Description:
English delft dish decorated in blue with purple powdered ground on the rim, curvature, and outer edge. Although powdered grounds had been in use on delftware since the seventeenth century, this dish was inspired by the Chinese porcelains of the Kangxi period (1662-1722). At that time, Chinese potters developed a technique of spraying finely powdered pigment onto the porcelain surface. By blowing the color through a bamboo tube covered at the end with gauze, the particles landed on the surface in an uneven pattern;.removable paper cutouts protected surface areas from decoration. These Chinese wares arrived in the western market in the early eighteenth century, and had a great influence upon delftware potteries and English porcelain (Bow, Worcester, and Caughley). The rim has four fan-shaped reserves with Prince of Wales feathers alternating with four reserves of floral sprigs, all in blue on white. The well has an octagonal reserve with a waterside scene in blue of a fortress with a tall central tower and smaller corner tower; sailboats on the left; stone wall with an attached small shed with a slanted roof, a man standing with a pole, and trees; rocks and foliage in the foreground; and flying birds and clouds overhead. According to Jonathan Horne, 1/23/95, the interior of the dish looks like a London delft tile. There are several plates with this design, which is also found on Bristol-attributed tiles and flower bricks, dated 1739 and 1740, including three examples in the British Museum, each dated 1739. Similar fragments have been found at Wincanton, Brislington, and Bristol's Temple Back Pottery. The dish is marked on the base, just within the footrim, "P/5" in underglaze blue; two similarly-decorated plates marked P/6 are in the Victoria and Albert and Fitzwilliam Museums collections, and a Bristol punch bowl dated 1739 in the Bristol City Art Gallery is marked P/3. These figures, which appear on both English and Irish wares, are referred to as a decorator's mark and are thought to be the numbers assigned to each decorator working in a factory. Powdered manganese and powdered cobalt blue were popular grounds on Continental and English delftware. In England, less common powdered colors include a mottled yellow, pink to red, green, and "dead leaf" brown. Traditionally, this plate profile and the use of shaped reserves in a powdered border are associated with Bristol. However, as powdering and dock scenes also are known on London delftware, that city should not be completely ruled out as a possible place of production. Wheat sheaves and diamond-shaped border reserves are found on two manganese powdered ground plates depicting a castellated tower, other buildings, and ships in octagonal central reserves. Both of these plates bear "10" marks and have "naughts and crosses" under rim markings. (See Frank Britton, English Delftware in the Bristol Collection, nos. 15.26, 15.31.) Other powdered manganese plates are dated 1739 and have waterscapes and castles in their octagonal reserves. Similar shaped reserves are found on powdered manganese"Grace Plates" dated 1730 to 1748 and made in sets of six. On these, wheat sheaves and diamonds form border motifs.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+65.001 |
