Description: Chinese export porcelain oval fruit basket with a sharp flared lip, two upright, gilt square handles with molded gilt foliate terminals attached inside the rim on the short ends, and sides with alternating hand-cut, pierced slits (or latticework) of Chinese design. According to Clare Le Corbeiller, this type of pierced decoration was out of fashion by 1810. Decorated in green, blue, yellow, rose, iron-red, black and gilding, there is a roundel on each center side; the exterior sides of the roundels have a pseudo-coat of arms with a central iron-red and gilt monogram, "TSS" (maybe the Sears family of Boston), in a shield suspended from a rose bowknot within chartreuse and gilt mantling. These shields are typical of the pseudo-armorial devices on Chinese export porcelain made for the American market at the beginning of the 19th century. The interior rim has a band of diagonal green leaf garlands and floral sprigs; the center well has a floral sprig surrounded by a green and gilt dot chain; the base has a molded band over a green and gilt dot band. See also stand (HD 60.273.2) and plates (HD 62.015.1-2).
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