Description:
English delft octagonal plate decorated with an abstract blue and purple chinoiserie scene of a Chinese man standing under an umbrella in a rocky and mossy landscape, with three areas of the same mossy rock design around the rim. The plate, purchased by the donor at a tag sale in Hadley, Massachusetts, was possibly owned by the Smith family of Hadley. The Smiths were among the earliest settlers of Hadley, and by 1663, Samuel, Philip, and Chileab Smith owned homelots in the center of town. However, their estate inventories offer no indication of delftware ownership despite the surivival of the piece with a family provenance. The frontier nature of the early towns of western Massachusetts and central Connecticut, and the limited resources of many inhabitants, did not encourage ownership of imported ceramics. Yet small numbers of delftwares from the earliest period of settlement in the Connecticut River Valley do survive. This was one of the most popular designs thoughout England, Holland, and Germany in the last quarter of the 17th century as English, Dutch, and German potters began to copy Chinese decorative styles, realizing that they could imitate Chinese blue and white procelains. The dish has a steeply sloping rim and flat, shallow well; the reverse side has evidence of two stilt marks on back and a flat base (no footrim). The white tin glaze, which is pinkish in color, is typical of 17th century London ware.
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+95.029.2 |
