Description:
Chinese export porcelain 'plaque' decorated en grisaille (or encre de chine or ink color) with a scene of a nude man with a nude woman on his lap, colored in flesh tones, with draped fabric across their mid-sections and seated under a tree with houses in the background. Advanced collectors and dealers who have the money to buy the very best are vulnerable to items touted as rare or unique. Pursuit of uncommon objects increases the possibility of ending up with a fraud. In 1962 this object was sold to Henry and Helen Flynt as a rare Chinese export porcelain plaque depicting two lovers. On closer inspection, this object is not what it appears to be, and an unscrupulous faker deceived both dealer and collector. Plaques are rare and unusual forms in Chinese export porcelain (HD 58.015); most are square, oval, or rectangular in shape rather than round. Chinese potters cut plaques out of a slabs of porcelain and then glazed them entirely. This example has no evidence of glaze on its rim, just a roughly ground surface and deep gouges along its lower edge. In reality, this object is the central roundel of a dinner plate, which someone ground down to create a rare “plaque.” The Historic Deerfield collection also contains a whole example of this plate (HD 53.P.03). According to David Howard in a December 15, 2004 letter, he found several examples of saucers, dishes, and plates too severely broken to be used, and subsequently ground down and framed as wall decoration. He has noted examples in Scotland at Glamis Castle, home of the Earl of Strathmore, and owned several examples in his private collection. Chinese enamelers developed ink-color decoration as a method of reproducing print images on porcelain for the western market. Dominated by black enamels and washes, ink-color decoration was first produced in the 1730s and remained popular throughout the 18th century. Often period documents refer to this decoration as "pencil'd," reflecting its use of fine brush strokes and black color.
Tags:
nudes Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+62.013 |
