Description:
English delft press-molded, fluted dish decorated in yellow and purple. The convex well is decorated with a chinoiserie scene of a yellow-suited man seated among purple, moss-covered rocks, encircled with double purple lines. The scalloped-edged, fluted rim, banded in purple, is decorated with yellow and purple rocks and foliage alternating with the same seated man. This "scholar-in-grasses" (or rocks in this example) scene was probably the most popular motif in the last quarter of the 17th century. The design was copied from Chinese porcelain by European potters, and it can be difficult to know if a piece is English, Dutch, or German, especially since they also used the same molded form. The design has been found in combinations of blue, green, yellow and purple. Molds started to be used in England in the 17th century, and produced lobed, gadrooned, and fluted forms, which were similar to late 17th century Dutch forms. These molded dishes may those listed in inventories as "large Cracknalls and Dishes" under "White Ware" in the 1696 Manchester Tax document and "Clucawdle bowls" in the Pickleherring Pottery (Southwark/London) 1699 inventory. Frank Britton believes that cracknalls were similar to silver forms of the period. On Ming Transitional hard paste porcelain (early to mid-seventeenth century), figures of this type represented scholars. On English and Continental tin-glazed earthenware dishes with such figures often are referred to as "seated scholar" or, more specifically, "scholar among grasses" or "scholar among rocks." Some Western imitations are so highly stylized that it is difficult to recognize the figures. Dates on English "seated scholar" plates primarily are from the 1680s. The plate shown here illustrates a decorative style called trek, copied from Dutch tin glaze, for which design outlines were executed in purple or dark blue and then filled in corresponding washes of color. Blue-decorated octagonal and circular English "seated scholar" plates are more common than those in green and purple, purple and yellow, or blue and yellow, and may have been inspired by German faience. "Seated scholar" delftware wasters and other fragments have been excavated at several London sites.
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