Cup

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

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

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

Status

Not on view

Label Text

The artist who decorated this cup based his view of Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, on a painting produced by Edward Savage c. 1787-1792. Several versions of this design and five different border patterns have been identified on surviving porcelains, suggesting that quite a few Americans chose this means to remember the father of their country.

See also East Front of Mount Vernon, H-2445/A.

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Date1800-1815

Geography Made - China

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

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 3 3/4 in. × 2 13/16 in. × 2 13/16 in. (9.53 cm × 7.14 cm × 7.14 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. D. Meredith Reese, 1978

Object numberM-2737/C

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)

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