Description:
English delft punch bowl decorated in cobalt blue and manganese purple. The exterior is covered with the 'cracked ice' pattern, which is found on Chinese porcelain of the Kangxi period (1662-1722) as a symbol of the coming of Spring to the Chinese. Lipski and Archer, "Dated English Delftware", has dated examples with the cracked ice decoration from 1768-1764, including two plates with the same house/tree pattern dated 1772 and 1774, and an electioneering plate for Thomas Cresswell. Most electioneering ceramics were made for the West Country constituencies, which include Wooton Bassett where Cresswell was MP from 1754-1774; Bristol potteries supplied most of those ceramics. The "cracked ice" pattern is also found on plates and bowls as the sole decoration or with fish taking the place of pagodas. Fragments showing the cracked ice design were found at the Temple Back Factory site in Bristol and it seems likely that most if not all of the pieces decorated in this way were made in that city. The center well has a Chinese pavilion under a tall willow surrounded with rock and foliage, and a blue, loop-like band around the inside rim; the outside has the cracked ice pattern and four shaped reserves, each with a two-chimney building and willow. Plate fragments with this design have been found in excavations at the Chiswell-Bucktrout House site at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. According to Jonathan Horne, 1/23/95, it is unusual to see a punch bowl in cracked ice decoration.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+58.261 |
