Saucer

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

Status

Not on view

Label Text

The artist who decorated this saucer 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): 1 1/4 in. x 5 5/8 in. x 5 5/8 in. (3.18 cm x 14.29 cm x 14.29 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. D. Meredith Reese, 1978

Object numberM-2737/B

DescriptionCircular saucer with a plain rim and rounded sides on a shallow foot ring, decorated in overglaze sepia and black enamels and gilt. Centered in the well is an oval reserve 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. Traces of a gilded border remain around the reserve, while above it is the gilded script initial “A.” A border of gilded husks and black dots encircles the edge of the well. The rim interior has a plain black line above a swag border of black and gilded dots and gilded wreathes with pendant leaves. The edge of the rim is gilded. Traces of gilded border remain around the oval reserve at the center of the well.
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.