Description:
English soft-paste porcelain octagonal plate decorated with white and blue scenic and floral reserves and powdered blue grounds, which echo the colored grounds popular on delftware and Chinese porcelain of the first half of the 18th century. The Bow Porcelain Works (c.1747-1776) was established in a heavily industrialized district east of London, known as Stratford-le-Bow, which Bow management called "the New Canton" and built their factory to look like a "hong" or foreign factory of the British East India Company. The porcelain factory viewed Chinese export porcelains as their main competition and sought to imitate them as closely as possible with much of their output decorated in underglaze blue, mainly with Oriental-style scenic designs. Powder-blue grounds in the Chinese fashion, such as this example, were much used. The well has a circular reserve with blue waterscape with buildings, trees, flying birds, and a figure poling a boat. The rim has four circular reserves with stylized flowers alternating with four fan-shaped reserves with waterscapes extending from the well to the rim edge. The base has four sprays or tendrils on the rim and six pseudo Chinese characters within a double circle in the center. One of the character marks is incorporates a Dresden/Meissen crossed swords device. The English porcelain expert David Redstone confirmed this plate as Bow and dated it during his visit with members of the English Ceramic Circle, May 14, 2010. Dr. Redstone also noted that the English decorators drew lines to mark the placement of the reserves to ensure regularity, which the Chinese painters did not have to do, and that most Bow plates were fired face down. Label on the reverse, "Meeks Collection No. C 134"
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+91.039 |
