Dish

Date1750-1752

Artist/Maker Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory (1745-1769)

MediumSoft-paste porcelain

DimensionsH: 1 3/16"; 9 5/8" X 7 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1962-53

DescriptionDish of oval shaped form with scalloped sides and shell handles, painted in overglaze enamels in the Kakiemon style with mammals, the red one "flying" and the yellow one running over a red hedge banded in green, from which grow grapes, vines, and leaves in blue and green.
Label TextNicholas Sprimont made the silver prototype for this dish, as he did for many triangle period pieces from the Chelsea factory. Examples with his mark and the date letter for 1746/47 are at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The shape was popular at the Chelsea factory for many years, and pieces are recorded bearing the marks of the red anchor and gold anchor periods, as well as of the raised anchor period.

The decoration on this dish is a combination of two popular Kakiemon motifs--the rat and the vine (or the squirrel and the grapes) and the flying fox (or flying squirrel). The presence of these motifs together on Meissen as early as 1730 and on Chantilly suggests that the Chelsea version was derived from a Continental copy rather than directly from the Japanese, on which the two rarely, if ever, appeared together.
InscribedNo
MarkingsAnchor in relief on medallion applied to exterior rim.
ProvenanceEx coll: M.G. Kaufman, Chicago