Description:
Chinese export porcelain saucer decorated in the Famille rose palette in pink, purple, green, brown, yellow, orange, iron red, grey, black, and gilding. The rim has the gilt initials "HCT" in a wreath with gilt ribbon extending into the curvature and three large gilt floral sprays. The well is decorated with an element of the Valentine pattern - 'Altar of Love' (two flaming hearts on an altar, two doves billing on Cupid's quiver, wreath and side curtain), and a house and stream on the right with hills in the background, all in a circle of scrolls. The reverse base has a scene, described by Hervouet and Bruneau, as "the pleasure of the swing," which shows a young woman on a swing hung between two trees with a young man standing directly in front of her and a small building on the right. The Valentine pattern, a combination of pastoral, erotic, and exotic South Seas elements such as a breadfruit tree and coconut palm, was originally found on a 1743 dinner service made in Canton for Commodore George Anson (1697-1762). It was probably designed by then First Lieutenant Piercy Brett (1709-1781), Anson's official artist during his 1740-1744 circumnavigation; many of Brett's drawings were used as the basis for the engravings in "Anson's Voyages", published in 1748. 'Altar of Love' and 'Absent Master' (tree, wreath, dogs, sheep, shepherd's crook, pipes and hat) were independent motifs, remembrances of home, first combined on the 1743 service. Two other scenes are known to have been used: 2 wolves (or dogs) approaching a cottage; and a cottage, woman spining, man, oxen, and bridge (see HD 60.168).
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+63.024 |
