Images(2)

Saucer

Dateca. 1780

OriginAsia, China, Jingdezhen

MediumHard-paste porcelain

DimensionsOD: 5 3/4in.

Credit LineGift of Catha Grace Rambusch

Object number2013-22

DescriptionChinese porcelain saucer dish painted in opaque enamels with an offset chrysanthemum and other floral blossoms and sprigs. The face of the dish is bordered with an orange line and interrupted by four gilt orange circles or coins. An approximately two-inch long concave chip on the rim has been ground down and fitted with another piece of Chinese porcelain decorated with a fish scale grisaille border. The replaced section of the rim is attached to the dish with three metal rivets, most likely added in the nineteenth-century.

Label TextJust as dishes do today, 18th-century ones broke through use and carelessness. Historic repairs are found on Chinese porcelain. Valued for its beauty and its exotic connection with Asia, Chinese porcelain was kept and handed down, even when mended. Examples of period inventories include objects like those left to the next generation by General Thomas Nelson: “three blue and white china bowls, not sound, three enameled china bowls, one cracked.” Repairs were made with a variety of materials, including glue, wire or metal rivets, and pieces of other dishes, as evidenced by this saucer dish.

Exhibition(s)