Description:
Chinese export porcelain punch bowl in the Famille Rose palette of pink, purple, green, iron red, blue, and black, and "brought from China from Seth Smith, 1805." is written on the bottom. The bowl was owned by Charles Phelps Jr. (1743-1814) and his wife Elizabeth Porter Phelps (1747-1817) who married in 1770 and lived at Forty Acres, their farm in Hadley, Massachusetts; the couple also owned second, circa 1785 porcelain punch bowl decorated with nautical scenes in browns and gilding.This porcelain punch bowl eventually came into the possession of their son, Charles Porter Phelps (1772-1857), who used the bowl in furnishing his new house across the street from his parents’ residence. Punch (a combination of water, citrus, sugar, spices, and spirits) proved to be a popular beverage that New Englanders enjoyed among friends at home and in taverns. To serve the drink, wineglasses could be filled using a ladle, but more often the bowl itself was passed from person to person. The outside of this bowl is decorated with large flowering peonies and stylized and hollow rocks. The interior rim has a diaperwork border in red alternating with four stylized flower heads.
Label Text:
This punch bowl belonged to Charles Phelps Jr. (1744-1814) and Elizabeth Porter Phelps (1747-1817) who married in 1770 and lived at Forty Acres, their farm in Hadley, Massachusetts. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale University, described their property in 1801, “This estate lies on the Eastern bank of the Connecticut River; and contains about six hundred acres ...The remainder of the farm is remarkably well fitted for every kind of pasture and yields an inexhaustible supply of timber and fuel ... On one border are excellent mills; on another a river, furnishing cheap transportation to market. It is intersected by two great roads, leading to Boston and to Hartford. … The scenery, both near and distant, is eminently delightful: and within very convenient distances all the pleasures of refined and intelligent society may be easily enjoyed.” Decorated with gnarled rocks and flowering peonies in brilliant-colored enamels of blue, pink, green, and orange, the Phelps punch bowl conveyed conviviality and their family’s financial success. This porcelain punch bowl eventually came into the possession of their son, Charles Porter Phelps (1772-1857), who used the bowl in furnishing his new house across the street from his parents’ residence. Punch (a combination of water, citrus, sugar, spices, and spirits) proved to be a popular beverage that New Englanders enjoyed among friends at home and in taverns. To serve the drink, wineglasses could be filled using a ladle, but more often the bowl itself was passed from person to person.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+88.106 |
