jug BM-1981-0604.8

Period:Unknown Production date:1870-1900 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, painted, underglazed,
Subjects:heraldry
Dimensions:Height: 8.20 centimetres

Description:
‘Famille rose’ jug, made in France. This small cream jug has a rounded body and well-defined spout. The porcelain body is covered with a green-tinged glaze and painted in underglaze-blue and ‘famille rose’ enamels with flowers and a coat of arms, supported by a lion and a unicorn with a branch in its mouth, surmounted by a pink-and-gold crown, with the Latin motto ‘SOLA VIRTUS INVICTA’ (‘virtue alone is invincible’). The rim, handle and base are edged with a gold-decorated underglaze-blue band and a golden spearhead border. A small red-enamel seal mark on the base imitates Chinese characters.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:The jug is one of a large number of porcelains made in European workshops at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century in imitation of Chinese pieces. It was made at Edme Samson et Cie, the most famous porcelain manufactory copying Chinese wares, established in 1854 in Paris. It was probably ordered as a replacement for a broken piece from a Chinese armorial service, and bears the motto and arms of the English Howard family, Dukes of Norfolk. A Tankard with the same arms, also made in France, is in a private collection (Brighton, 1986, no. 142). The French imitation pieces differ from the Chinese originals in a variety of Ways, particularly in their body material and enamel colours, but also in the painting manner. The seal mark on the base of the jug is an imitation of a Chinese mark which the original would have lacked. Part of it could be interpreted as a sinicised ‘S’, in analogy to Samson imitations of Middle Eastern pieces which are marked with an Arabic ‘S’, and his imitations of European porcelain which are sometimes marked with entwined ‘S’s or impressed ‘S’ marks.