Lid

Tureen cover
Porcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt
c. 1800

Status

Not on view

Label Text

Responses to George Washington’s death in 1799 took on many forms, from public ceremonies, temporary monuments, and inexpensive prints to household articles such as printed textiles and ceramic dinnerwares. Once part of an extensive service that belonged to Philadelphians Joseph and Rebecca Sims, this serving dish lid features a design that incorporates the Sims’ initials, “JRS,” below a tomb inscribed “WASHINGTON.” Joseph Sims made his fortune as a China trade merchant, but in 1824, he declared bankruptcy and the contents of his well-appointed home were sold at auction. The Sims may have given this lid away as a gift or sold it at the bankruptcy auction.

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Date1800-1805

Geography Made - China

Medium/TechniquePorcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 2 3/8 in. x 10 3/8 in. x 8 7/16 in. (6.03 cm x 26.35 cm x 21.43 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mary Markoe, 1891

Object numberM-528

DescriptionElongated, quatrefoil-shaped, low-domed lid with slightly indented corners and a strawberry knop on leafy base, decorated in overglaze sepia, iron red, brown, and black enamels and gilt. At the center of each long side of the lid is a tomb bearing the inscription “WASHINGTON” on its base with a pyramid supported by nine columns above that is decorated with an urn flanked by palm branches. An eagle clutching a wreath in its talons is perched on top and a weeping willow is planted to the right. A gilded brown line encircles the top of the lid, with a wide, undulating, intertwined floral ribbon and vine border at the shoulder, and narrower bands of gilded fluting, leaves, and dots around the rim edge. Oval reserves or cartouches, containing the gilded script initials “JRS”, interrupt the ribbon and vine border below the tomb decoration. The knop and its base are decorated in pale orange and gilt.

Published ReferencesRon W. Fuchs II and David S. Howard, Made in China: Export Porcelain from the Leo and Doris Hodroff Collection at Winterthur (Winterthur: The Henry Francis du Pont Museum, Inc., 2005), 100-101, 196. (general reference)

Thomas Litzenburg, Jr. Chinese Export Porcelain in The Reeves Center Collection (London: Third Millenium Publishing Limited, 2003), 265. (general reference)

Jean McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain for the American Trade, 1785-1835 (Wilmington: University of Delaware Press, 1962), 173. (general reference)

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