Milk jug
Label Text
Even as a bachelor, George Washington acquired choice furnishings which bespoke his gentility and position in Virginia society. In 1757, Washington received from London a "Compleat sett Fine Image China," which included this milk jug. Its unusual, inverted helmet form derived from European silver examples, while its handle, molded to look like bamboo, was probably a Chinese innovation. The overglaze polychrome enamel, or "famille rose", scenes of women and children in landscapes that adorn this vessel appealed to Western consumers' desires for exotic, and often playful, imagery on their imported porcelains.
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Datec. 1755
Geography
Made -
China
Medium/TechniquePorcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt
DimensionsOverall: 5 7/8 in. × 6 1/2 in. × 3 1/8 in. (14.92 cm × 16.51 cm × 7.94 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Margaret B. Smith, to the memory of Henrietta Elizabeth Smith, Grandniece of Martha Washington, Daughter of Commodore John Dandridge Henley, and Wife of J. Bayard H. Smith, Esq., 1910
Object numberW-131/B
DescriptionHelmet-shaped milk jug, of oval section, rising from a fluted pedestal with round base; outward-turned and flaring rim and spout; simulated bamboo handle; body is decorated beneath the spout with an overglaze polychrome enamel (famille rose) vignette of a Chinese man and woman standing and looking on as one child lays on the ground and another stands by a woman who is seated on a bench holding a pink fan, all in a garden near a building with a lake in the background, framed by underglaze blue flowers and scrollwork; additional underglaze blue reserves filled with lakeside scenes in overglaze red enamel on sides and overglaze polychrome enamel scenes of birds amid brush and rocks under handle and on base; lobes of fluted pedestal are painted in underglaze blue enamel to simulate leaves; spout, handle, rim, base, and ground between scrollwork picked out in gilt; interior undecorated.Published ReferencesCadou, Carol Borchert. The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), p. 29.
Detweiler, Susan Gray, "The Ceramics," Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989): 498, pl. II.
Detweiler, Susan Gray. George Washington's Chinaware (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1982), 24, 30-34, figs. 7-8.
Mount Vernon Ladies Association. The Mount Vernon China (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1949), p. 39.
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