Description:
Chinese export porcelain, square dish that was probably part of a dessert service. In an effort to support its own native ceramics industry, Britain began to impose high tariffs on imported Chinese porcelain in 1799. American traders were eager to take up the slack, purchasing thousands of pieces of exotic and durable Chinese porcelain. Fashion and taste in the early 19th century ran toward the lavsih and colorful, and this exceptionally well-painted dish is typical of early 19th-century Chinese export porcelain designs for the American market. These types of porcelains are renowned for their ornate use of polychrome enamels and gilding, and their depictions of figures in a variety of garden settings, and birds, butterflies, flowers, etc. Collectors often refer to these wares as 'Rose Medallion' (usually birds, flowers, butterflies and Chinese figures arranged in four or more panels around a center medallion with a similar design) and/or 'Rose Mandarin' (usually one or more figures within a border of flowers, fruits and butterflies), or collectively as 'Canton Famille Rose.' Designed by the Chinese exclusively for the export market, the patterns for both Rose Mandarin and Medallion were derived from 18th century floral and figural designs on Famille rose porcelains and those porcelains made for the Western markets in the second half of the 18th century. These Rose Mandarin and Medallion patterns, fully developed by 1800, reached the peak of popularity in the 1820s and 1830s when the quality began to decline; the patterns remained in demand throughout the century but the quality was often very poor by the 1850s. The dish has incurving sides; the outer border is decorated with a mixture of lanterns, latticework, fruit, flowers, butterflies, bats, and dragons; and the interior is decorated with a courtyard with seven Chinese figures.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1999.26.3 |
