Description:
English delft dish decorated in blue and purple. The rim 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 center well has a Chinese pavilion under a tall willow surrounded with rock and foliage; the rim 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 on the Temple Pottery site in Bristol and at the Chiswell-Bucktrout House site at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+58.261A |
