Mug

Status

On view

Label Text

This mug is probably one of the “4 fine painted Image Quart Mugs,” each of one-quart capacity, George Washington received from London in 1766. The combination of decorative elements on it, from the underglaze blue borders to the overglaze polychrome enamel scenes and gilt scrollwork ground, produced a showy and expensive vessel for downing heady brews of beer or ale. It is one of two that descended in the family of Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Martha Parke Custis Peter.

See also Washington’s “Image” teawares: W-131/A-H, W-1196/A-B, and W-1472/A-B

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Date1760-1780

Geography Made - China

Medium/TechniquePorcelain (hard-paste)

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 5 1/4 in. x 6 1/4 in. x 4 1/4 in. (13.34 cm x 15.88 cm x 10.8 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mary F. Failing, Vice Regent for Oregon, 1912

Object numberW-664

DescriptionCylindrical mug with a honey-brown rim and an ear-shaped handle with a heart-shaped thumb-rest on a flat, unglazed foot, decorated in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze polychrome enamels and gilt. Around the top of the exterior is an underglaze blue cell-diaper band with a gilded line below. On the front of the mug, within an underglaze blue frame of flowers, foliage, and mythical creatures, is a polychrome enamel scene depicting an adult and child playing on an open patio or porch in the foreground at right and a figure seated behind a table with a dog at its base in the background at left. Surrounding the handle, within an iron red line border with three leaves, is an iron red and black enamel landscape depicting trees at the edge of a river. On either side of the handle are two reserves with underglaze blue frames of scrolls, flowers, and foliage. Within each of the upper reserves are overglaze pink flowers; within each of the lower reserves are overglaze pink trees. Between each of the reserves are underglaze blue floral sprigs with polychrome enamel accents. The ground around all of the reserves is filled with gilded scrollwork. The back of the handle is decorated with an underglaze blue elongated, budding branch; four underglaze blue artemisia leaves frame the points where it joins the body. The heart-shaped thumb-rest is picked out in gilt.

Pattern Names: Image, Mandarin

Published ReferencesSusan Gray Detweiler, George Washington's Chinaware (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1982), 25, 31.

MarkingsA Chinese character is painted in purple on the underside of the mug.

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