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Wash basin

Basin
Porcelain, enamel, gilt
c. 1775
Wash basin
Basin
Porcelain, enamel, gilt
c. 1775
Basin Porcelain, enamel, gilt c. 1775
Status
Not on view
Label Text

Chinese export porcelain guglets and wash basins were ubiquitous in elite colonial residences, and George Washington's estate inventory lists them in nearly every bedchamber. The guglet, a long necked vessel for holding water, received its name from the "gug-gug-gug" sound it made when water was poured into a basin. Such equipment allowed the Washingtons and their contemporaries to maintain the cleanliness of face and hands that was indicative of gentility. This guglet and basin descended in the family of Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Martha Custis Peter, and according to the Peter family tradition, they once stood in Mrs. Washington's bedroom.

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Datec. 1775
Geography Made - China
DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 3 3/4 in. x 10 1/4 in. x 10 1/4 in. (9.53 cm x 26.04 cm x 26.04 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, 1985
Object numberW-2325/B
DescriptionCircular basin with everted rim on a shallow foot ring, decorated in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze polychrome enamels and gilt. The well of the bowl features a central circular reserve containing women and children in a courtyard outside a house, with a river and a landscape in the background. The sides of the well feature four circular reserves at the compass points containing birds on branches. All the reserves are framed with underglaze blue scroll decoration. The ground of the well is filled with spot motifs of underglaze blue flowers surrounded by an overglaze iron red Y-diaper fill with gilt highlights. The rim is decorated with an underglaze blue cell-diaper band. The exterior of the bowl is decorated with underglaze blue floral designs.

Pattern Name: Mandarin
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 196-197.

Susan Gray Detweiler, George Washington's Chinaware (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1982), 165.
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