Description:
Molded tin-glazed earthenware or delftware dish, cracknell shape, circular form with eight lobes and eight divisions, wide brim, small circular well, decorated on top surface with central and border designs of Chinese scholar in the rocks pattern, design consists of blue rocks or outcroppings and grasses with a robed Chinese scholar seated on the ground, scholar and other details are outlined in manganese and filled in with washes of cobalt blue, no foot rim. Decoration follows lobed design, with a seated scholar in the center and two scholars on the rim, each surrounded by plants with abstract spikey leaves, rocks, and reeds. Slight pinkish color to the glaze, fine network of crackle to the glaze surface, small pits or bubbles to the glaze on the underside of the dish; small hairline to the glaze on the underside of the dish 1/2" in from edge; labels on the back of dish, one for Jonathan Horne, the second is another Horne label, which reads: "J12/217/ London or Bristol/ c. 1690/ chips to rim/ Jonathan Horne Antiques Limited." Dish fragments with the Chinese scholar pattern have been excavated at the William Finnie House Site, Williamsburg, Virginia (Colonial Williamsburg), the Richard Hitchcock Homestead at Biddeford Pool, Maine (Saco Museum), and the Lt. Humphrey Chadbourne Jr. Site, South Berwick, Maine (Old Berwick Historical Society). The ultimate design source for these English wares were imported Chinese porcelains of the late 17th century known as Transitional wares. Painted in Chinese Transitional style in blue and manganese in the center and at the top and bottom of the lobed octofoil rim with a Chinese man seated amidst rocks and grasses, and the rim with four further rock-and-grass vignettes. Condition: Some restored chips, and glaze abrasions on the edge.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2018.48.2 |
