Soup Plate

Date1752-1758

Artist/Maker Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory (1745-1769)

MediumPorcelain, Soft-paste

DimensionsD(at corners): 10 1/8"; H: 1 5/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1962-23

DescriptionOctagonal, soft-paste porcelain soup plate with a raised ridge at the edge. There is a line of brown, iron oxide along the rim. There are four floral sprays on the ledge, painted with green, blue, and red. The center of the plate is decorated with two birds with blue bodies and red tail feathers. One of the birds sits in a knarled, blue tree with red flowers. There are pieces of bamboo visible at the base of the tree.

Label TextThis version of the bird-and-banded-hedge motif is very like its Kakiemon prototype, which appears on octagonal and decagonal ("ten-square") plates. The floral sprig decoration on the rim would more probably be found on the reverse rim of the original Japanese example.

The pattern is probably the "wheat sheaf and pheasant" listed many times in both the 1755 and 1756 catalogs. A piece of this shape and decoration may have been one of the "Twelve octagon soup plates with a wheat sheaf and pheasant, old patern" in the 1756 sale.
InscribedNo
MarkingsRed anchor painted on bottom.
ProvenanceEx coll: M.G. Kaufman, Chicago

Exhibition(s)