Description:
Samson and Company reproduction of a Chinese export porcelain coffee cup with a coil handle decorated with floral sprays in pink, green, blue, brown, yellow, and gilding on a white ground. The most famous factory to produce ceramic reproductions was the Paris firm of Samson and Company owned by Edme Samson (1810-1891) and his son, Emile (1837-1913), which was in production between 1845 and and about 1964 when the Samson family sold what was left of the business. Public taste had begun to change and product quality to deteriorate in the 1930s, and quality worsened after WW II. Originally, Samson made not only superb imitations of European delft and French, German, English, Japanese and Chinese export porcelains, but also of bronzes, marbles and enamels. Samson pieces are sometimes marked with an overglaze intertwined double "S" in red or gold. Unfortunately, this identifying overglaze mark can be removed and sold to the collector as the "real" thing. Samson pieces can sometimes be: lighter than the original; the paste of body color can be whiter than Chinese porcelain and the glaze can slightly thicker, sometimes with a greenish tinge; pieces can seem to be "better" than the Chinese originals with fewer defects such as pinholes, glaze flaws, and yellow air bubbles; the inside of the lid and body on such pieces as tea canisters can be better without dirt, cracks, missing glaze, etc; and the underglaze blue on a Samson piece is normally darker and flows out under the glaze differently than the original. While its form and design are similar to the original, the quality of the enameling on this cup is not as finely rendered and detailed as the original. The paste of body color is whiter than Chinese porcelain and the greenish glaze is slightly thicker.
Subjects:
Pottery; Enamel and enameling; glaze (coating by location); polychrome; Porcelain Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+66.038 |
