moses, "because I drew him out the water." This design, which is more often seen on teawares, is among the rarest of Biblical scenes portrayed on Chinese export porcelain; similar objects are in the collections of the V & A Museum, and have been sold by Alberto Varela Santos. This set has a teapot and cover, sugar bowl and cover, cream pot, spoon tray, 8 small teacups, 5 coffee cups with handles, and 6 saucers; the potting is extremely thin and fine with an eggshell-like quality. Each is decorated with a landscape setting with the Pharoah's daughter and three attendant maidens, one kneeling and pointing to the baby in a basket floating on the Nile, and a small dog prancing behind them; and borders of red and gilt blossoms and scrolls outlined in black.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+SR.40.18 |
