Description:
Chinese export porcelain plate decorated en grisaille (or encre de chine or ink color) and iron-red with a scene known as the Embroiderer or Seamstress. This scene, which is also found on tin-glazed earthenware or delftware, is possibly after an engraving by the French artist Bernard Picart (1673-1733) who worked in Amsterdam; it is usually done en grisaille with a woman wearing a flower-patterned dress sewing in front of heavy draperies and a window through which a tower and ships can be seen, and an overturned basket under the window. Howard and Ayers write that the ships seen through the window suggest "that the lady is perhaps working to while away the hours of her husband's absence on a long sea-voyage." Other variations of the Embroiderer are also known on Chinese export porcelain. Howard and Ayers show an earlier and more finely painted scene in polychrome enamels with a seated woman embroidering a framed canvas; and a domestic scene with a woman working on an embroidery frame with a second woman and a gentleman looking on. Another version has a woman sewing under an overhanging tree on a knoll with rocks (see HD 57.001, 58.301, 58.302, 63.026, 66.991). 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.
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