Description:
Chinese export porcelain, quatrefoil-shaped teacup and saucer decorated with an underglaze cobalt blue butterfly in the center well, blue bands of diapering around the rims, and molded floral (rose buds?) sprays shaped by hand and then applied to the exterior surfaces. David Howard notes that this type of decoration would have been expensive to produce, but was in fashion. The technique was used principally on export ware between 1730 and 1745. Examples of this type of ware have been found in the shipwreck of the Geldermalsen (also known as the Nanking cargo), a Dutch ship which was sunk in 1752. These porcelains are found in the collections of the Groninger Museum in Groningen, The Netherlands, and in the Keramiekmuseum Princessehof in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. The pieces salvaged from the Geldermalsen are decorated in the center with a flower - not a butterfly like this example. The VOC ship Geldermalsen, built in 1746, was one of the newest and finest Dutch East Indiamen. On January 3rd, 1752, the Geldermalsen on its way to Holland hit a reef and sank about twelve miles away from the Bintan coast, Indonesia. The survivors struggled on in a barge and long boat and reached Batavia (Dutch East Indies, now Jakarta, Indonesia) in eight days. The entire cargo was salvaged by Captain Michael Hatcher in 1986 and was subsequently sold at Christie's in Amsterdam as the "Nanking Cargo."
Subjects:
Pottery; Enamel and enameling; glaze (coating by location); Porcelain Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+68.015A |
