Description:
Dutch or German delft press-molded, lobed dish decorated in purple. The slightly convex well is decorated with a chinoiserie scene of a man kneeling among moss-covered rocks. The rim has nine lobed panels decorated with the same geometric floral and sprig motif. This "Chinese scholar-in-grasses" (or rocks in this example) scene was probably the most popular motif in the last quarter of the 17th century. The design was copied from Chinese porcelain by European potters, and it can be difficult to know if a piece is Dutch or German, especially since they also used the same molded form. The design has been found in combinations of blue, green, yellow and purple. Molds started to be used in England in the 17th century, and produced lobed, gadrooned, and fluted forms, which were similar to late 17th-century Dutch forms. These molded dishes may those listed in inventories as "large Cracknalls and Dishes" under "White Ware" in the 1696 Manchester Tax document and "Clucawdle bowls" in the Pickleherring Pottery (Southwark/London) 1699 inventory. Frank Britton believes that cracknalls were similar to silver forms of the period. On Ming Transitional hard paste porcelain (early to mid-seventeenth century), figures of this type represented scholars. On English and Continental tin-glazed earthenware dishes such figures often are referred to as "seated Chinese scholar" or, more specifically, "Chinese scholar among grasses" or "Chinese scholar among rocks." Some Western imitations are so highly stylized that it is difficult to recognize the figures. The plate shown here illustrates a decorative style called trek, copied from Dutch tin glaze, for which design outlines were executed in purple or dark blue and then filled in corresponding washes of color.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+59.167 |
