Description:
Chinese export porcelain saucer (one of eight matching teacups and saucers) decorated in the Famille rose palette of blue, orange, black, green, purple, brown, yellow, and pink. Chinese porcelain imported via England began to appear in wealthy, rural New England homes in the 1720s; by the mid-18th century the "Mansion People" and their local followers owned porcelain for both tea and dining. These pieces belonged to John Russell (1731-1775) and his wife Hannah Sheldon Russell (1738-1814) of Deerfield. Massachusetts. Born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, John Russell moved to Deerfield in 1756, where he lived in John Sheldon's house and married Hannah Sheldon in 1758. After a brief move to Newington, Connecticut, the couple returned to Deerfield in 1763, where he worked as a tailor, shopkeeper, and innkeeper, a business that was apparently very lucrative according to his account book, which is perhaps why they owned an expensive tea set. Hannah continued the business after his death in 1775. These teacups and saucers survive with the tradition of being from part of the first "china" owned in Deerfield. They appear in the 1775 John Russell estate inventory as "1 set china Cups and sausers 6/...L 1 -d 6", the only china listed. There is also a similar set owned by George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon, which according to family tradition was used at their wedding. Probably called “image china” in period references, this term was used to describe figural designs on porcelain. The Washington papers also include a 1757 invoice from Richard Washington which lists among other ceramics, “a Compleat sett fine Image china.” The Russell set are decorated with a scene of a man sitting in a tree fishing, a man standing below the fisherman, and two woman, one standing and one sitting.
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+58.048.6 |
