Cup

Cup
Porcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt
1800-1815

Cup and saucer
Porcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt
1800-1815

Pair of cups and saucers
Porcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt
1800-1815

Status

Not on view

Label Text

While the direct source of the image on this cup has not been identified, it was likely a copy of the oil painting (H-2445/A) of the East Front of Mount Vernon painted by artist Edward Savage, c. 1787-1792. On the cup, the arrangement of the fence and walls is slightly different than in the painting, but in general it reproduces Savage’s composition showing the piazza from the north side, the outbuildings along the North Lane, and deer in the fenced park in the foreground.

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Date1800-1815

Geography Made - China

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

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 3 7/8 in. × 2 13/16 in. × 2 13/16 in. (9.84 cm × 7.14 cm × 7.14 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. D. Meredith Reese, 1978

Object numberM-2737/A

DescriptionCircular cup with a plain rim, straight sides rounded at bottom, and a C-shaped or ear-shaped handle with three cusps on its top, on a shallow foot ring. The cup is decorated in overglaze sepia and black enamels and gilt. Centered on the front of the cup opposite the handle is an oval reserve framed with a gilt tulip border containing a landscape with a mansion house (Mount Vernon) and dependencies behind a row of seven straight trees on a rise above a river below, three animals in a nearby field enclosed by a fence and a ha-ha, shrubs and ornamental trees in the foreground. Above the reserve is the gilded script initial “A.” The rim exterior has a plain black line above a swag border of black and gilded dots with gilded wreathes and pendant leaves, while the rim interior has a border of gilded husks and black dots. The cusps on the top of the handle are touched in gilt.
Published ReferencesThomas Litzenburg, Jr. Chinese Export Porcelain in The Reeves Center Collection (London: Third Millenium Publishing Limited, 2003), 265. (general reference)

Geoffrey A. Godden, Oriental Export Market Porcelain and its Influence on European Wares (London: Granada, 1979), 214. (general reference)

Jean McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in North America (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1986), 215. (general reference)

Arlene M. Palmer, A Winterthur Guide to Chinese Export Porcelain (New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1976), 132. (general reference)

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

Mount Vernon's object research is ongoing and information about this object is subject to change. For information on image use and reproductions, click here.