Art Collections Online
Date: 1722 ca
Media: hard-paste porcelain
Size: d(cm) : 22.3 x d(in) : 8 3/4 x h(cm) : 3.2
Acquired: 1937; Gift; Lt Col. M. Rhys Wingfield
Accession Number: NMW A 32174
During the eighteenth century the trade of Chinese porcelain was controlled by the English East India Company. The Company’s employees were allowed to trade privately and often commissioned pieces decorated with European subjects or services painted with coats of arms. This plate is decorated with the Arms of Thomas, 1st Lord Trevor (1658-1730) and his wife, Anne Weldon.
Comments - (2)
Hi there Michael - thanks for flagging up the issue with the site. We are working on some pages today and so I'll make sure the tech team have a look at this.
I will pass on your questions about the potters to our art department so that they can respond.
Best,
Sara
Digital Team
On this delightful item:
1. do we know how the instructions reached the Chinese potters, who clearly were supremely gifted, but needed some guide-lines.
2. Were the motifs in the outer rim the potters' own invention?
I suppose really it is a question of how the patron-client creative process works over such huge distances and over a period of maybe 4 years or so.
Would the client have arranged all this as "private trade" with, say, an officer on the ship who would in turn instruct the pottery and the porcelain painter?
Many thanks