Deep dish
China
1840-1900
Measurements
1-5/8 in x 10-1/4 in (dia)
Materials
Underglaze blue decorated porcelain
Credit Line
Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.
Accession Number
2011.7
Condition Notes
The deep dish has a chip in the rim at the site of a short hairline crack.
Provenance
Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner
Comments
This deep dish, a common table form of the 18th and 19th centuries used for stews and soups, is a good example of inexpensive Chinese porcelains decorated in Canton and made for export to the West. The painted design in the center incorporates conventional imagery of Chinese buildings on the right, another on the left separated by water, a bridge over water at the bottom, boats in the water, and a distant landmass. Two blue shapes in the upper right are probably images of mountains. The rim has the usual blue band with an inner band of scalloped leaves. Numerous repetitions of this design introduced extrapolations and abstractions that in later wares such as this may be difficult to discern without reference to earlier Chinese porcelains.
In addition to a chip, the rim edge has a second chip that is covered by blue glaze, indicating it occurred when the plate was made. Such cover-ups of damage occurred from time to time among these inexpensive wares.
