Plate (one of a probable set of four)
China
1850-1910
Measurements
1-1/4 in x 10 in (dia)
Materials
Underglaze blue decorated porcelain
Credit Line
Historic Odessa Foundation, anonymous loan
Accession Number
2011.5
Condition Notes
The plate has several small rim chips.
Provenance
Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp
Comments
The plate is decorated in the formulaic Canton manner. The speed of painting with the cobalt blue glaze and the decades of repetition in Canton dinner wares has resulted in gradual and unintended departures from the design source, creating what is almost an abstraction. Nonetheless, Chinese buildings may be discerned on the right, another on the left edge separated be water, and more in the distance. The two solid blue shapes in the upper right may originally have been two mountains in the distance. The banded decoration around the rim shows far less change.
The rim on this plate varies in height—it is wavy. It was probably deformed when drying after being taken from the mold and before receiving a bisque firing before being glazed. That the plate survived testifies to the speed of production and uneven range of quality among Canton objects sold to the West.
Three other plates share the same 20th century provenance and may have been parts of the same service. They are accession nos. 2011.2 through 2011.4. They exhibit differences in execution, indicating different decorators, but the design is the same. They also are the same diameter.
