tea-bowl
- Museum number
- Franks.337
- Description
-
Teabowl; soft-paste porcelain, with an extremely glassy glaze which does not 'fit' very well; painted in underglaze-blue with two groups of stylised chrysanthemum's and rocks on one side and stylised peonies and rocks on the other; a butterfly inside the cup base; blue line near rim and on foot; maker's mark on the base.
- Production date
- 18thC(mid)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 8.30 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Dawson 1994
The bowl is warped and was probably overfired, causing bubbling of the glaze. Pinholes and small firecracks, as well as many inclusions, are visible. A Chantilly teabowl with comparable decoration, probably dating from no earlier than the mid-176os (size unknown), is in the Musée des arts décoratifs, château de Saumur, France, ¹ and a larger bowl, painted with a similar motif, can be seen in an undated still life, ‘Le Buffet’, by Pierre-Nicolas Huilliot (1654-1751). ²
1. Illus. H. Landais, ‘French Porcelain’, London, 1961, p. 30, fig. 17, probably the same as shown in M. Jacob, ‘The Castle of Saumur and the Museum of Applied Arts’, Saumur, 1980, pl. LXVIII (saucer next to it does not match).
2. Helft Collection, Paris, illus. M. and F. Fare, ‘La vie silencieuse en France, La Nature Morte au XVIIIe siècle’, Fribourg, 1976, p. 30, fig. 27.
Comparable Examples: Paris, Musée des arts décoratifs, inv. A 13616, D. 8.5 cm, butterfly inside cup, same mark.
Literature: Franks, Sir Augustus Wollaston, ‘Catalogue of a Collection of Continental Porcelain’, London, 1896, no. 337.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1897
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- Franks.337
