Description:
Bisque-fired fragment of a coil handle with a small piece of the body, excavated at the Worcester Porcelain Factory site by the donor, Mrs. Harold G. Duckworth. The small body section is decorated in underglaze blue (which appears black) that has not been glazed and fired. Note that this once-fired fragment has not shrunk as much as the handle on the glazed and fired teapot (HD 91.058.1) with the same design decoration. The design, which has alternate spiral bands of stylized flowers in white outlined in gilt on a blue background and pink and red flowers on white, has been called the Queen's or Rich Queen's or Queen Charlotte pattern; and the "Whorl", or spiral design; or the "Wheel" or "Catherine Wheel" (where these last two names reflect the pinwheel-like arrangement of the bands, deriving from the spiked wheel on which Saint Catherine of Alexandria was almost tortured). Despite this Imari-type palette, there is no known Japanese prototype. Worcester's direct model was the interpretation of Chinese porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1736-1795), produced at Meissen beginning in the mid-1730s to about 1740; the earliest Worcester examples date to the late 1750s and were produced until around 1800. The Meissen version differs from the Worcester in having a spirally molded body and a more elaborate design in the central panel of saucers. The pattern appeared on a large range of wares, probably greater in variety than that of any other single pattern. There were also several variants of the pattern, not all of which included the use of underglaze blue.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+91.059 |
