Soup plate
Label Text
The fine painting, octagonal form, and triangle-work inner border on this soup plate distinguishes it as an early example of Chinese “Canton” pattern porcelain, which features a willow tree next to a pavilion complex and a flat-topped bridge. It may have been acquired by George or Martha Washington for use at Mount Vernon at the end of the eighteenth century, or by their grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, as he was establishing his own household at nearby Arlington House.
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Date1790-1810
Geography
Made -
China
Medium/TechniquePorcelain (hard-paste)
DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 1 5/8 in. x 9 3/16 in. x 9 3/16 in. (4.13 cm x 23.34 cm x 23.34 cm)
Credit LinePurchased by the A. Alfred Taubman Acquisition Endowment Fund and partial gift of an anonymous donor, 2004
Object numberW-2786/I1
DescriptionOctagonal soup plate with notched or indented corners and a shallow foot ring, decorated in underglaze cobalt blue. Centered in the well is a right-anchored landscape with a pavilion complex, willow tree, and the fronds of a branch emerging at right along the well. A single-masted ship appears in the river just below center and there is a flat-top bridge in the foreground at bottom. The sides of the well feature a triangle-work band. The rim has an outer narrow band of hatched lines on a blue ground, a wider central diamond and asterisk or starred network band, and an inner “rain and cloud” border of diagonal dashes and a scalloped line. Pattern Name: Canton
Published ReferencesH. A. Crosby Forbes, Hills and Streams: Landscape Decoration on Chinese Export Blue and White Porcelain (Baltimore, Maryland: International Exhibitions Foundation, 1982), 9, and footnote 22. (general reference)
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