Description:
English delft press-molded, lobed dish decorated in blue with a chinoiserie scene of a man seated among moss-covered rocks in the well and a geometric floral and sprig motif on the twelve lobes of the scalloped-edge rim. 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 English, Dutch, or German, especially since they also used the same molded form. 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. The rim is decorated with stylized tassels and multi-petaled flowers and a blue band around the edge. Fragments of lobed dishes with a border decoration of tassels were found by Garner in Lambeth.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. Dates on English "seated Chinese scholar" plates primarily are from the 1680s. 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. Blue-decorated octagonal and circular English "seated Chinese scholar" plates are more common than those in green and purple, purple and yellow, or blue and yellow, and may have been inspired by German faience. "Seated Chinese scholar" delftware wasters and other fragments have been excavated at several London sites. This dish was purchased by the Frenchs in South Hadley, MA.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+91.241 |
