Description:
In the 1650s, civil disturbances interrupted porcelain production at Jingdezhen and also disrupted the East/West porcelain trade for more than 30 years. With Chinese rulers forbidding trade in porcelain, the Western market for porcelain wares went to Japanese potteries. First developed by Japanese enamelers in the 17th century, the Imari palette combined underglaze blue enamel with overglaze red and gilding. Although this ware was made at the kilns located in Arita, the name “Imari” comes from a Japanese trading port used by the Dutch. The popularity of Imari wares in the marketplace was unparalleled, spawning imitations in both fine porcelain and cheaper earthenware. When the Chinese porcelain kilns reopened in 1683, China attempted to regain its lost share of the export porcelain market. In an effort to compete with Japanese porcelain, the Chinese began producing Imari wares toward the end of the 17th century. Chinese Imari decoration was based on the established Japanese palette, but initially relied on Chinese designs.“Burnt china,” the period term for Imari-decorated porcelain (underglaze blue decoration with overglaze red enamel and gilding) became popular in the second half of the 18th century. China merchants Frederick Rhinelander and James and Arthur Jarvis of New York sold "burnt china" to the Connecticut Valley market in the 1770s. The 1785 inventory of Joseph Barnard of Deerfield listed "1 Dozen burnt China Plates, 1 ditto ditto Bowl, 1 smaller ditto, 1 Fleet China dish, 2 ditto Deep ditto, 2 Small burnt-China plates,” and “1 Small Salver burnt China." Small tea cup, u-shaped, with Imari colors of underglaze cobalt blue, overglaze red; decoration is of a prunus tree with two branches, at the base of the cup there is a running fence with a swastika-like inner fret work, on the right side are more flowers, the inner rim of the cup has a border of zigzag border with diamond diapers alternating with flower reserves.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2010.14.1 |
