plate BM-Franks.587

Period:Qing dynasty Production date:1736-1750 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:tool/implement garden shell craftsman/maker chinese
Dimensions:Diameter: 28.50 centimetres Height: 35 millimetres

Description:
Blue-and-white plate with a scene of Chinese artisans at work. This underglaze-blue painted plate shows three Chinese artisans seated beneath a pine tree in front of a workshop splitting canes. The scene is surrounded by an elaborate border of shells, horns and lattice work. On the reverse is a Western number 4.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:The central motif is unusual in that it derives from a contemporary Chinese watercolour painting made for export, depicting Chinese people at work, rather than from a Western print. In this case, the number 4 refers to the plate’s position within a series of at least twenty-three different scenes recording the cultivation and processing of tea, ginger, fruits and other native plants. The rim border is Western in design and also appears on a Dutch armorial service made for the Amsterdam-based Snoek family (see BM Franks. 858+) and on plates painted with a pair of cockerels among rocks and plants, of which an example is in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (Mudge, 1986, no. 202). The original model of this border has not yet been traced. A series of plates of different sizes, tureens and sauceboats from the same service are known; these include a plate numbered “2” with a scene of packing and sampling tea with a teapot in the foreground; the present piece numbered “4”, showing men splitting canes; a plate numbered “7” with men loading containers on to a boat; a plate numbered “10” showing men carrying water along a river bank; a plate in the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands, numbered “11” and depicting the transport of boxes (Amsterdam, 1968-9, no. 274); a plate in the China Trade Museum, Milton, Massachusetts, U.S.A. numbered “12”, with a scene of labourers tilling the soil; a plate in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, numbered “13”, with scenes of men making jars (Le Corbeiller, 1974, no. 42); a plate numbered “15” showing men hauling a barge laden with barrels; a tureen also in tn Fries Museum, numbered “16” showing the loading of a barge and customer in a shop (Rouen et al., 1971, no.222); a plate numbered “17” painted with men weighing tea bricks; a plate numbered depicting others sampling tea; another plate in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, numbered “21”, decorated with workers packing baskets with small fruit (Le Corbeiller, 1974, no.42); a sauceboat in the Fries Museum, numbered “22” (listed in Amsterdam, 1968-9, no. 274); a plate in the Mottahedeh collection, numbered “23”, showing sampling and packaging of tea (Howard and Ayers, 1978, vol. I, pl. 213); and a plate in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands, with ladies picking tea leaves (Harrisson, 1986, no. 114 number not listed).