Description:
Chinese export porcelain shallow octagonal platter with canted corners, decorated in blue with a scene of porcelain production in the center well and diamond diapering interspersed with a peach motif around the rim. The city of Jingdezhen in the Jiangxi province was China's primary porcelain production center, located almost 500 miles from Canton. In the 18th century, scant information was available about Chinese porcelain production, and regulations prohibited Westerners (with the exception of missionaries) from traveling into China's interior. Starting in the mid-18th century, albums of painted images were produced in Canton on the subjects of tea, silk, cotton, and porcelain processes, catering specifically to this Western market, and it was only natural that these images found their way onto porcelain as decoration. This platter, which represents a single piece from a larger dinner service, appealed to Western curiosity about Chinese porcelain manufacturing by depicting an idealized view of a porcelain factory compound. Several open sheds protect potters throwing ceramics on the wheel or painting decoration onto pots with brushes. Workers transport clay, water, and pottery on boards to different locations. In the central courtyard, ceramics dry on racks next to a pavilion for relaxing, a type of "break area," on the left-hand side. A kiln billowing smoke appears in the background.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2004.4 |
